Intergenerational mobility in Britain

In this paper we use longitudinal data on children and their parents to assess the extent of intergenerational mobility in Britain. Based on data from the National Child Development Survey, a cohort of all individuals born in a week of March 1958, we find that the extent of intergenerational mobility is limited. We report an intergenerational correlation of the order .40 to.60 for fathers and sons and .45 to.70 for fathers and daughters in terms of labour market earnings and years of schooling. An examination of quartile transition matrices between parental and child earnings outcomes reveals a similar pattern. Finally, it seems, on the basis of these transition matrices, that there is an important asymmetry in intergenerational earnings mobility with upward mobility from the bottom, of the earnings distribution being more likely than downward mobility from the top.