School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287.
Department of Economics and Business, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Sep 14;118(37). doi: 10.1073/pnas.2107273118.
Where an individual grows up has large implications for their long-term economic outcomes, including earnings and intergenerational mobility. Even within the United States, the "causal effect of place" varies greatly and cannot be fully explained by socioeconomic conditions. Across different nations, variation in growth and mobility have been linked to more individualistic cultures. We assess how variation of historically driven individualism within the United States affects mobility. Areas in the United States that were isolated on the frontier for longer periods of time during the 19th century have a stronger culture of "rugged individualism" [S. Bazzi, M. Fiszbein, M. Gebresilasse, 88, 2329-2368 (2020)]. We combine county-level measures of frontier experience with modern measures of the causal effect of place on mobility-the predicted percentage change in an individual's earnings at age 26 y associated with "growing up" in a particular county [R. Chetty, N. Hendren, 133, 1163-1228 (2018)]. Using commuting zone fixed effects and a suite of county-level controls to absorb regional variation in frontier experience and modern economic conditions, we find an additional decade of frontier experience results in 25% greater modern-day income mobility for children of parents in the 25th percentile of income and 14% for those born to parents in the 75th percentile. We use mediation analysis to present suggestive evidence that informal manifestations of "rugged individualism"-those embodied by the individuals themselves-are more strongly associated with upward mobility than formal policy or selective migration.
个体成长的环境对其长期经济成果有着重大影响，包括收入和代际流动性。即使在美国，“地点的因果效应”也存在很大差异，无法完全用社会经济条件来解释。在不同的国家，增长和流动性的差异与更具个人主义色彩的文化有关。我们评估了美国历史驱动的个人主义的变化如何影响流动性。在美国，19 世纪在边疆地区孤立时间较长的地区，有着更强的“坚韧个人主义”文化[ S. Bazzi, M. Fiszbein, M. Gebresilasse, 88, 2329-2368 (2020)]。我们将县一级的边疆经验指标与现代关于地点对流动性的因果效应的衡量指标相结合，即与在特定县“成长”相关的个体在 26 岁时收入的预测百分比变化[ R. Chetty, N. Hendren, 133, 1163-1228 (2018)]。利用通勤区固定效应和一系列县一级的控制变量来吸收边疆经验和现代经济条件的区域差异，我们发现，额外的十年边疆经验会使父母收入处于 25%分位数的孩子的现代收入流动性增加 25%，而父母收入处于 75%分位数的孩子的现代收入流动性增加 14%。我们使用中介分析提供了一些有说服力的证据，表明“坚韧个人主义”的非正式表现——那些由个人本身所体现的表现——与向上流动的相关性比正式政策或选择性移民更强。
