Rising Inequality, Declining Mobility: The Evolution of Intergenerational Mobility in Germany

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Conflicts of Interest

Identified Weaknesses

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Paper Summary

Paperzilla title

Income Mobility in Germany: Turns out We're Not That Different from the US After All

This study finds that intergenerational income mobility has decreased in Germany for those born between 1968 and 1987. The rank-rank slope, a measure of economic mobility, increased substantially between earlier and later birth cohorts, now similar to estimates from the United States. Educational attainment is increasingly tied to parental income, suggesting an important mechanism behind this declining mobility.

Possible Conflicts of Interest

None identified

Identified Weaknesses

Reliance on survey data

Survey data, while valuable, can be prone to reporting biases and may not fully capture the complexities of income dynamics.

Limited cohort sizes within subgroups

Analyzing mobility within relatively small four-cohort subgroups may mask some of the within-cohort variation and make ranking less precise.

Potential confounding factors

The study primarily focuses on parental income and education as drivers of mobility, but other factors like social networks or regional differences could also play a role.

Rating Explanation

This paper presents a robust analysis of a timely and relevant topic. The methodology using rank-rank slopes and copula functions is rigorous, and addresses potential biases. The focus on educational mobility as a mechanism strengthens the analysis. While the use of survey data and cohort group size present limitations, the overall quality and contribution of the research are high.

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