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Title: Exploring Income Inequality in the United States through Redistribution Preferences, Intergenerational Mobility, and Political Polarization
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Marr, Christa
Exploring Income Inequality in the United States through Redistribution Preferences, Intergenerational Mobility, and Political Polarization
Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, Clark University, May 2014
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT)
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Behavior Problems Index (BPI); CESD (Depression Scale); Family Income; Gender Differences; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Locus of Control (see Rotter Scale); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Pearlin Mastery Scale; Personality/Big Five Factor Model or Traits; Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) (see Self-Esteem)

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The second chapter explores how non-cognitive and cognitive abilities impact intergenerational transmission of income in the United States for sons and daughters. I take advantage of the maternal linkage between two cohorts in the National Longitudinal Survey of the Youth to accurately measure parental and child permanent income and to utilize the rich source of non-cognitive and cognitive abilities available in the data. I propose a "nurture" versus "nature" model to uncover the transmission mechanisms through which personality and cognitive abilities impact mobility. I find that parents' socioeconomic background influences abilities which are then valued on the market (nurture) while abilities are also directly transmitted from mothers to children (nature). Cognitive skills are a stronger transmission mechanism, particularly for daughters, based on these models. Following Nordin and Rooth (2011), I investigate how intergenerational income mobility varies conditional personality and cognitive abilities. I use varying coefficient models to account for observed and unobserved heterogeneity and to illuminate non-linearities and vulnerable populations. Results show that quiet sons and problem daughters from low-income families are more likely to remain poor.
Bibliography Citation
Marr, Christa. Exploring Income Inequality in the United States through Redistribution Preferences, Intergenerational Mobility, and Political Polarization. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Economics, Clark University, May 2014.