In the mid-20^th century, many developed economies experienced several generations of high prosperity, with children generally earning higher incomes than their parents had at the same age. In economics, this is technically known as increasing absolute intergenerational mobility. For the United States, however, studies suggest that such mobility has more recently been falling. It decreased from 90% for children born in 1940 to just 50% for those born in 1980, mostly due to changes in the income distribution, but also due to slower economic growth. Whether this pattern also holds for other countries and birth cohorts is less clear. Read more