Intergenerational Income Mobility Across Origins in France: The Role of Residential Segregation

Work in Progress

Abstract
I investigate the differences in intergenerational mobility between children born in France to native versus immigrant parents. For most origin groups, and systematically among daughters, income gaps with children of natives disappear when comparing individuals whose parents had the same income. Still, a gap persists for sons of immigrants from North Africa, despite higher rates of college graduation at the lower end of the parents’ income distribution. The gap is lower among positive-income earners, and vanishes in terms of hourly wage, hinting at a labor market access mechanism. I investigate the role of residential segregation in this remaining gap using an instrumental variable approach. I estimate a spatial division index based on how geographical barriers partition the urban units individuals grew up in to isolate exogenous variations in segregation. Results suggest that residential segregation has a significantly negative effect on intergenerational mobility for sons of natives, and even more so for sons of North African immigrants. A marginally significant effect is found for daughters of natives as well, but no effect is observed among other groups.