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American exceptionalism in a new light : a comparison of intergenerational earnings mobility in the Nordic countries, the United Kingdom and the United States

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Author Info

  • Jäntti, Markus

    (Åbo Akademi University)

  • Bratsberg,Bernt

    (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research)

  • Røed, Knut

    (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research)

  • Raaum, Oddbjørn

    (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research)

  • Naylor, Robin

    (University of Warwick)

  • Österbacka, Eva

    (Åbo Akademi University)

  • Björklund, Anders

    (Swedish Institute for Social Research and IZA)

  • Eriksson, Tor

    (Aarhus School of Business)

Abstract

We develop methods and employ similar sample restrictions to analyse differences in intergenerational earnings mobility across the United States, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. We examine earnings mobility among pairs of fathers and sons as well as fathers and daughters using both mobility matrices and regression and correlation coefficients. Our results suggest that all countries exhibit substantial earnings persistence across generations, but with statistically significant differences across countries. Mobility is lower in the U.S. than in the U.K., where it is lower again compared to the Nordic countries. Persistence is greatest in the tails of the distributions and tends to be particularly high in the upper tails: though in the U.S. this is reversed with a particularly high likelihood that sons of the poorest fathers will remain in the lowest earnings quintile. This is a challenge to the popular notion of ’American exceptionalism’. The U.S. also differs from the Nordic countries in its very low likelihood that sons of the highest earners will show downward ’long-distance’ mobility into the lowest earnings quintile. In this, the U.K. is more similar to the U.S..

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by University of Warwick, Department of Economics in its series The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) with number 781.

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Length: 44 pages
Date of creation: 2007
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:wrk:warwec:781

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Keywords: Intergenerational mobility ; earnings inequality ; long-run earnings;

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Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
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  8. Sweden: Image and Reality
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Cited by:
  1. Björklund, Anders & Roine, Jesper & Waldenström, Daniel, 2008. "Intergenerational Top Income Mobility in Sweden – Capitalist Dynasties in the Land of Equal Opportunity?," Working Paper Series 775, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 27 Sep 2010.
  2. Napel, Stefan & Schneider, Andrea, 2008. "Intergenerational talent transmission, inequality, and social mobility," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 405-409, May.
  3. Björklund, Anders & Roine, Jesper & Waldenström, Daniel, 2008. "Intergenerational top income mobility in Sweden – A combination of equal opportunity and capitalistic dynasties," Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 705, Stockholm School of Economics.
  4. Raaum, Oddbjørn & Bratsberg, Bernt & Røed, Knut & Österbacka, Eva & Eriksson, Tor & Jäntti, Markus & Naylor, Robin, 2007. "Marital Sorting, Household Labor Supply, and Intergenerational Earnings Mobility across Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 3037, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  5. Richard Breen, 2010. "Social Mobility and Equality of Opportunity Geary Lecture Spring 2010," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 41(4), pages 413-428.
  6. Sara Ayllón, 2009. "Modelling State Dependence and Feedback Effects between Poverty, Employment and Parental Home Emancipation among European Youth," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 235, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
  7. Jonsson, Jan O. & Mood, Carina & Bihagen, Erik, 2011. "Poverty in Sweden 1991-2007. Change, dynamics, and intergenerational transmission of poverty during economic recession and growth," Working Paper Series 10/2011, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
  8. Siedler, Thomas & Sonnenberg, Bettina, 2012. "Intergenerational Earnings Mobility and Preferences for Redistribution," IZA Discussion Papers 6981, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  9. Bratberg, Espen & Rieck, Karsten Marshall Elseth & Vaage, Kjell, 2011. "Intergenerational Earnings Mobility and Divorce," Working Papers in Economics 09/11, University of Bergen, Department of Economics.
  10. Orsetta Causa & Catherine Chapuis, 2009. "Equity in Student Achievement Across OECD Countries: An Investigation of the Role of Policies," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 708, OECD Publishing.
  11. Anirudh Krishna, 2011. "Characteristics and Patterns of Intergenerational Poverty Traps and Escapes in Rural North India," Working Papers id:3940, eSocialSciences.
  12. Maarten Van Ham & Allan Findlay & David Manley & Peteke Feijten, 2011. "Social mobility: Is there a benefit of being English in Scotland?," ERSA conference papers ersa10p463, European Regional Science Association.
  13. Corak, Miles & Curtis, Lori & Phipps, Shelley, 2010. "Economic Mobility, Family Background, and the Well-Being of Children in the United States and Canada," IZA Discussion Papers 4814, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).

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