- Race: intergenerational mobility is lower in areas with higher African American populations, such as the Southeast US (r = -0.58). 
- Segregation: More racially segregated areas have less upward mobility (r=-0.36); more economically segregated areas have less upward mobility (r = -0.39); and, areas with less sprawl have significantly higher rates of upward mobility.
- Income levels and inequality: upward moblity is strongly correlated with the size of the middle class (r = 0.68)
- School Quality: income adjusted test score and dropout rates are very highly correlated with upward mobility across specifications 
- Social Capital: Upward mobility and social capital (the strength of social networks and engagement in communities) is highly correlated (r = .64) and robust across specirications 
- Family Structure: The fraction of single parent households is strongly negatively correlated with upward mobility (r = -0.76)

Correlates with Intergenerational Mobility in the US 

There are three main intergenerational mobility trends in the United States:
- upward mobility varies substantially at the regional level
- there is also substantial within-region variation in intergenerational mobility
- urban areas tend to exhibit lower levels of intergenerational mobility than rural areas

University of Texas at Austin

In the United States, relative mobility is: 
- correlated robustly with teenage birthrates and college attendence rates. 
- roughly half that of both Canada and Denmark.
- generally associated with better outcomes for children from poor families
- within the country, highest in the Great Plains region and lowest in the Southeast US.

Relative Mobility in the US

Though one could study any direction of absolute mobility, much of the study of absolute mobility in the US has been on absolute upward mobility, or the mobility of children who's family occupies the lowest quintile of income. 

In the United States, absolute upward mobility is: 
- almost perfectly linear across commuter zones (CZs)
- highly variable across commuter zones (CZs), with the Southeast region having the lowest upward mobility and the Great Plains Regions having the highest mobility.
- high in the Northeast and West regions, but not as high there as in the Great Plains region.
- very low in Native American reservations, which are known to have persistent poverty.


Learn Before

Related

Learn After