Intergenerational Persistence of Industry of Employment in India

This paper studies the intergenerational persistence of industry in India. Using data from a nationally representative sample, we find that 62% young Indian men are employed in the same industry where their fathers are also employed. A set of simulations that assign young men randomly across industries is run to study the persistence in counterfactual population. We use a probit model to estimate the effect of education, and a set of family background variables on intergenerational persistence. Higher education is found to be associated with lower persistence. Ownership of productive assets exerts important non-linear effect on intergenerational transmission of industry. We also find substantial evidence of influence of father’s network and assortative mating on son’s choice of industry.