Intergenerational Transmission of Socio-Economic Status and Intragenerational Mobility Over the Early Adult Life Course of Canadian Women and Men

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to provide evidence of the relationship between intergenerational income transmission and intragenerational economic mobility. More specifically, we aim to provide novel results on whether the rate of income growth over age is higher among children of more or less privileged social origins in Canada, and what factors may account for eventual differences. Among those factors, we examine the role of education, as well as factors related to the early adult life course, post labour market entry, including parenthood and couple status. We find that although inequalities based on parental income levels are observed in the early life course, they are exacerbated by the steeper income growth experienced by children of higher income parents between 22 and 35 years old, especially among men. While these patterns seem to be associated with differences in educational attainment, we also find an important role for labour force attachment over the early life course. We find significant gender differences in these patterns, driven in part by flatter income growth among more privileged women compared with more privileged men. This last pattern is in part driven by the negative association between parenthood and income among women, and gender differences in labour force attachment.