Estimates of economic persistence and mobility in the United States, as measured by the intergenerational elasticity (IGE), cover a very wide range. Nevertheless, careful analyses of the evidence suggested until recently that as much as half, and possibly more, of economic advantages are passed on from parents to children. This 'dominant hypothesis' was seriously challenged by the first-ever study of family-income mobility based on tax data (Chetty et al. 2014), which provided estimates of family-income IGEs indicating that only one-third of economic advantages are transmitted across generations and claimed that previous highly influential IGE estimates were upward biased. Using a different tax-based data set, this article provides estimates of family-income IGEs that strongly support the dominant hypothesis. The article also carries out a one-to-one comparison between IGEs estimated with the two tax-based data sets and shows that Chetty et al.'s estimates were driven downward by a combination of attenuation, life-cycle, selection, and functional-form biases. Lastly, the article determines the exact relationship between parental income inequality, economic persistence, and inequality of opportunity for income. This leads to the conclusion that, in the United States, at least half of income inequality among parents is transformed into inequality of opportunity among their children.

中文翻译：

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美国家庭收入优势的代际传递

通过代际弹性（IGE）衡量，美国的经济持续性和流动性估计范围很广。然而，对证据的仔细分析表明，直到最近，多达一半甚至更多的经济利益是从父母传给孩子的。这项基于“主要假设”的研究首次受到基于税收数据的家庭收入流动性研究（Chetty等人，2014）的严峻挑战，该研究提供了对家庭收入IGE的估计，表明只有三分之一的经济优势得以传播并声称以前极具影响力的IGE估算值存在偏差。本文使用不同的基于税收的数据集，提供了强烈支持主导假设的家庭收入IGE的估算值。本文还对使用两个基于税收的数据集估算的IGE进行了一对一的比较，并显示了Chetty等人的估算受衰减，生命周期，选择和功能的综合影响而下降。形式的偏见。最后，本文确定了父母收入不平等，经济持续性和收入机会不平等之间的确切关系。得出的结论是，在美国，父母之间至少一半的收入不平等已转化为子女之间的机会不平等。该文章确定了父母收入不平等，经济持久性和收入机会不平等之间的确切关系。得出的结论是，在美国，父母之间至少一半的收入不平等已转化为子女之间的机会不平等。该文章确定了父母收入不平等，经济持久性和收入机会不平等之间的确切关系。得出的结论是，在美国，父母之间至少一半的收入不平等已转化为子女之间的机会不平等。