Intergenerational Income Mobility in France : A Comparative and Geographic Analysis

We provide new estimates of intergenerational income mobility in France for children born in the 1970s using rich administrative data. Since parents’ incomes are not observed, we employ a two-sample two-stage least squares estimation. Our results show that France is characterized by a strong persistence relative to other developed countries.10% of children born to parents in the bottom 20% reach the top 20% in adulthood, four times less than children from the top 20%. We uncover substantial spatial variations in intergenerational mobility across departments, comparable to those observed across countries. We find that the upward mobility gains from geographic mobility are slightly decreasing in parent income and increasing in the income level of the destination department. The expected income rank of individuals from the bottom of the parent income distribution who moved towards high-income departments is around the same as the expected income rank of individuals from the 75th percentile who stayed in their childhood department