A Note on Intergenerational Schooling Mobility

Abstract

This article studies how parental education affects children's completed years of schooling. Using a long-term survey, we test whether the intergenerational schooling mobility follows a linear or a nonlinear path. In line with some influential theoretical models, we find that the intergenerational link is clearly nonlinear. In particular, using a quantile regression technique and a generalized additive model, we conclude that this relationship has a logistic shape. This evidence suggests that works in which the intergenerational schooling mobility is estimated by using standard linear techniques do not capture salient nonlinearities.