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The implications of selective attrition for estimates of intergenerational elasticity of family income

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  • Robert Schoeni
  • Emily Wiemers

Abstract

Numerous studies have estimated a high intergenerational correlation in economic status. Such studies do not typically attend to potential biases that may arise due to survey attrition. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics – the data source most commonly used in prior studies – we demonstrate that attrition is particularly high for low-income adult children with low-income parents and particularly low for high-income adult children with high-income parents. Because of this pattern of attrition, intergenerational upward mobility has been overstated for low-income families and downward mobility has been understated for high-income families. The bias among low-income families is greater than the bias among high-income families implying that intergenerational elasticity in family income is higher than previous estimates with the Panel Study of Income Dynamics would suggest. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

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  • Robert Schoeni & Emily Wiemers, 2015. "The implications of selective attrition for estimates of intergenerational elasticity of family income," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 13(3), pages 351-372, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jecinq:v:13:y:2015:i:3:p:351-372
    DOI: 10.1007/s10888-015-9297-z
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    2. Elisa Jácome & Ilyana Kuziemko & Suresh Naidu, 2021. "Mobility for All: Representative Intergenerational Mobility Estimates over the 20th Century," Working Papers 302, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    3. Pablo A. Mitnik & Anne-Line Helsø & Victoria L. Bryant, 2020. "Inequality of Opportunity for Income in Denmark and the United States: A Comparison Based on Administrative Data," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring Distribution and Mobility of Income and Wealth, pages 317-382, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Robert Moffitt & Sisi Zhang, 2022. "Estimating Trends in Male Earnings Volatility with the Panel Study of Income Dynamics," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(1), pages 20-25, December.
    5. Bhashkar Mazumder, 2018. "Intergenerational Mobility in the United States: What We Have Learned from the PSID," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 680(1), pages 213-234, November.
    6. Katie M Jajtner, 2020. "Work‐Limiting Disability and Intergenerational Economic Mobility," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 101(5), pages 2001-2016, September.
    7. Halliday, Timothy & Mazumder, Bhashkar & Wong, Ashley, 2021. "Intergenerational mobility in self-reported health status in the US," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    8. Jonathan Davis & Bhashkar Mazumder, 2017. "The Decline in Intergenerational Mobility After 1980," Working Paper Series WP-2017-5, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, revised 14 Jan 2022.
    9. David S. Johnson & Katherine A. McGonagle & Vicki A. Freedman & Narayan Sastry, 2018. "Fifty Years of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics: Past, Present, and Future," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 680(1), pages 9-28, November.

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