Family Characteristics in U.S. Intragenerational Family Income Mobility, 1978–2014

<br>Family economic mobility has been a policy concern for decades, with interest heating up further since the 1990s, especially as the inequality of the family income distribution in the United States has grown. Rising intragenerational mobility could offset some of the effects rising cross-sectional inequality on longer-term or lifetime inequality, while falling intragenerational mobility would likely exacerbate such effects.<br>Using data that tracks individual families’ incomes during overlapping 10-year periods from 1978-1988 through 2004-2014, this paper documents trends in intragenerational family mobility and investigates the relationships of family characteristics to mobility and whether the importance of those factors has changed over time or differs for shorter or longer periods. The paper measures intragenerational mobility using both relative and dollar-denominated indicators. Family characteristics include family structure and educational attainment and work behavior of the family head and wife (if present), as well as time-invariant characteristics of the family head, such as race. The analysis also examines within-period changes in the time-varying factors. The positions families occupy in the income distribution and the degree to which they are stuck or able to move up (or slide down) over time are critical determinants of their current well-being and their children’s prospects.