Inheritance and the new limits of mobility
Intergenerational mobility and transmission appear on 142 recent papers, mostly in economics, and 33 of them carry a wealth, inheritance, housing or parental keyword. As house prices and inheritances grow relative to wages, does where you end up depend more on what your parents own than on what you earn?
What prompted this
Since October 2025, 142 papers carry an intergenerational-mobility, social-mobility or intergenerational-transmission keyword (122 in economics journals): "intergenerational transmission" on 26, "intergenerational mobility" on 18, "social mobility" on 12. Thirty-three of them also carry a wealth, inheritance, housing, gift, parental or bequest keyword, and "intergenerational wealth transfer" appears on 4.
Questions
- For cohorts born since 1980, how much of the correlation between parents' and children's wealth runs through inheritances and gifts, and how much through housing help at the time of purchase?
- Has the share of first-time buyers who received family help risen, and does help predict where they live and whether they move for work?
- Do countries with large inheritance taxes show higher wealth mobility across generations?
Data that could help
Linked parent-child wealth records (Scandinavian registers, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics), surveys on home purchase financing, and inheritance tax data.
Next step
Estimate the share of first-home down payments financed by family gifts by cohort from household surveys that record the source of funds.