The Unassuming Economist

From a new VOX post:

“Economic mobility varies dramatically across the US. This column introduces a new interactive mapping tool that traces the roots of outcomes such as poverty and incarceration back to the neighbourhoods in which children grew up. Among the insights the data reveal are that children who grow up a few miles apart in families with comparable incomes have very different life outcomes, and that moving in early childhood to a neighbourhood with better outcomes can increase a child’s income by several thousands of dollars later in life.”

“Children who move to high-upward-mobility neighbourhoods earlier in their childhood earn more as adults, as illustrated in Figure 2. This chart shows the average income (at age 35) of children raised in low- income families who move from the Central District of Seattle, a low-upward mobility area, to Shoreline, a high upward-mobility area that is ten miles north. Children who make this move at birth earn $9,000 more per year than those who move in their 20s.”