Intergenerational Mobility and the Growth–Inequality–Poverty Nexus in Africa

Abstract

This paper examines to what extent intergenerational mobility shapes both the impact of income inequality on growth as well as the effect that growth has on poverty and on income inequality in Africa. Thanks to newly available and internationally comparable data on intergenerational elasticities of income and education, we confirm the detrimental role played by higher inequality of opportunity as measured by intergenerational mobility. The study concludes that neglecting to address the root causes of inequality of opportunity can be socially and economically very costly.