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Less Equal and Less Mobile: Evidence of a Decline in Intergenerational Income Mobility in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Moshe Justman

    (Department of Economics, Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva, Israel; Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne)

  • Anna Krush

    (Department of Economics, Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva, Israel)

Abstract

We use PSID data to 2008 to consider changes in the intergenerational elasticity (IGE) of income in fifteen successive ten-year cohort-groups of sons aged 36-45 between 1997 and 2011. Regressing sons’ estimated lifetime income on fathers’ income within each group, we obtain fifteen IGE estimates, which exhibit a significant rising trend, as do intergenerational correlations and rank correlations. The Gini coefficient of sons’ lifetime income within these groups exhibits a correlation of 0.71 with our IGE estimates, leading us to conclude that as the United States has become economically less equal in recent years it has also become less mobile.

Suggested Citation

  • Moshe Justman & Anna Krush, 2013. "Less Equal and Less Mobile: Evidence of a Decline in Intergenerational Income Mobility in the United States," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2013n43, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    • Handle: RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2013n43
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    File URL: http://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/downloads/working_paper_series/wp2013n43.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Mello, Ursula & Nybom, Martin & Stuhler, Jan, 2022. "A lifecycle estimator of intergenerational income mobility," Working Paper Series 2022:21, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    2. 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.
    3. Timothy M. Smeeding, 2018. "The PSID in Research and Policy," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 680(1), pages 29-47, November.
    4. 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.
    5. Steven N. Durlauf & Andros Kourtellos & Chih Ming Tan, 2017. "Status Traps," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(2), pages 265-287, April.
    6. 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.
    7. 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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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Intergenerational mobility; intergenerational elasticity of income; income inequality; attenuation bias;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

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