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Abstract

There is considerable emphasis in academic and policy literatures on intergenerational transmissions of poverty and inequality. The perception is that improving schooling attainment and income/consumption for parents in poor households will result in important reductions in poverty and inequality for the next generation of adults. However, the extents of these intergenerational effects on poverty and inequality are empirical questions that have not been examined much if at all, particularly for developing countries. We use data on children born in the 21st century in four developing countries to estimate critical relations with which to simulate how changes in parents鈥� schooling attainment and consumption would affect poverty headcounts and inequality in the children鈥檚 generation when the children become adults. We find that reductions in poverty headcounts and inequalities in the parents鈥� generation carry over to distributions of human capital and per capita adult consumption for the children鈥檚 generation, but the effects are not very large for the distribution of per capita consumption. Therefore, while reductions in poverty and inequality in the parents鈥� generation are likely to be desirable in themselves to improve welfare among current adults, they are not likely to have much impact on reducing per capita consumption poverty and inequality in the next generation of adults.

This paper was presented at a conference on Inequalities in Children鈥檚 Outcomes in Developing Countries hosted by Young Lives at St Anne鈥檚 College, Oxford on 8-9 July 2013.

Citation

Behrman, J.R.; Schott, W.; Mani, S.; Crookston, B.T.; Dearden, K.; Le Thuc Duc; Fernald, L.C.H.; Stein, A.D. Young Lives Working Paper 117. Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty andInequality: Young Lives. Young Lives, Department of International Development at the University of Oxford, Oxford, UK (2013) 50 pp. ISBN 978-1-909403-30-7

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