Research Intergenerational poverty Inequalities Are Inherited, But Some Countries Erase Them
Poverty is not just a challenge of the present – it often follows children into adulthood, perpetuating a cycle of hardship. A new study by Zachary Parolin (Bocconi Department of Social and Political Sciences), written in collaboration with Gøsta Esping-Andersen (formerly at the same Bocconi Department), Rafael Pintro-Schmitt (PhD student at UC Berkeley) and Peter Fallesen (Stockholm University) and published in Nature Human Behaviour, examines this intergenerational persistence of poverty across five high-income countries: the United States, Australia, Denmark, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The research reveals stark differences in how effectively these nations help children escape poverty, highlighting the critical role of public policies.