Canada: Rank mobility increases as the percentage of mothers with a high school diploma increases; weaker evidence that mobility increases with the percentage of mothers with a university degree

Parental Education Mitigates the Rising Transmission of Income between Generations. Marie Connolly, Catherine Haeck, and Jean-William P. Laliberte. NBER, February 19, 2020. http://conference.nber.org/conf_papers/f129700.pdf

Abstract: This article provides evidence on the causal relationship between maternal education andthe intergenerational transmission of income. Using a novel linkage between intergenerational income tax data and Census data for individuals born between 1963 and 1985 and their parents, we show that rank mobility has decreased over time, and that this decline was sharpest for children of mothers without a high school diploma. Using variation in compulsory schooling laws, we show that rank mobility increases as the percentage of mothers with a high school diploma increases. We find weaker evidence that mobility increases with the percentage of mothers with a university degree.

JEL codes: J62, D63
Keywords: social mobility, intergenerational income transmission, income inequality, educa-tion, Canada