Center for Economic and Social Research

Joint with Neil Duzett, Adriana Lleras-Muney, Joe Price and Nolan Pope

Abstract: We examine the transmission of lifespan across generations using a unique dataset containing about more than 26 million individuals born between 1880 and 1920. We document new facts about the transmission of lifespan using both absolute and relative mobility measures. Absolute mobility was high: between 45 and 55 percent of individuals lived longer than their parents. It was much higher for women than men and varied over time. Relative measures show high mobility as well but with substantially less variation across time and subpopulations. The intergenerational correlation in lifespan (a measure of persistence rather than mobility) is about 0.09 for both sexes – this low correlation is observed across races, education groups, cohorts, and birth states. Finally, we document that the intergenerational persistence of lifespan is much smaller than the persistence in socio-economic status. Moreover, correlations in lifespan and in education are largely independent of each other, suggesting that mobility in well-being was larger than measures of income alone suggest.

Bio: Sandra E. Black is Professor of Economics and International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. She received her B.A. from UC Berkeley and her Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.  Since that time, she worked as an Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and an Assistant, Associate, and ultimately Professor in the Department of Economics at UCLA and held the Audre and Bernard Centennial Chair in Economics and Public Affairs in the Department of Economics at the University of Texas at Austin before arriving at Columbia University. She has served as an Editor of the Journal of Labor Economics as well as a Co-Editor and Editor of the Journal of Human Resources.  Dr. Blackis a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She served as a Member of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers from August 2015-January 2017.  Her research focuses on the role of early life experiences on the long-run outcomes of children, as well as issues of gender and discrimination.