FolioStart free

Sociology · Literature

Research papers on Wealth inequality and mobility

Recent and highly-cited academic work on wealth inequality and mobility, gathered from Semantic Scholar, CrossRef and OpenAlex.

Search all 200M+ papers on this topic, free →Or track new wealth inequality and mobility papers automatically as they publish

  2. Wealth Inequality in the United States

    Lisa A. Keister, Stephanie Möller · 2000 · Annual Review of Sociology · 477 citations

    Wealth ownership in the United States has long been concentrated in the hands of a small minority of the population, yet researchers have paid relatively little attention to the causes and consequences of this inequality. In this essay, we review the literature that does exist on wealth accumulation and distribution. We begin with an examination of the reasons that wealth inequality has received little empirical attention. We then discuss methods of creating empirical estimates of wealth accumulation and distribution, and we present some estimates of recent trends in wealth inequality. We explore a diverse collection of research that explains these trends, covering treatments of aggregate in

    Save this paper

  3. Intergenerational Inequality: A Sociological Perspective

    Robert S. Erikson, John H. Goldthorpe · 2002 · The Journal of Economic Perspectives · 470 citations

    When economists are concerned with the inheritance of inequality, they typically focus on the intergenerational transmission of income or wealth. In contrast, sociologists are more likely to analyze intergenerational mobility between (and immobility in) different class positions.

    Save this paper

  6. Intergenerational Wealth Mobility and Racial Inequality

    Fabian T. Pfeffer, Alexandra A. Killewald · 2019 · Socius Sociological Research for a Dynamic World · 82 citations

    The black-white gap in household wealth is large and well documented. Here, we visualize how this racial wealth gap persists across generations. Animating the flow of individuals between the relative wealth position of parents and their adult children, we show that the disadvantage of black families is a consequence both of wealth inequality in prior generations and race differences in the transmission of wealth positions across generations: Black children both have less wealthy parents on average and are far more likely to be downwardly mobile in household wealth. By displaying intergenerational movements between parental and offspring wealth quintiles, we underline how intergenerational fl

    Save this paper

  9. The Intergenerational Propagation of Wealth Inequality

    Alan G. Isaac · 2014 · Metroeconomica · 7 citations

    This paper highlights the crucial role of demographic assumptions in models of the intergenerational transmission of wealth inequality. Specifically, we show that Alan Blinder's surprising predictions that bequest and mating practices can sustain but cannot cause wealth inequality are extremely fragile. We show that these predictions depend on a common and apparently minor demographic assumption: fixed sex ratios in family composition. We implement the Blinder model as an agent‐based simulation and show that without this demographic assumption such familial institutions are causative for wealth inequality, even in the long run.

    Save this paper

  10. The association between childhood exposure to local wealth inequality and intergenerational income mobility in the United States

    Manuel Schechtl · 2025 · Nature Communications · 4 citations

    Previous research has documented that income inequality is negatively associated with intergenerational income mobility. Beyond income, wealth is also distributed unequally. However, a lack of comprehensive wealth data has meant that the link between wealth inequality and upward mobility in income remains unclear. This study examines this association using a recently published database of local wealth inequality estimates (GEOWEALTH-US) as well as upward mobility estimates published by Opportunity Insights. Results from linear models estimated by OLS reveal a negative association between childhood exposure to local wealth inequality at the commuting zone level (N = 724) and mobility outcomes

    Save this paper

  11. Wealth Inequality and Intergenerational Income Mobility in the United States

    Manuel Schechtl · 2024 · 2 citations

    Where income inequality is higher, intergenerational mobility in income is lower. Income inequality affects upward mobility because exposure to socioeconomic disparities during childhood influences economic opportunities. Beyond income, wealth is also distributed unequally and can facilitate the hoarding of opportunities. Therefore, this study inves- tigates whether wealth inequality is negatively associated with intergenerational income mobility. To examine the impact of childhood exposure to wealth inequality on upward mobility in income, this study utilizes a unique, novel database that makes local estimates of wealth inequality across the United States publicly available. Results from li

    Save this paper

  12. Wealth inequality and intergenerational mobility in Russia: possibilities of tax regulation

    Andrey A. Pugachev, Anastasia Alekseevna Chistyakova · 2023 · Народонаселение · 1 citations

    The economic inequality of people in Russia today is high. The decline in intergenerational mobility is determined by increasing concentration of capital. The purpose of the study is to examine the capabilities of taxes in smoothing the wealth inequality of Russians and strengthening the intergenerational mobility in the framework of assessing their relationship on the basis of the World Bank database. According to the results of the analysis, there was a decrease in the mobility between generations in Russia and emergence of the problem of consolidating the economic situation within family, which, if the present trends continue, will be intensifying. For generations born in the 1970s and 19

    Save this paper

  14. Parental Wealth & Social Mobility: The Impact of Wealth Inequality and the State on Intergenerational Income Mobility

    Joshua Sowah · 2016 · Lund University Publications Student Papers (Lund University)

    Equality of opportunity is a notion rooted in many societies as a conception of importance. The idea that one’s life chances ought to be unrelated to the aspects of one’s background upon which one has no say, such as the material wealth of one’s parents, is generally one that is widely held. The term ‘Intergenerational income mobility’, describing, as it does, the interrelatedness of the incomes of parents with those of their children, is thus too a conception of some importance. Recent studies, looking at cross-sectional income inequality across a range of – primarily advanced – nations, have established a link between income inequality and intergenerational income mobility, suggesting that

    Save this paper

  16. Intergenerational Transmission of Inequality: An Empirical Study of Wealth Mobility (France 1800–1835)

    Luc Arrondel, Cyril Grange · 2004 · Cairn.info

    This paper uses historical data from the ?3 000 familles? survey, covering individuals in the Lower Loire département in the 19th and early 20th century, to measure the intergenerational transmission of wealth inequality over the period 1800-1938. Our results reveal a large degree of intergenerational immobility: those whose father had twice the average level of wealth themselves die with a wealth level 1.45 times the average for their generation.

    Save this paper

  20. Intergenerational Wealth Dynamics in an Aging Society: A Panel Data Analysis of Economic Inequality across Vietnamese Provinces

    Thi Song Thu HUYNH · 2024 · Journal of Economics, Finance And Management Studies

    This study investigates the relationship between population aging and economic inequality in Vietnam, utilizing a comprehensive provincial panel dataset spanning from 2010 to 2022 across all 63 provinces. Through dynamic panel estimation techniques and heterogeneity analysis, we examine both the direct effects of aging on inequality and the various mechanisms through which this relationship operates across different regional and socioeconomic contexts within Vietnam. Our findings reveal a significant positive relationship between aging and inequality, with a one percentage point increase in the elderly dependency ratio associated with a 0.058 point increase in the Gini coefficient. The impac

    Save this paper

Write your paper with these sources

Folio is the integrity-first research workspace: search 200M+ papers, save sources, and write with citations that format themselves. Free for students and researchers.

Start writing free →