The Changing Effect of Family Background on the Incomes of American Adults

Most Americans endorse the ideal of equal opportunity, and many interpret this ideal as requiring that children from different backgrounds have an equal chance of achieving economic success. Most Americans also recognize that children whose parents have “all the advantages” are more likely to prosper than children whose parents lack these advantages. Reducing the correlation between parental advantages and children’s economic success has therefore become a prominent goal of liberal social policy, especially since the 1960s. This chapter investigates how the correlation between American adults’ family incomes and their parents’ characteristics changed between 1961 and 1999.