Intergenerational Educational Mobility and Preferences for Redistribution in Europe

Intergenerational Mobility and Redistributive Preferences

Authors

Keywords:

Redistributive Preferences; Social Mobility; Economic Inequality; Equality of Opportunity

Abstract

We study how preferences for redistribution vary at the individual level in Europe. Using survey data from a large subset of European countries, we show that controlling for socio-economic and demographic characteristics, personal intergenerational educational movements play a decisive role in redistributive preferences: individuals with low educational attainment and born to low-educated parents favor redistributing incomes more. Matching subjects with their experienced country-cohort-gender-specific intergenerational educational mobility estimates, we further show that individuals whose clusters faced better upward mobility prospects when growing up are more in favor of equalizing incomes. We offer a parsimonious economic model that accords well with these novel findings.

Author Biography

Oğuz Öztunalı, Istanbul Bilgi University

Assistant Professor of Economics at Istanbul Bilgi University

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Published

2024-01-30

How to Cite

Torul, O., & Öztunalı, O. (2024). Intergenerational Educational Mobility and Preferences for Redistribution in Europe: Intergenerational Mobility and Redistributive Preferences. Journal of Income Distribution®. Retrieved from https://jid.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/jid/article/view/40566

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