2016/01/01 by Martin Nybom, Jan Stuhler · 4 citations
Social Sciences · Decision Sciences · #Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies #Health disparities and outcomes #demographic modeling and climate adaptation
paper · doi:10.3368/jhr.51.1.239
Abstract Using short snapshots of income in intergenerational mobility estimation causes "lifecycle bias" if the snapshots cannot mimic lifetime outcomes. We use uniquely long series of Swedish income data to show that this bias is large and to examine current strategies to reduce it. We confirm that lifecycle bias is smallest when incomes are measured around midlife, a central implication from a widely adopted generalization of the classical errors-in-variables model. However, the model cannot predict the ideal age of measurement or eliminate lifecycle bias at other ages. We illustrate how extensions of this model can reduce the bias further.