Skill-biased Technical Change and Intergenerational Education Mobility

Skill-biased Technical Change and Intergenerational Education Mobility | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Skill-biased Technical Change and Intergenerational Education Mobility Imran Aziz This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2219954/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This paper analyzes the impact of skill-biased technological change (SBTC) on intergenerational education mobility. I set up an SBTC model with an overlapping generations framework, where heterogeneously-skilled households invest in their children's education to make them skilled. Technology incentivizes these investments by creating both pecuniary (higher skill-premium) and non-pecuniary (improved life skills) benefits; it constrains investments among low-income households by increasing inequality. I show there is a critical technology range within which SBTC shocks can increase investments by both high-income and low-income households, improving absolute education mobility. Moreover, the relative increase in transfers can be larger for the low-income group who initially have lower investment levels, which can help their children catch-up. I test the predictions of the model using data from Chetty et al. (2014) which show how college attendance rates of children in U.S. commuting zones (CZs) are linked to the rank of their families in the national income distribution. A technology measure is constructed for each CZ using its share of STEM workers, which I instrument using a Bartik-type IV to deal with endogeneity concerns. From 2SLS estimations, I find that college attendance rates of children from households in the same income rank improve if households are located in higher technology CZs, with the improvement being larger among lower-ranked households. Thus, SBTC is found to improve both absolute and relative intergenerational education mobility. JEL Codes: J24, J31, J62, I24, O33 Education Attainment Intergenerational Mobility Skill-biased Technical Change Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-2219954","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":154984527,"identity":"f7109004-0ed8-425e-ac73-5a4c24677840","order_by":0,"name":"Imran Aziz","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA2UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACNiA+wFABJHmAjAcFRGs5A9WSYECsVYxtEC0MRGnhYz/+8ODPeYflzHvOGAJtsUlsYD/8AL/DeBISDkhuO2wsc7bHAKglLbGBJw2/XWwMCQcOGG47nDiDny0BqOVwYoMEAwEt/A8bDiTOgWv5D9TC/gG/FolkhgMHG4BaeJsPALUcAGrhIWCLxDOGgw3H0o0leA6DtCQbt/Hk4I8d+f70xx9/1FjLSfAkNn/4UGEn289+fANeLVDQjGQvMeqBoI5IdaNgFIyCUTAiAQDe1UlDL1xXDwAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Yorkville University","correspondingAuthor":true,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Imran","middleName":"","lastName":"Aziz","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2022-10-31 02:59:08","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-2219954/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2219954/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":32773377,"identity":"bf08d3d4-186d-4763-8fde-e839b142ee50","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2023-02-10 20:14:41","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":420865,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"SBTCandIMJEIOct2022.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-2219954/v1_covered.pdf"},{"id":29608693,"identity":"adf04a08-30dd-4943-9767-2fa1638ae01c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-11-28 19:29:02","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":410307,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"SBTCandIMJEIOct2022.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-2219954/v1/8fc2dfae563fa99ae09bb282.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Skill-biased Technical Change and Intergenerational Education Mobility","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Education Attainment, Intergenerational Mobility, Skill-biased Technical Change","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-2219954/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2219954/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThis paper analyzes the impact of skill-biased technological change (SBTC) on intergenerational education mobility. 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