New Frontiers in Regional Science: Asian PerspectivesDevelopment Studies in Regional ScienceEntrepreneurship and the Economic Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in US Cities

Recent research on the geography of intergenerational economic mobility shows that young people born in some US cities demonstrate greater probability of moving up along the income ladder than those born in others. Cities with a higher level of economic mobility benefit from being perceived as “lands of opportunity” and accordingly attract young people and families with kids. In this research, we examine factors that predict regional variations in intergenerational mobility. In particular, we are interested in whether entrepreneurship is associated with economic mobility in US cities. We use the business startup rate as a measure of entrepreneurship, analyze its relationship with three proxies for intergenerational mobility, and control for other regional factors based on the literature. Our regression analysis shows a positive and significant association between entrepreneurship and upward mobility. Implications for intergenerational mobility in cities are discussed.