Christopher Wimer

The persistence of disadvantage across generations is a central concern for social policy in the United States. While an extensive literature has focused on income mobility, much less is known about the mechanisms for mobility out of material hardship. This study uses the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to provide the first point estimates of the intergenerational transmission of food insecurity.

We tested the hypothesis that high costs of living, such as from high housing rents, reduce the healthfulness of food acquisitions.