Abstract
This paper proposes a multidimensional approach to measuring intergenerational mobility. First, we briefly review the three primary approaches for measuring intergenerational mobility in the current literature, where mobility is measured in one dimension at a time. We then propose an oriented approach capable of separately measuring upward and downward mobility, considering multiple dimensions simultaneously, and addressing fully ordinal and cardinal data. For fully ordinal data, we advocate using the standard AF identification (Alkire and Foster, 2011a) process, tracking changes in the number of deprivations across generations. For fully cardinal data, we propose utilizing the modified AF identification (Sun, 2024) to construct a comprehensive individual-based index representing overall well-being tracked over generations. The proposed method adheres to critical properties, including decomposability, replication invariance, symmetry, and properties derived from the axiom of expansion. Application of our method to data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) reveals less upward mobility and overall mobility from 2011 to 2021 compared to 2001 to 2011, offering valuable insights for longitudinal comparisons.