Transformations  in
Business & Economics

CAN INCOME STATUS BE TRANSMITTED THROUGH GENERATIONS?-RESEARCH BASED ON MICROCOSMIC SURVEY DATA
Kangyin Lu, Manxue Chen, Liwen Jia

ABSTRACT. Income status is one of the most important indicators of individual social status. Under the background of large income gap in China, income status transmitting through generations will not only reduce intergenerational income mobility which leads to a continuation of income gap, but also harm social equity.
Based on micro survey data, this paper constructs the four econometric models to empirically analyze the possibility and degree of income status transmitting through generations, moreover, we also estimate the effect of each factors in order to comprehensively investigate the intergenerational transmission of China's income status. The study concluded that the income status gap between parents will be narrowed in the process of intergenerational transmission; the income status transfer between generations will result in widening income gap between region; intergenerational income status transfer will widen the income gap between urban and rural; the parents' family income will widen the income status gap between generations; the holding of parents' assets, especially financial assets, can promote the upward mobility of intergenerational income.

KEYWORDS:  income gap, intergenerational income mobility, intergenerational transmission, social inequality.

JEL classification:  L13, M21.