Mothers, Schools, and the Making of American Human Capital Mobility

This National Bureau of Economic Research working paper investigates the historical drivers of intergenerational mobility in the United States, challenging previous research that focused primarily on father-son income correlations. The authors introduce a novel mobility measure incorporating both parents' human capital, utilizing literacy as a proxy within a new latent variable method. By constructing a representative linked panel that includes women, the study reveals that intergenerational mobility in both human capital and income increased sharply from the 19th to the 20th century. Initially, maternal human capital was the strongest predictor of children's outcomes. However, as mass schooling expanded, reliance on maternal capital declined, leading to higher overall mobility. The findings underscore that America's significant investment in public education was central to its evolution into a highly mobile society. This research highlights the critical, previously masked role of mothers in economic history and demonstrates how educational infrastructure can reduce dependence on family background for individual success.