‘You Raise Me Up:’ Investigating Multi-Generational Trends and the Impact of Role Model Effects in Women’s Intergenerational Socioeconomic Mobility in the United States

Studies of intergenerational mobility have often focused on single father-to-son generational relationships. In this study, we utilize the NLSY79 and NLSY97 datasets alongside a Heckman two-step correction to analyze multigenerational trends of U.S. socioeconomic mobility by sex and race. We measure mobility through intergenerational rank association (IRA), also investigating the multigenerational impact of role model effects on women’s mobility. First, we find that the role model effect has grown significantly for U.S. women born between 1957 to 1965 and 1981 to 1985, chiefly driven by white women. Second, like previous studies, we find minimal to no increase in U.S. mobility overall between these generations and negligible increases in U.S. women’s and men's mobility when examined by sex. Thirdly, we find evidence supporting previous findings that a notable mobility gap exists between black and white American men. Additionally, our estimates indicate that this gap may increase over our investigated timeframe. Lastly, we show that with a significantly smaller sample not encompassing an entire population, through creating income percentiles from large micro datasets and utilizing a two-step Heckman correction, accurate intergenerational socioeconomic mobility measurements can be obtained compared to previous literature that utilizes an entire country cohort data.