social mobility

The direction of this effect is no surprise.  It is interesting to see the magnitudes.  New research from the Economic Mobility Project:

Family structure has an impact on a child’s economic mobility prospects, according to the Pew Economic Policy Group’s report Family Structure and the Economic Mobility of Children. The group’s Economic Mobility Project found that only 26 percent of children of divorced parents who start in the bottom third of the income ladder move to the middle or top third as adults. This compares to 42 percent of children who are born to unmarried mothers and 50 percent of children with continuously married parents in the same income category.

The comparison to children born to unmarried mothers is unexpected -- it shows just how disruptive divorce is for later economic development.

That's what we like to think, but a new book, Creating an Opportunity Society, by Ron Haskins and Belle Sawhill of the Brookings Institution proves otherwise.  They took a close look at intergenerational mobility and found that 42% of American men with fathers in the bottom income quintile remain there as compared to: Denmark, 25%; Sweden, 26%; Finland, 28%; Norway, 28%; and the United Kingdom, 30%.  They present a wealth of new and old research evidence to support the conclusion that if you're born poor in America, you're likely to remain poor.