Determinants of Downward Mobility

Rouhani, Brand, and Xi Song (University of Pennsylvania) offer an analysis of several potential factors influencing declining absolute intergenerational income mobility. We present the distribution of favorable and unfavorable conditions in adulthood that could generate patterns of downward mobility. Employment, educational, marital, and racial characteristics could lead to opportunities or conditions for mobility. We examine the prevalence of each condition by class of origin and its associated effect on mobility throughout adulthood. We use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and 1997 (NLSY79 and NLSY97) to examine the trajectories of two U.S. cohorts transitioning to adulthood in an era of rising inequality. My main objective is to describe conditions surrounding increasing downward mobility.