Intergenerational Mobility using Income, Consumption, and Wealth

We use fifty years of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to study the intergenerational correlation in income, consumption, and wealth to answer the question: is intergenerational mobility similar across the three resource measures? Absolute mobility is highest for consumption, followed by income and wealth. Income exhibits the highest intergenerational correlation, or lowest relative mobility, followed closely by consumption. Wealth exhibits much lower relative mobility. We also look at differences in relative mobility by race, sex, and parental wealth.