Economic Mobility: Research & Ideas on Strengthening Families, Communities & the Economy

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Summary: “According to a 2017 Pew Research Center survey, the gap between rich and poor now ranks as a major concern in the minds of citizens around the world. In advanced economies still feeling the effects of the Great Recession, people worry that children will grow up to be worse off financially than their parents were. In the United States, roughly 80 percent of Americans across the ideological spectrum see inequality as a moderately big or very big problem.

Economic inequality has long been of interest within the Federal Reserve System. In 2007, Chairman Bernanke delivered a speech on the causes of rising inequality that raised questions about the implications of this disturbing trend for economic opportunity. Chairman Bernanke’s speech called for more research to understand the causes and the effects of widening inequality in the United States. This publication explores economic mobility as it is influenced by or affects families, communities, and the economy.”