Industry Context and Intergenerational Mobility

Authors: Kathryn O'Neill, Xi Song, Kristin Liao, Jennie Brand

This project explores how long-term changes in the U.S. industrial structure have shaped patterns of intergenerational mobility. Rather than looking only at occupations, it asks how the industries in which people work, such as agriculture, manufacturing, trade, or services, help explain the transmission of advantage and disadvantage across generations. Using multiple nationally representative datasets spanning much of the twentieth century to the present, the project studies how links between parents' and children's occupations and industries have changed over time and whether industry remains an important dimension of status inheritance.