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In this study, we argue that parents' class position may influence the type and timing of their offspring's investments in financial assets. These investments may facilitate net worth accumulation beyond direct transfers, contributing to the intergenerational reproduction of social positions. We test these expectations using retrospective life history and prospective panel data for 14 countries from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. We apply discrete-time event history analyses to examine the first financial investments' timing over the life course and conduct a mediation analysis of net worth. We find that individuals from advantaged parental classes are more likely to invest in stocks and mutual funds. When considering horizontal differentiation, managerial classes with relatively more economic capital than cultural capital are more likely to invest in financial assets. However, we do not find robust evidence for distinct timings of financial investments by parental class. Advantaged parental class is positively associated with net worth in later life. However, this association cannot be explained by the specific investments of individuals from advantaged parental classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Families' economic wealth is a resource that can provide children with crucial advantages early in their lives. Prior research identified substantial variation of wealth levels between different family types with children from single-parent families being most disadvantaged. The causes of this disadvantage, how much the disadvantage varies between children and how the non-resident parents' wealth may potentially reduce the disadvantage remain unclear. To address these research gaps, we use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (2002–17) to examine the level of and inequality in wealth for children from single-parent families using recentred influence function regression and decomposition analysis. We replicate earlier findings of a large wealth disadvantage for children in single-parent families. We find that the wealth disadvantage can be mainly explained with compositional differences in household income and employment characteristics. Beyond level differences, inequality between children from single-parent families is higher than for other family types and this inequality can only partly be explained by observed demographic and socio-economic characteristics. When considering the wealth of non-resident parents, the wealth disadvantage of children in single-parent families is reduced but remains substantial. JEL-codes: D31, D1, J1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neighbourhoods provide unequal resources and opportunities. Past research has shown that migrants are less able to move to more resourceful neighbourhoods. For Germany, cross-sectional evidence shows that migrants live in worse neighbourhoods on average, but no longitudinal analysis of changes in neighbourhood quality after residential mobility has been conducted. The present paper closes this gap and tests the place stratification model and the spatial assimilation model. Data from the German Socio-economic Panel and the MICROM dataset are used for the years 2000–09. The data are analysed using fixed-effects panel regression. The analysis shows that Turkish households are less able to improve their neighbourhood quality through moves compared with German households, while households with other ethnic backgrounds do not differ significantly from the native population. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]