What underlies the Great Gatsby Curve? Psychological micro-foundations of the “vicious circle” of poverty

Arthur Sakamoto*, Jason Rarick, Hyeyoung Woo, Sharron X. Wang

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

    9 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Societies with a higher level of income inequality tend to have lower levels of intergenerational income mobility. Known as the Great Gatsby Curve, this negative relationship in part derives from greater intergenerational economic heritance among the poor. Societies with higher rates of relative poverty will have a higher level of income inequality, but they will also tend to have lower intergenerational mobility due to the reduced capacity of low-income persons to become upwardly mobile. Reviewing relevant research in psychology, we describe how poverty is associated with decreased psychological resources that compromise the competitiveness of low-income persons for superior attainment in the educational system and for greater productivity in the labor market. Economic deprivation in itself thus leads to a “vicious circle” of disadvantage that diminishes intergenerational mobility even without the existence of any culture of poverty or monopolistic institutions in the economy.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)195-211
    Number of pages17
    JournalMind and Society
    Volume13
    Issue number2
    Early online date22 Oct 2014
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Nov 2014

    Scopus Subject Areas

    • Social Psychology
    • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
    • Philosophy
    • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
    • Economics, Econometrics and Finance (miscellaneous)

    User-Defined Keywords

    • Cumulative risk
    • Inequality
    • Intergenerational mobility
    • Poverty
    • Stress

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