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Intergenerational Mobility in Lifetime Income

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  • Moshe Justman
  • Hadas Stiassnie

Abstract

Estimates of intergenerational mobility in lifetime income derived from incomplete income histories routinely incorporate in the estimation process, necessary life‐cycle adjustments to annual income data. The two‐stage method presented here first estimates proxies for fathers’ and sons’ lifetime family incomes from annual income observations, schooling and race; and then uses these income proxies to derive mobility measures. Applying this to United States PSID data for sons born between 1952 and 1981, we find a decline in intergenerational mobility in lifetime family income, as measured by the intergenerational elasticity of income, the rank‐rank correlation, absolute upward mobility, and other indicators.

Suggested Citation

  • Moshe Justman & Hadas Stiassnie, 2021. "Intergenerational Mobility in Lifetime Income," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(4), pages 928-949, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:revinw:v:67:y:2021:i:4:p:928-949
    DOI: 10.1111/roiw.12505
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    1. Hamermesh, Daniel S. & Zhang, Anwen, 2024. "The Economic Impact of Heritable Physical Traits: Hot Parents, Rich Kid?," IZA Discussion Papers 16742, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. 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.
    3. Brandén, Gunnar & Nybom, Martin & Vosters, Kelly, 2023. "Like Mother, like Child? The Rise of Women's Intergenerational Income Persistence in Sweden and the United States," IZA Discussion Papers 16152, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Lijie Song, 2022. "Examining the Relationship Between Intergenerational Upward Mobility and Inequality: Evidence from Panel Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 1-27, August.
    5. Rozinskaya, N. & Drobyshevskaya, T., 2022. "Quantitative estimates of intergenerational mobility," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 57(5), pages 93-111.
    6. Moshe Justman & Hadas Stiassnie, 2021. "Inequality in Lifetime Earnings, 1986-2012," Working Papers 579, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.

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