# **1. Introduction**

A society with high intergenerational mobility (IGM) is one where an individual’s socioeconomic success is less dependent on the socioeconomic success of his or her parents. Low mobility can lead to unrealized human potential and a misallocation of resources as talented individuals from disadvantaged families are excluded from opportunities. Policies promoting higher intergenerational mobility are likely to promote growth that is more inclusive in nature. Theoretically, higher levels of IGM have been shown to enhance both efficiency and equity by strengthening the correlation between education and ability (e.g. Glomm and Ravikumar, 1992; Maoz and Moav, 1999; Lloyd-Ellis, 2000).

Historically, the United States is viewed as the land of opportunity. The American dream embodies the belief in opportunity for each according to ability and effort. Chetty et al. (2014) show that the United States is better described by a collection of smaller societies.<sup>1</sup> In some parts of the country, mobility is on par with some of the most mobile countries in Europe, while in other parts, children struggle to escape poverty when born into it. Chetty et al. (2014) also find that areas with relatively high rates of mobility tend to be ones that are less residentially segregated (i.e. the extent to which households from different socio-economic backgrounds and different races live in separate neighborhoods), have lower inequality, higher quality public school systems, stronger social networks, and stronger family structures. Corak (2021) and Connolly et al. (2021) show that similar patterns also prevail in Canada.

Looking beyond the United States and Canada, where are the lands of opportunity globally, i.e. what would a global map of social mobility look like? If the geographic patterns observed in the United States are also observed across countries, then the least mobile countries are more likely to be found in the developing world. If there is indeed a socio-economic mobility gap between the developing world and the developed world, is that gap closing over time?

There is considerable empirical evidence on intergenerational mobility in the developed world (see Black and Devereux (2011) and Corak (2013) for reviews of the literature). Most of the empirical studies focus on the United States, Canada and select countries from Europe, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries. Evidence for the developing world is scarcer. It includes a study by Alesina et al. (2021) on Africa, a study by Asher et al. (2018) on India, and a cross-country study on Latin America by Neidhöfer et al. (2018). The largest cross-country study on intergenerational mobility prior to this paper is Hertz et al. (2007) who provide estimates for 42 countries.

> 1 Chetty et al. (2014) estimate intergenerational income mobility at the municipality level for the United States. Several studies have followed this approach and estimated intergenerational mobility at local administrative levels for large countries. Corak (2021) and Connolly et al. (2021) obtain similarly disaggregated estimates of income mobility for Canada. Asher et al. (2018) and Alesina et al. (2021) are the first to attempt this for the developing world by providing highly disaggregated estimates of intergenerational education mobility for India and Africa, respectively.

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