TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Binder, Ariel J.
AU  - Risch, Max
AU  - Voorheis, John
        TI  - Housing Capital and Intergenerational Mobility in the United States
        PY  - 2026/Apr/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18546
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18546
        AB  - Housing is the largest capital asset for most families. While the intergenerational mobility literature has extensively studied the income distribution, it has devoted less attention to housing, in part due to data limitations. We document 3 features of intergenerational mobility by comparing housing capital and income in a new dataset covering 3.4 million U.S. families. First, housing is more persistent across generations than earnings. Moreover, the housing gap between White and Black children grows more sharply throughout the parental resource distribution than does the earnings gap. Second, less than half of intergenerational housing persistence operates through child earnings, leaving substantial scope for direct transmissions of capital assets and knowledge. The direct channel is much weaker among Black families and can almost fully explain their greater risk of downward mobility. Third, local housing supply constraints shape spatial differences in the intergenerational mobility of housing - but not of earnings - as measured in a quasi-experimental shift-share design.  Our results highlight a more rigid structure of economic resources across families than implied by income studies.
        KW  - housing markets
KW  - intergenerational mobility
KW  - homeownership
KW  - wealth distribution
KW  - capital
KW  - income
KW  - housing supply
KW  - racial disparities
        ER  -