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Has the Instability of Personal Incomes been Increasing?

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  • Stephen P. Jenkins

Abstract

This paper examines trends in the instability of personal incomes in Britain in terms of changes in the transitory variance and in volatility, measures that have received much recent attention in research about the USA. It is shown that, although US measures have trended upwards over the past two decades, there is no such trend in Britain between the early-1990s and the mid-2000s. Explanations for these differences are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen P. Jenkins, 2011. "Has the Instability of Personal Incomes been Increasing?," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 218(1), pages 33-43, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:niesru:v:218:y:2011:i:1:p:r33-r43
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    Cited by:

    1. Spyridon Lazarakis & James Malley & Konstantinos Angelopoulos, 2017. "Asymmetries in Earnings, Employment and Wage Risk in Great Britain," 2017 Meeting Papers 1314, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    2. P. Jenkins, Stephen & Jäntti, Markus, 2013. "Income mobility," ISER Working Paper Series 2013-23, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    3. Temesgen, Yalfal & Ketema, Mengistu & Ademe, Alelign, 2021. "The Existence and Structure of Rural Households’ Income Mobility: Evidence from Panel Data in Ethiopia (2011-2016)," Ethiopian Journal of Economics, Ethiopian Economics Association, vol. 30(01), April.
    4. Cappellari, Lorenzo & Jenkins, Stephen P., 2014. "Earnings and labour market volatility in Britain, with a transatlantic comparison," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 201-211.
    5. P. Jenkins, Stephen & Cappellari, Lorenzo, 2013. "Earnings and labour market volatility in Britain," ISER Working Paper Series 2013-10, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    6. Silvia Avram & Mike Brewer & Paul Fisher & Laura Fumagalli, 2022. "Household Earnings and Income Volatility in the UK, 2009–2017," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 20(2), pages 345-369, June.
    7. Brian Bell & Nicholas Bloom & Jack Blundell, 2022. "Income dynamics in the United Kingdom and the impact of the Covid‐19 recession," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(4), pages 1849-1878, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Transitory variance; income volatility; income instability; British Household Panel Survey; longitudinal data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

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