Intergenerational transmission of inequalities in Southern European countries in comparative perspective: evidences from EU-SILC 2011

Economic studies usually assess the link between parental background and off spring’s incomes without distinguishing the eff ects that family background may have upon educational attainment and upon occupation and earnings, independently from education. Th e persistency of income inequality across generations is then usually imputed to the reduced investment in human capital of individuals coming from disadvantaged backgrounds. In fact, a clear distinction between the family background effect on education attainment and then earnings (i.e. the ‘indirect effect’) and that on labour market achievements but independent of education (i.e. the ‘direct eff ect’) should be provided to disentangle intergenerational inequality across countries. In this article, we use the 2011 wave of EU-SILC and, clustering countries according to the usual four-group geographical classifi cation (Nordic, Continental, Anglo-Saxon and Southern countries), ask whether diff erent levels of intergenerational inequality are related to diff erent roles played by indirect and direct channels of infl uence of family background on children’s outcomes. We also fi nd clear diff erences among the European welfare regimes regarding mechanisms of intergenerational inequality transmission