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. Childhood food insecurity is associated with about 20 percentage points higher probability of food insecurity as an adult (or around 10 percentage points higher conditional on family earnings and wealth during childhood).
Research
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DP2019-06b.pdf