By Amy Eddings
It’s better to grow up in Hardin or Hancock County when it comes to a child’s odds of improving his or her economic lot in life than it is to live in Allen County.
These are the findings of a new study by Harvard researchers Raj Chetty and Nathaniel Hendrin. The New York Times, in reporting the findings on Tuesday, said the study, “The Effects of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility," is “the first with enough data to compare upward mobility across metropolitan areas,” and provides “the most powerful evidence so far” about factors that appear to keep people stuck in poverty.
Using a New York Times web application that allows readers to compare their counties with 2,478 others nationwide, the Ada Icon found that Hardin County is about average when it comes to income mobility, bettering 42% of other counties.
A child to low-income parents earning $30,000 who grows up in Hardin County instead of an average place would make a mere $270 more at age 26.
That kid should lobby his parents to move to McComb, Arlington or Findlay, in Hancock County. A child from a similar economic background who grows up there would make would make $1,270 more at 26.
If the family moves to Upper Sandusky or Carey, in Wyandot County, where Chetty and Hendrin found income mobility is even better, that same child at 26 would make, on average, $3,500 more.
But woe to the child born into a low-income family in Allen County, which is very bad for moving up the income ladder.
A kid in a $30,000-a-year household who spends his childhood in, say, Lima will earn $1,770 less at 26 than children who grew up in an average county.
Boys have it far worse than girls in those struggling households. A childhood spent in poverty in Allen County will take $3,140 dollars from a young man's income at 26, versus only $30 for a young woman.
Possible reasons for this could be high crime rates and the prevalence of single-family households. They "generate particularly negative outcomes for boys relative to girls,” according to the study.
Allen County holds far more economic opportunity for rich kids whose parents are the so-called One Percenters, making $500,000 a year or more. They get a hefty boost up the economic ladder just from growing up in Allen County. By 26, their earning potential goes up by $4,260, or 9%.
But just in case you think this just shows that rich kids have economic advantages by the sheet fact that they have wealthy parents, consider what happens if that wealthy family were to move out of Lima and into Kenton, in Hardin County.
Children from the top one percent of families who grow up in Hardin County will make $1,690 more at 26, just a 4% advantage over children in the average American county.
What are the reasons for these disparities? Economists Chetty and Hendrin say counties with higher rates of economic mobility have better schools, more two-parent households, lower rates of violent crime, less segregation by race and income, and a smaller gap between the rich and the poor.
They say that since neighborhood environment appears to be a “key determinant of a child’s long-term success,” county officials would be better off focusing on improving childhood environments, such as strengthening local schools, rather than creating more jobs.
“We hope the county-level data constructed here will ultimately offer new solutions to increase opportunities for disadvantaged youth throughout the United States,” the study said.
