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The Park Place Economist

Abstract

This study makes use of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) in order to examine the relationship between the standard of living one experiences as a youth and their income as an adult. Human capital theory, as well as previous empirical research in economics suggests that as standard of living as a youth increases, future income as an adult should increase as well. The 1979 cohort as well as the 1997 cohort of the NLSY were studied in order to provide insight into how the relationship in question has changed over time. I hypothesize that as standard of living as a youth increases, so too will income as an adult. Furthermore I hypothesize that the level of income mobility will be greater for the 1979 cohort than the 1997 cohort.

An extended treatment of this topic was awarded University Honors and may be found in the Department of Economics Honors Projects collection.

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