Indirect Estimators of Intergenerational Mobility

Abstract

This chapter reviews indirect estimators of intergenerational mobility, focusing on approaches that infer parent-child or other family associations when direct income data are incomplete or unavailable. We synthesize methods based on instrumental variables, imputation using observable characteristics such as education and occupation, surname-based estimators, and multigenerational linkages. To unify these approaches, we introduce a stylized framework in which socioeconomic status is transmitted through multiple pathways with heterogeneous persistence rates. Within this framework, both direct and indirect estimators can be interpreted as weighted averages of these underlying transmission channels. A central insight is that the choice of instrument or imputation strategy determines these weights, leading different methods to capture distinct aspects of the transmission process. We highlight implications for interpretation, showing that indirect estimators need not recover conventional parent-child correlations but can instead provide complementary evidence on long-run persistence and the mechanisms underlying persistent inequalities.