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An International Comparison of Equalization Mobility and Lifetime Earnings Inequality: How Continental Europe Resembles North America

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  • Audra Bowlus

    (University of Western Ontario)

  • Jean-Marc Robin

    (Département d'économie (ECON))

Abstract

We compare earnings inequality and mobility across the U.S., Canada, France, Germany and the U.K. during the late 1990s. A flexible model of earnings dynamics that isolates positional mobility within a stable earnings distribution is estimated. Earnings trajectories are then simulated, and lifetime annuity value distributions are constructed. Earnings mobility and employment risk are found to be positively correlated with base-year inequality. Taken together they produce more equalization in countries with high cross-section inequality such that the countries in our sample have more similar lifetime inequality levels than crosssectionmeasures suggest.

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  • Audra Bowlus & Jean-Marc Robin, 2010. "An International Comparison of Equalization Mobility and Lifetime Earnings Inequality: How Continental Europe Resembles North America," Sciences Po publications info:hdl:2441/eu4vqp9ompq, Sciences Po.
  • Handle: RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/eu4vqp9ompqllr09j00488hg5
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    References listed on IDEAS

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