Foreward: Welfare Reform and Intergenerational Mobility The Economic Mobility Project’s latest release, Welfare Reform and Intergenerational Mobility, reviews research on the impact of the 1996 welfare reform law on the economic mobility of TANF recipients and their children. By Rachel Dunifon of Cornell University, the review finds that research investigating the impact of welfare reform on the economic outcomes of children is limited, but the research that does exist shows no evidence that children have seen large benefits or harm as a result of the legislation. The author suggests that researchers could have a better understanding of welfare reform’s impact on children and families by taking the following steps: 1) focus more on child care, parenting behaviors, and mental health; 2) focus on the types of jobs mothers have and how they affect children; and 3) use ethnographic research to better understand the linkages between welfare reform and children’s well-being. This report includes a foreword by welfare reform experts Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution and David Ellwood of Harvard University. To download the full report, click here.
	Executive Summary: Welfare Reform and Intergenerational Mobility The Economic Mobility Project’s latest release, Welfare Reform and Intergenerational Mobility, reviews research on the impact of the 1996 welfare reform law on the economic mobility of TANF recipients and their children. By Rachel Dunifon of Cornell University, the review finds that research investigating the impact of welfare reform on the economic outcomes of children is limited, but the research that does exist shows no evidence that children have seen large benefits or harm as a result of the legislation. The author suggests that researchers could have a better understanding of welfare reform’s impact on children and families by taking the following steps: 1) focus more on child care, parenting behaviors, and mental health; 2) focus on the types of jobs mothers have and how they affect children; and 3) use ethnographic research to better understand the linkages between welfare reform and children’s well-being. This report includes a foreword by welfare reform experts Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution and David Ellwood of Harvard University.
	Economic Mobility Glossary Glossary of Economic Mobility Terms
	Summary of Economic Mobility Project Key Findings For more than two centuries, economic opportunity and upward mobility have formed the foundation of the American Dream and remain at the core of our nation’s identity. Until recently, the national economic debate has focused on income inequality rather than the health of this Dream. Indeed, U.S. income inequality is as high as it has been since before World War II. But too little attention has been given to the more fundamental issue of economic mobility—the ability to climb up or fall down the economic ladder within a lifetime or across generations.
	Executive Summary: Chasing the Same Dream, Climbing Different Ladders: Economic Mobility in the United States and Canada The United States and Canada have a great deal in common, with histories and cultures shaped by newcomers seeking opportunities and better lives. Yet there are very important differences in social and economic trends on either side of the 49th parallel. In particular, previous analyses of economic mobility in the United States and other industrialized nations reveal that the United States has less, not more, mobility than its northern neighbor. That is, one’s family economic background is more likely to influence one’s economic outcomes in the United States than in Canada.
	Key Findings: Chasing the Same Dream, Climbing Different Ladders: Economic Mobility in the United States and Canada The United States and Canada have a similar heritage, with cultures shaped by newcomers seeking opportunities and better lives. Nevertheless, economic mobility patterns in these two countries have not followed the same course. As seen in Chasing the Same Dream, Climbing Different Ladders, a comparative analysis of intergenerational mobility in the United States and Canada reveals that family economic background influences the economic mobility of Americans more than that of Canadians. Using comparable, nationally representative polls commissioned by the Economic Mobility Project in both countries, the report also explores whether the differential rates of mobility in the U.S. and Canada reflect differences in public opinion, values, or underlying societal goals.
	Executive Summary: A Penny Saved is Mobility Earned: Advancing Economic Mobility Through Savings This report finds that having parents with high-savings positively impacts one's upward mobility, particularly for children of low-income parents; having high-savings oneself increases the chances of moving up from the bottom of the income ladder.
	Executive Summary: Strengthening Community Colleges' Influence on Economic Mobility Community colleges are an important avenue to upward mobility no matter the students’ background, income level, or high school accomplishments. This report finds that an associate degree is particularly meaningful for low-income, high-achieving high school students—over half of whom transfer to four-year colleges and, of those who transfer, three-quarters earn a bachelor’s degree.
	Summary of Key Findings: Strengthening Community Colleges' Influence on Economic Mobility Community colleges are an important avenue to upward mobility no matter the students’ background, income level, or high school accomplishments. This report finds that an associate degree is particularly meaningful for low-income, high-achieving high school students—over half of whom transfer to four-year colleges and, of those who transfer, three-quarters earn a bachelor’s degree.
	Executive Summary: Neighborhoods And The Black-White Mobility Gap The first section of the paper investigates relative intergenerational mobility; whether neighborhood poverty in childhood impacts the ability of both black and white adults to move up or down the income ladder relative to the position their parents held. The second section investigates whether changes in neighborhood poverty rates experienced by black children affected their adult incomes, earnings, and wealth. Finally, the third section provides an overview of the possible policy implications of the results.
	Executive Summary: Ups And Downs: Does The American Economy Still Promote Upward Mobility? The analyses include both short-term and longer-term fluctuations in income, examining how many people are able to recover from income declines, how long their recovery takes, and differences across demographic groups in both.
	Executive Summary: A Detailed Picture of Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we consider how parental education relates to four separate outcomes in the children’s generation: education, lifetime earnings, health and (financial) wealth. We relate parents’ educational ranks to children’s ranks on these four outcomes. By focusing on ranks, we are able to see full distributions of outcomes and can pick up within-group differences that even a relatively disaggregated analysis, like a quintile-based transition matrix, can obscure.
	Executive Summary: Promoting Upward Mobility by Increasing Postsecondary Education Executive Summary: Promoting Upward Mobility by Increasing Postsecondary Education
	Summary Of Key Findings: Promoting Economic Mobility By Increasing PostSecondary Education Postsecondary education is a critical factor in promoting upward economic mobility, especially for poor and low-income individuals. However, while college enrollment has increased exponentially in the last several decades, the enrollment and graduation rates of poor and low-income students remain significantly behind those of their middle- and upper-income peers. This report outlines the current educational attainment gap, and proposes a set of nonpartisan policy and programmatic solutions to encourage equality of educational opportunity in the United States.
	Summary Of Key Findings: U.S. Intragenerational Mobility From 1984-2004: Trends And Implications This report explores how Americans have moved up and down the income ladder over the last two decades, and whether it has been more difficult for Americans to get and stay ahead in the last decade. The report focuses on intragenerational mobility: how individuals change economic positions within their own lifetimes.
	Pathways To Economic Mobility: Key Indicators Fact Sheet The Economic Mobility Project’s newly released report explores some of the key factors that affect the likelihood that a person will move up or down the economic ladder over time. The report reveals that certain factors of American life---such as educational attainment, family structure, and savings---are strong determinants of economic mobility. The report categorizes these indicators by social, human and financial capital.
	Executive Summary: Upward Intergenerational Economic Mobility In The United States This report introduces two new and flexible measures to examine upward relative mobility—the extent to which children can rise above their parents’ position when compared to their peers. The report also explores various factors that might account for racial differences in upward economic mobility rates.
	Executive Summary: How Much Does the Federal Government Spend to Promote Economic Mobility and For Whom? Executive Summary: How Much Does the Federal Government Spend to Promote Economic Mobility and For Whom?
	Summary Of Key Findings: How Much Does The Federal Government Spend To Promote Economic Mobility And For Whom? This report tracks historical and projected federal spending and tax subsidies aimed at promoting the economic mobility of Americans.
	Summary of Key Findings: Getting Ahead or Losing Ground: Economic Mobility in America Economic Mobility of Families Across Generations; Trends in Economic Mobility; International Comparisons of Economic Mobility; Wealth and Economic Mobility; Economic Mobility of Men and Women; Economic Mobility of Black and White Families; Immigration: Wages, Education and Mobility; Education and Economic Mobility
	Summary of Key Findings: Economic Mobility: Is the American Dream Alive And Well? Economic mobility can occur across generations in two ways: (1) absolute mobility, through which overall economic growth ensures that each generation is better off, or has a higher standard of living, on average, than the one before; and (2) relative mobility, which reflects changes in the relative economic distribution of individuals or families, regardless of whether the economy is growing.
	Summary of Key Findings: Economic Mobility of Families Across Generations, Economic Mobility of Men and Women, and Economic Mobility of Black and White Families Two out of three Americans have higher incomes than their parents, while one third are falling behind. A child’s economic position on the income ladder in adulthood is heavily influenced by that of his or her parents. Of the two thirds of Americans who make more than their parents’ family income, one half (or 34 percent of all Americans) are upwardly mobile, meaning they also move up at least one rung on the income ladder ahead of their parents. The report calls into question whether the American Dream is a reality for black and white families alike. These trends are particularly startling for children born to middle income black parents – the analysis suggests that black parents who achieve middle income status are not able to pass their economic advantages onto their children in the same way as white parents. Sons and daughters have fairly similar rates of mobility across generations, that is, family incomes of both sons and daughters resemble their parents’ to a similar degree.
	Executive Summary: Family Structure and the Economic Mobility of Children Executive Summary: Family Structure and the Economic Mobility of Children

• Neighborhoods and the Black-White Mobility Gap
• Economic Mobility Project Key Findings
• Getting Ahead or Losing Ground: Economic Mobility in America

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