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My name is Emmanuel Saez.
I am a professor of economics
at the University of California,
Berkeley.
I study inequality
and public policy.
So intergenerational
mobility is the analysis
of whether your parents'
economic situation matters
a lot for your own
economic success.
Namely, if you grow
up poor, do you still
have a good shot at
succeeding economically?
And so what we've
seen in the data
is that there hasn't
been an increase
in intergenerational mobility
in decades in the United States.
And actually, the US is behind
many other advanced countries
in terms of intergenerational
mobility-- that is,
if you grow up
poor, you are more
likely to succeed in a country
like Canada or Scandinavian
countries than in
the United States.
In this election, there
really is a feeling,
indeed, that
intergenerational mobility
is not working because
many communities have
the strong feeling
that they are not doing
as well as their parents
and they are actually
worried that their children
may do worse than them.
So the stalling of
intergenerational mobility
contributes, as well, to
the feelings or frustrations
of many voters
about the economy.
So our analysis has
shown that there
is tremendous variation in
intergenerational mobility
across places.
So some places,
like the Bay Area,
for example, are very
good at generating
intergenerational mobility.
And I think,
actually, the quality
of public infrastructure
and particularly
the educational system
plays a key role
in giving opportunities
to children
from disadvantaged families.
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