1 Intergenerational Income Persistency in Urban China

2 Deng Quheng
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Björn Gustafsson
University of Gothenburg
Li Shi
Beijing Normal University

3 IZA Discussion Paper No. 6907 October 2012 http://ftp.iza.org/dp6907.pdf

4 摘要
Intergenerational income elasticities are estimated using samples for urban China (covering
many cities) for the years 1995 and 2002 and compared with results from other studies. We
find that the income relation between the pairs: sons and fathers, sons and mothers and
daughters and mothers, are in 2002 all similar in magnitude. In contrast the relation between
daughters’ and fathers’ income is weaker. The income relationship between offspring and
mothers was weaker in 1995 than in 2002. Our preferred estimates of income persistency for
the son-father pairs of 0.47 for 1995 and 0.53 for 2002 are higher than what has been
reported in the literature for several high-income countries with large welfare states. The
strength of the income link between sons and fathers in urban China appears to be not very
different from what has been reported for countries such as Brazil, Chile and the United
States.