The Impact of Urbanization on Intergenerational Mobility in the United States

Emanuel Agu, CUNY Institute for Demographic Research (CIDR)

This paper examines the impact of the urban form on intergenerational mobility in income in the United States, providing a rationale for the observed variation of absolute upward mobility at the small area level. The identification strategy implements an instrumental variable approach that exploits exogenous variation in characteristics of urban areas due to proximity to highways. Children’s exposure to neighborhood amenities that influence social interaction is measured using socioeconomic indicators from census data and built-up from high-resolution satellite imagery. The results are expected to inform policies to improve economic opportunity for children in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Keywords: Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Neighbourhood/contextual effect analysis, Geo-referenced/geo-coded data, Economic Demography

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