Realism over parsimony: Why non-monetary indicators approach intergenerational mobility better than monetary ones
No. 81 (2018-08-01)Author(s)
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Pablo Garcés Velástegui
Abstract
Intergenerational mobility has been studied from two broad perspectives, namely, monetary and non-monetary. The dominant framework by far has been the former. However, it is not evident that monetary approaches are superior to non-monetary ones. In fact, in several respects, the latter shows clear advantages over the former. Hence, this article exposes the virtues and shortcomings that they have on each of the main stages relevant to the conduct of inquiry: conceptualization, data collection, and data analysis. This scrutiny suggests that monetary methodologies privilege parsimony over realism, while non-monetary methodologies do the opposite. In this context, it is argued that moving from elegance (parsimony) to realism is required in order to account for the actual complexity of socio-economic intergenerational mobility.
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