Does Education Improve Intergenerational Income Mobility?

Abstract

When the whole people enter a well-off society, the income gap between residents and the solidification of social strata remain the focus of government and society. The improvement of intergenerational income mobility can improve the internal structure of income distribution and promote social stratum mobility to a certain extent. As the saying goes, “knowledge changes fate”, but there are also “poor families can hardly give birth to noble children”. Then, whether the improvement of education level can help individuals to move upwards, weaken the influence of family economic status on their income, and improve intergenerational mobility? This paper uses household income distribution survey, estimates intergenerational income elasticity with double samples, and uses Intersection item to analyze the effect of education level on intergenerational income elasticity in the model. The empirical results show that the increase of educational years can improve intergenerational income mobility, and the effect is better in rural areas. Therefore, the government should promote education fairness, protect children’s equal right to education, especially low-income families, guide them in the concept of education, continue the development of compulsory education, and improve the funding system of higher education.