Estimating the intergenerational persistence of lifetime earnings with life course matching: Evidence from the PSID

Elena Gouskova, Ngina Chiteji, Frank Stafford

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Why do estimates of the intergenerational persistence in earnings vary so much for the United States? Recent research suggests that lifecycle bias may be a major factor [Grawe, N., Lifecycle bias in estimates of intergenerational earnings persistence. Labour Economics 2006, 13:551-570; Haider, S., and Solon, G., Life-cycle variation in the association between current and lifetime earnings. American Economic Review 2006, 96(4):1308-1320.]. In this paper we estimate the intergenerational correlation in lifetime earnings by using sons' and fathers' earnings at similar ages in order to account for lifecycle bias. Our estimate based on earnings measured at 35-44 for both fathers and sons is similar to that for the age range 45-54.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)592-597
Number of pages6
JournalLabour Economics
Volume17
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2010

Keywords

  • Income mobility
  • Intergenerational earnings mobility
  • Lifecycle bias

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Economics and Econometrics
  • Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

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