Slow Motion: Economic Mobility of Young Workers in the 1970s and 1980s

Author(s)/Creator(s)

Greg J. Duncan, University of California, Irvine
Johanne Boisjoly, Université du Québec à Rimouski
Timothy M. Smeeding, University of Madison-Wisconsin

Description/Abstract

This paper investigates the question of how long it takes young male workers to earn enough to reach a given standard of living, e.g., enough to support a family. We use the Panel Study of Income Dynamics data on the earnings of children and their parents to answer these questions. Our findings are that all groups of men, classified by race, ethnicity, and education level, are taking longer to reach a given standard of living. Some, e.g., undereducated black males, will never reach middle class standards of living for themselves. Implications for household formation, marriage, and public policy are discussed in closing.

Document Type

Working Paper

Date

9-1995

Language

English

Series

Income Security Policy Series

Disciplines

Economic Policy | Economics | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration | Public Policy

ISSN

1061 1843

Additional Information

Policy studies paper no.11

Recommended Citation

Duncan, Greg J.; Boisjoly, Johanne; and Smeeding, Timothy M., "Slow Motion: Economic Mobility of Young Workers in the 1970s and 1980s" (1995). Center for Policy Research. 405.
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/405

Source

Local Input

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.