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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Nybom, Martin (Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy); Mora, José V. Rodríguez (Faculty of CUNEF University); Salvanes, Kjell G. (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | This chapter reviews recent advances on the drivers of intergenerational persistence in education and income, with a focus on causal mechanisms shaping social mobility across OECD countries. While the descriptive literature is vast, documenting substantial correlations between parents’ and children’s outcomes, recent research increasingly emphasizes the underlying factors driving these patterns. We begin with a brief illustration of global variation in intergenerational mobility using harmonized cross-country data, before turning to the literature on mechanisms. We outline a general theoretical framework, which organizes the discussion around three domains: pre-market factors (e.g., early childhood investment, parenting, education systems), labor market dynamics (e.g., sorting, networks, firm heterogeneity), and post-market institutions. We review topics such as the timing and nature of parental investments, parenting styles, credit constraints, neighborhood effects, and the role of social networks in school and on the labor market. We highlight how new data and empirical designs have broadened our understanding of the drivers of intergenerational inequality and, ultimately, interventions with the potential to mitigate it. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational Mobility; Social networks; Neighborhoods; Labor market |
| JEL: | D85 J13 J62 |
| Date: | 2026–02–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2026_001 |
| By: | Ann Harrison; Laura J. Kray; Noor Sethi |
| Abstract: | In the United States, much of the gap in earnings between men and women is due to the persistent gap for high wage earners. This paper explores changes in the gender wage gap for MBAs graduating from a large public university over 30 years. We document large gender wage gaps on average, which grow in the course of men’s and women’s careers. Comparing graduates at identical career stages across time periods to address composition concerns, we show that the raw gender wage gap has shrunk by 33 to 50 percent over the last two decades. Additionally, the temporal pattern of the gap has fundamentally shifted: while gaps only emerged over time in earlier decades, significant gaps now emerge immediately. Convergence in labor supply factors, particularly hours worked, explains much of the narrowing gap, alongside shifts in industry composition. However, unexplained wage gaps persist for recent graduates from the very start of their careers, suggesting different underlying mechanisms across cohorts. These findings highlight both progress in gender wage equity among business professionals and concerning patterns that emerge earlier in careers than in previous decades. |
| JEL: | J01 J30 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34809 |
| By: | Yan Hu (School of Economics, University of Edinburgh); Stephan Maurer (School of Economics, University of Edinburgh) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we study this question using the historical example of China’s first modern bureaucratic organization, the Chinese Maritime Customs Service. Drawing on newly digitized personnel records from 1876-1911, we first show that the Chinese clerks employed by the service were predominantly Cantonese. Using the plausibly exogenous transfers of clerks across stations, we then estimate that a non-Cantonese (minority) clerk benefited significantly from meeting at least one colleague from his same province and dialect. Such connections led to faster promotion and a 5.6% salary increase, with even stronger effects when meeting a clerk who was either senior or of high quality. |
| Keywords: | Chinese Maritime Customs Service, social connections, wages, promotion, minorities. |
| JEL: | J15 J31 J45 N35 N75 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:edn:esedps:325 |
| By: | Diego Battiston (School of Economics, University of Edinburgh); Stephan Maurer (School of Economics, University of Edinburgh); Andrei Potlogea (School of Economics, University of Edinburgh); Jose V. Rodriguez Mora (CUNEF Universidad, University of Edinburgh and CEPR) |
| Abstract: | The strong evidence in support of the Great Gatsby Curve (i.e. the negative crosssectional relationship between intergenerational mobility and inequality) seems to be at odds with the fact that large increases in inequality in the US have not resulted in decreases in mobility. We tackle this puzzle by measuring, for the first time, a dynamic version of the “Great Gatsby Curve†that relates changes in inequality to changes in intergenerational income mobility. We find that across US counties and during the last century the relationship is weak and unstable over relatively short intervals of two decades, but negative and significant over a longer period of almost a century. The historical record suggests that if the large increase of inequality observed in the US does not reverse, this may result in substantially lower socioeconomic mobility in the long term, even if mobility has not decreased yet. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational Mobility, Inequality, Great Gatsby Curve. |
| JEL: | J62 N12 N52 R11 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:edn:esedps:324 |
| By: | Jungho Lee (Yonsei University); Sunha Myong (Kyung Hee University) |
| Abstract: | We examine how workplace norms shaped by supervisors affect South Korea’s low fertility rates. We find that an authoritarian supervisory style-characterized by mandatory after-work gatherings and inflexible work arrangements-significantly reduces desired fertility among female workers. This decline stems from the difficulty of balancing work and family under such management, a challenge amplified by unequal household duties and rigid labor markets. Overall, our study shows that workplace interactions extend beyond wages and productivity, reshaping personal and family life with important consequences for the broader economy. |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yon:wpaper:2026rwp-277 |
| By: | Martín Leites; Joan Vilá |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the role of sibling sex composition as a potential explanation of the transmission of parental advantages to the next generation. The presence of a brother affects the family environment and parents' decisions, influencing the siblings' labour market outcomes in the long term. The results show a negative effect of approximately 2% on the permanent income of women for the presence of a younger brother. This effect does not modify the intergenerational persistence of income. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational Mobility, Gender gap, Gender norms, Occupational choice |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2026-6 |
| By: | Sarthak Joshi (School of Economics, University of Edinburgh) |
| Abstract: | Labor demand shocks unfold unevenly across space. I show that the resulting spatial mismatch can disproportionately impact women’s employment due to gender-based differences in the propensity to commute. My empirical strategy uses rising Chinese import competition in the early 2000s to generate variation in the spatial distribution of work within commuting zones in India. Rising trade exposure caused firms to expand in the urban core and contract in the rural periphery. In areas where firms reduced hiring, women’s employment was significantly lower than men’s after 10 years. While men started commuting across the rural-urban boundary to take up jobs in expanding sectors, women either switched to locally available agriculture or dropped out of the labor force. In line with women being more reliant on public transport, gender gaps are smaller in commuting zones with better bus connectivity. I find similar negative impacts for women regardless of marital status and education level, suggesting that results are not driven by household-level constraints or increasing demand for skilled labor. My findings are consistent with the presence of gendered commuting frictions stemming from a lack of comfortable and safe commuting options for women in India. In the last part of the paper, I use a spatial general equilibrium model to show that relaxing such frictions would have mitigated the observed decline in female labor force participation in India between 2001 and 2011 by 30%, increasing total output by 0.4%. |
| Keywords: | Female labour force participation, Commuting, Spatial distribution of economic activity, India. |
| JEL: | F16 J01 J16 |
| Date: | 2025–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:edn:esedps:323 |
| By: | David C. Grabowski; Jonathan Gruber; Brian E. McGarry |
| Abstract: | We measure the impact of increased immigration on mortality among elderly Americans, who rely on the immigrant-intensive health and long-term care sectors. Using a shift-share approach we find a strong impact of immigration on the size of the immigrant care workforce: admitting 1, 000 new immigrants would lead to 142 new foreign healthcare workers, without evidence of crowd out of native health care workers. We also find striking effects on mortality: a 25% increase in the steady state flow of immigrants to the US would result in 5, 000 fewer deaths nationwide. We identify reduced use of nursing homes as a key mechanism driving this result. |
| JEL: | I18 J61 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34791 |
| By: | Geoffrey Wodtke; Weiqi Wang; Kristina Butaeva; Steven N. Durlauf |
| Abstract: | This paper studies contemporary trends in class mobility using a new approach based on the “synthetic dynasties” represented in Markov chains. This approach yields several novel measures of movement and memory, which respectively capture how class positions differ from one generation to the next and how the influence of class origins dissipates across generations. Applying these methods to data from the U.S., we find that overall levels of movement and memory have remained largely stable across cohorts born between 1945 and 1990. This stability, however, masks offsetting class-specific trends. Among those from the upper and lower classes, movement has declined and memory has increased. In contrast, among the middle classes, movement has risen and memory has weakened. |
| JEL: | D30 H0 J01 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34800 |
| By: | Pineda-Hernández, Kevin; Rycx, François; Volral, Mélanie; Waroquier, Alexandre |
| Abstract: | While rent-sharing is known to vary according to worker characteristics, the impact of profits on the gender wage gap warrants closer examination. Most studies adopt a single-gender view, neglecting factors tied to bargaining power. Our paper aims to fill this gap by leveraging rich matched employer-employee data covering the Belgian private sector from 1999 to 2016 and by examining whether the relationship between rent-sharing and gender depends on variables reflecting bargaining power, i.e. level of education, field of study, tenure, occupation and type of wage agreement. Accounting for a wide range of individual, job and firm characteristics, and addressing potential endogeneity issues, we find a wage-profit elasticity of 2.8%, which does not differ statistically between women and men. Our results further indicate that firms share more of their profits with workers who have greater bargaining power, as assessed by our moderators. This result holds overall for both women and men, so that the price effect associated with rent-sharing is generally insignificant in explaining the gender wage gap. Conversely, given that women, regardless of their bargaining power, tend to be employed in less profitable firms than their male counterparts, the quantity effect associated with rent-sharing appears to play a non-negligible role. In short, our findings suggest that it is not so much the unequal sharing of profits within companies that fuels the gender pay gap, but rather the segregation of women, particularly those with limited bargaining power, into less profitable companies. |
| Keywords: | Rent-sharing, linked employer-employee data, wage decompositions, instrumental variables, gender wage gap, bargaining power |
| JEL: | C26 J16 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1709 |
| By: | Ahsan, Md Nazmul; Emran, M. Shahe; Mohammed, A. R. Shariq; Murphy, Orla A.; Shilpi, Forhad |
| Abstract: | Many recent studies on intergenerational educational mobility adopted the rank-rank model popularized by the work of Chetty et al. (2014, QJE) on income mobility, under the assumption that the approach remains valid for discrete variables. However, conversion of discrete data such as years of schooling into percentile ranks fails to make the empirical rank distribution uniform, unlike continuous variables such as income. Thus, the estimates of relative educational mobility from rank-rank regressions are not margin-free, and capture a fundamentally different concept of mobility compared to the rank-rank slope in income mobility analysis. Taking advantage of recent advances on discrete copulas, we introduce a margin-free measure of relative educational mobility, Yule’s coefficient, which is the analogue of the rank-rank slope in income mobility. Yule’s coefficient was proposed by Geenens (2020) as a summary measure of the margin-free dependence structure between two discrete variables such as children’s and parents’ schooling. The margin-free dependence structure is estimated by an iterative matrix re-scaling procedure applied to the joint probability mass function of the bivariate discrete distribution. We report estimates of Yule’s coefficient for 6 countries: the USA, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Chile, and Mexico. The evidence suggests that, in many cases, the rank-rank slope estimates for schooling overestimate the margin-free relative educational mobility (positional mobility). For example, the estimates for the USA (PSID data) are: rank-rank slope=0.441 and Yule’s coefficient=0.534. The extent of overestimation in the national estimates varies considerably across countries: 3.09%−48.31%. The cross-country rankings and evolution of educational mobility across cohorts are substantially different when we use the margin-free Yule’s coefficient instead of the rank-based measures. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational Mobility, Education, Margin-free Measure, Rank-Rank Slope, Yule’s Coefficient, Discrete Copula, The USA, India, Indonesia, Chile, Mexico, Bangladesh |
| JEL: | I24 J62 |
| Date: | 2025–12–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:127250 |
| By: | Marius Guenzel; Shimon Kogan; Marina Niessner; Kelly Shue |
| Abstract: | Human capital—encompassing cognitive skills and personality traits—is central for labor-market success, yet personality remains difficult to measure at scale. Leveraging advances in AI and comprehensive LinkedIn microdata, we extract the Big 5 personality traits from facial images of 96, 000 MBA graduates, and demonstrate that this novel “Photo Big 5” predicts school rank, job matching, compensation, job transitions, and career advancement. The Photo Big 5 provides predictive power comparable to race, attractiveness, and educational background, and is only weakly correlated with cognitive measures such as test scores. We show that individuals systematically sort into occupations where their personality traits are valued and earn higher wages when traits align with occupational demands. While the scalability of the Photo Big 5 enables new academic insights into the role of personality in labor markets, its growing use in industry screening raises important ethical concerns regarding statistical discrimination and individual autonomy. |
| JEL: | D91 J2 M5 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34808 |
| By: | Rajdeep Chaudhuri; Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay; Kunal Sen |
| Abstract: | The literature on intergenerational mobility for many countries in the world focus on household surveys that capture the education of parents and their children. While they pay particular attention to issues regarding co-residency of fathers and son, they are somewhat weaker in information on women: daughters who live with their in-laws as well as resident women outside the reproductive age group (15-49), for whom information on parents is typically missing. |
| Keywords: | Human capital, Intergenerational Mobility, Survey, India |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2026-10 |