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Older or Wealthier? The Impact of Age Adjustment on Cross-Sectional Inequality Measures

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  • Almås, Ingvild

    (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration)

  • Mogstad, Magne

    (Statistics Norway)

Abstract

Differences in individual wealth holdings are widely viewed as a driving force of economic inequality. However, as this finding relies on cross-section data, a concern is that one confuses older with wealthier. We propose a new method to adjust for age effects in cross-sections, which eliminates wealth inequality due to age, yet preserves inequality arising from other factors. Using a new cross-country comparable database, we examine the impact of age adjustments on wealth inequality across countries and over time. We find that the most widely used method yield a substantially different picture of age adjusted wealth inequality than our method.

Suggested Citation

  • Almås, Ingvild & Mogstad, Magne, 2010. "Older or Wealthier? The Impact of Age Adjustment on Cross-Sectional Inequality Measures," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 9/2010, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2010_009
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    Cited by:

    1. Ingvild Almås & Tarjei Havnes & Magne Mogstad, 2011. "Baby booming inequality? Demographic change and earnings inequality in Norway, 1967–2000," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(4), pages 629-650, December.
    2. Almås, Ingvild & Havnes, Tarjei & Mogstad, Magne, 2011. "Baby Booming Inequality? Demographic Change and Inequality in Norway, 1967{2004," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 6/2010, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wealth inequality; Life cycle; Age adjustments; Gini coefficient.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth

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