IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/
MyIDEAS: Login to save this paper or follow this series

How important is the family? Evidence from sibling correlations in permanent earnings in the US, Germany and Denmark

Author Info

  • Schnitzlein, Daniel D.

Abstract

This paper is the first to analyze intergenerational economic mobility based on sibling correlations in permanent earnings in Germany and to provide a cross-country comparison of Germany, Denmark, and the US. The main findings are as follows: the importance of family and community background in Germany is higher than in Denmark and comparable to that in the US. This holds true for brothers and sisters. In Denmark 20 percent of the inequality in permanent earnings can be attributed to family and community factors shared by brothers while the corresponding estimates are 43 percent in Germany and 45 percent in the US. For sisters the estimates are 19 percent for Denmark, 39 percent for Germany and 29 percent for the US. This ranking is shown to be robust against alternative approaches.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/44402/1/647373572.pdf
Download Restriction: no

Paper provided by Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Institut für Wirtschaftspolitik und Quantitative Wirtschaftsforschung (IWQW) in its series IWQW Discussion Paper Series with number 05/2011.

as
in new window

Length:
Date of creation: 2011
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:zbw:iwqwdp:052011
Contact details of provider: Web page: http://www.iwqw.rw.uni-erlangen.de/
More information through EDIRC

Keywords: Sibling correlations; Intergenerational mobility; Inequality; REML;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

as in new window
  1. Solon, Gary, 1989. "Biases in the Estimation of Intergenerational Earnings Correlations," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 71(1), pages 172-74, February.
  2. Dohmen, Thomas & Falk, Armin & Huffman, David B. & Sunde, Uwe, 2006. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Risk and Trust Attitudes," IZA Discussion Papers 2380, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  3. Kenneth A. Couch & Thomas A. Dunn, 1995. "Intergenerational Correlations in Labor Market Status: A Comparison of the United States and Germany," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 111, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
  4. Steven Haider & Gary Solon, 2006. "Life-Cycle Variation in the Association between Current and Lifetime Earnings," NBER Working Papers 11943, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  5. Björklund Anders & Lindahl Lena & Lindquist Matthew J., 2010. "What More Than Parental Income, Education and Occupation? An Exploration of What Swedish Siblings Get from Their Parents," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-40, November.
  6. Mazumder Bhashkar, 2011. "Family and Community Influences on Health and Socioeconomic Status: Sibling Correlations Over the Life Course," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(3), pages 1-23, September.
  7. Joachim R. Frick & Stephen P. Jenkins & Dean R. Lillard & Oliver Lipps & Mark Wooden, 2007. "European Data Watch: The Cross-National Equivalent File (CNEF) and its Member Country Household Panel Studies," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 127(4), pages 627-654.
  8. Schnitzlein, Daniel D., 2012. "How Important Is Cultural Background for the Level of Intergenerational Mobility?," EconStor Open Access Articles, ZBW - German National Library of Economics, pages 335-337.
  9. Solon, Gary, 1992. "Intergenerational Income Mobility in the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(3), pages 393-408, June.
  10. Simona Lorena Comi, 2010. "Family influence on early career outcomes in seven European countries," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 30(3), pages 2054-2062.
  11. Björklund, Anders & Jäntti, Markus & Lindquist, Matthew J., 2007. "Family Background and Income during the Rise of the Welfare State: Brother Correlations in Income for Swedish Men Born 1932-1968," IZA Discussion Papers 3000, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  12. Thorsten Vogel, 2006. "Reassessing Intergenerational Mobility in Germany and the United States: The Impact of Differences in Lifecycle Earnings Patterns," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2006-055, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
  13. Bhashkar Mazumder, 2008. "Sibling similarities and economic inequality in the US," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 685-701, July.
  14. Thomas Dohmen & Armin Falk & David Huffman & Uwe Sunde & Jürgen Schupp & Gert G. Wagner, 2011. "Individual Risk Attitudes: Measurement, Determinants, And Behavioral Consequences," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 522-550, 06.
  15. Björklund, Anders & Eriksson, Tor & Jäntti, Markus & Raaum, Oddbjørn & Österbacka, Eva, 2000. "Brother Correlations in Earnings in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden Compared to the United States," IZA Discussion Papers 158, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  16. Gary S. Becker & Nigel Tomes, . "Human Capital and the Rise and Fall of Families," University of Chicago - Population Research Center 84-10, Chicago - Population Research Center.
  17. Bram Timmermans, 2010. "The Danish Integrated Database for Labor Market Research: Towards Demystification for the English Speaking Audience," DRUID Working Papers 10-16, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
  18. Becker, Gary S & Tomes, Nigel, 1979. "An Equilibrium Theory of the Distribution of Income and Intergenerational Mobility," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(6), pages 1153-89, December.
  19. Gary Solon & Mary Corcoran & GRoger Gordon & Deborah Laren, 1991. "A Longitudinal Analysis of Sibling Correlations in Economic Status," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 26(3), pages 509-534.
  20. Corak, Miles, 2006. "Do Poor Children Become Poor Adults? Lessons from a Cross Country Comparison of Generational Earnings Mobility," IZA Discussion Papers 1993, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  21. Gert G. Wagner & Joachim R. Frick & Jürgen Schupp, 2007. "The German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) – Scope, Evolution and Enhancements," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 127(1), pages 139-169.
  22. Yuksel, Mutlu, 2009. "Intergenerational Mobility of Immigrants in Germany: Moving with Natives or Stuck in their Neighborhoods?," IZA Discussion Papers 4677, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  23. repec:iab:iabzaf:v:41:i:2/3:p:119-137 is not listed on IDEAS
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. Quantifying luck egalitarianism
    by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2011-03-28 13:42:11
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
as in new window


Cited by:

  1. Markus Jäntti & Stephen P. Jenkins, 2013. "Income Mobility," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 607, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
  2. Schnitzlein, Daniel D., 2011. "How important is cultural background for the level of intergenerational mobility?," IWQW Discussion Paper Series 06/2011, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Institut für Wirtschaftspolitik und Quantitative Wirtschaftsforschung (IWQW).
  3. Björklund, Anders & Jäntti, Markus, 2012. "How important is family background for labor-economic outcomes?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 465-474.
  4. Elisabeth Bügelmayer & Daniel D. Schnitzlein, 2014. "Is It the Family or the Neighborhood? Evidence from Sibling and Neighbor Correlations in Youth Education and Health," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 716, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
  5. Daniel D. Schnitzlein & Christoph Wunder, 2014. "Are We Architects of Our Own Happiness? The Importance of Family Background for Well-Being," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 700, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
  6. Schnitzlein, Daniel D. & Wunder, Christoph, 2014. "Are we architects of our own happiness? The importance of family background for well-being," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-539, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
  7. Aparicio Fenoll, Ainhoa & Oppedisano, Veruska, 2014. "Should I Stay or Should I Go? Sibling Effects in Household Formation," IZA Discussion Papers 8713, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  8. Halliday, Timothy J. & Mazumder, Bhashkar, 2014. "An Analysis of Sibling Correlations in Health Using Latent Variable Models," IZA Discussion Papers 8672, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  9. Biavaschi, Costanza & Giulietti, Corrado & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2013. "Sibling Influence on the Human Capital of the Left Behind," IZA Discussion Papers 7859, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).

This item is featured on the following reading lists or Wikipedia pages:

  1. SOEP based publications

Access and download statistics

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:iwqwdp:052011. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (ZBW - German National Library of Economics)

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis using RePEc data.