Intergenerational Health Mobility in the US and the Role of Childhood Circumstances (co-authored with Ashley Wong, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago)

We present the first US estimates of intergenerational mobility with respect to self-reported health status.  Using the PSID we find that as is the case with income and occupational prestige, using long time averages of health status leads to substantially higher estimates of intergenerational persistence of 0.6 or higher.  These findings suggest very low rates intergenerational mobility in health. We also investigate mobility differences by race and income and attempt to identify some of the possible mechanisms behind these large intergenerational associations.