Intergenerational Income Mobility in Sweden: What Do Tax-Data Show? (original) (raw)
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It's All about the Parents: Inequality Transmission across Three Generations in Sweden
Sociological Science
A recent literature studies the role of grandparents in status transmission. Results have been mixed, and theoretical contributions highlight biases that complicate the interpretation of these studies. We use newly harmonized income tax records on more than 700,000 Swedish lineages to establish four empirical facts. First, a model that includes both mothers and fathers and takes a multidimensional view of stratification reduces the residual three-generation association in our population to a trivial size. Second, data on fathers' cognitive ability show that even extensive controls for standard socioeconomic variables fail to remove omitted variable bias. Third, the common finding that grandparents compensate poor parental resources can be attributed to greater difficulty of observing parent status accurately at the lower end of the distribution. Fourth, the lower the data quality, and the less detailed the model, the greater is the size of the estimated grandparent coefficient. Future work on multigenerational mobility should pay less attention to the size and significance of this association, which depends heavily on arbitrary sample and specification characteristics, and go on to establish a set of more robust descriptive facts.
Journal of Public Economics, 2012
This paper presents new evidence on intergenerational mobility in the top of the income and earnings distribution. Using a large dataset of matched father-son pairs in Sweden, we find that intergenerational transmission is very strong in the top, more so for income than for earnings. In the extreme top (top 0.1 percent) income transmission is remarkable with an IG elasticity above 0.9. We also study potential transmission mechanisms and find that sons' IQ, non-cognitive skills and education are all unlikely channels in explaining this strong transmission. Within the top percentile, increases in fathers' income are, if anything, negatively associated with these variables. Wealth, on the other hand, has a significantly positive association. Our results suggest that Sweden, known for having relatively high intergenerational mobility in general, is a society where transmission remains strong in the very top of the distribution and that wealth is the most likely channel.
Trends in Intergenerational Mobility across Offspring's Earnings Distribution in Norway
Industrial Relations, 2007
Using register data for Norwegian cohorts born in 1950Norwegian cohorts born in , 1955Norwegian cohorts born in , and 1960 found intergenerational earnings mobility to be high, and lower at the lower end of offspring's earnings distribution than at the upper end. The findings also indicate that mobility has increased over time and that the increase is somewhat higher for lower earnings. The increase in earnings mobility over time is larger for women than for men. * The authors' affiliations are, respectively,
Intergenerational Earnings Mobility in Norway: Levels and Trends*
Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 2005
Using longitudinal data for Norwegian children born in 1950Norwegian children born in , 1955Norwegian children born in , 1960Norwegian children born in and 1965, we find a relatively high degree of earnings mobility. There is no tendency toward decreasing mobility over the cohorts. Conditioning on the position in the earnings distribution, the analysis indicates quite high mobility in the middle of the distribution and somewhat more persistence at the top and bottom. This approach also reveals increased mobility over time for sons, but a less clear picture for daughters.
Intergenerational Income Mobility in Sweden: A Look at the Spatial Disparities Across Cities
Social Science Research Network, 2020
This paper provides a comprehensive overview of intergenerational income mobility in Sweden. Intergenerational income mobility is considered in both relative and absolute terms, and the analysis is carried out at the individual and municipality-level. We use multilevel models to explore the correlation between upward mobility and social, economic and demographic characteristics of cities. The analyses is carried out on three subpopulations: offspring who live in a different municipality than their parents (mobile population); offspring who live in the municipality where they grew up (immobile population); offspring belonging to visible minority groups. Our results confirm those of previous studies showing a relatively high intergenerational mobility in Sweden compared to other European and North American countries. Substantial differences are observed across municipalities meaning that the particular combination of municipality attributes contributes to shaping the chance of status attainment among young generations. Highly mobile municipalities have more significant human capital, more residential segregation by income, more income inequality, and greater accessibility to jobs.
How Much Scope for a Mobility Paradox? The Relationship between Social and Income Mobility in Sweden
Sociological Science, 2016
It is often pointed out that conclusions about intergenerational (parent-child) mobility can differ depending on whether we base them on studies of class or income. We analyze empirically the degree of overlap in income and social mobility; we demonstrate mathematically the nature of their relationship; and we show, using simulations, how intergenerational income correlations relate to relative social mobility rates. Analyzing Swedish longitudinal register data on the incomes and occupations of over 300,000 parent-child pairs, we find that social mobility accounts for up to 49 percent of the observed intergenerational income correlations. This figure is somewhat greater for a fine-graded micro-class classification than a five-class schema and somewhat greater for women than men. There is a positive relationship between intergenerational social fluidity and income correlations, but it is relatively weak. Our empirical results, and our simulations verify that the overlap between income mobility and social mobility leaves ample room for the two indicators to move in different directions over time or show diverse patterns across countries. We explain the circumstances in which income and social mobility will change together or co-vary positively and the circumstances in which they will diverge.
2006
This paper derives and compares income mobility of immigrants and native Swedes during the periods 1980-84 and 1992-96. A general review of the concept of income mobility is conducted, as well as a theoretical examination of possible determining factors and consequences of the income mobility concept. The empirical analysis is deduced by using a database, consisting of approximately 600 000 individuals whose incomes can be followed since 1968. The results demonstrate greater income mobility for immigrants than for native Swedes during the years 1980-84. It is found that during the transition years, between the first and the second time period, income mobility in absolute terms increased for both immigrants and native Swedes. It is also found that, in relative terms, the increase was greater for native Swedes than for immigrants. Författare: André Lippman Kaj Thomsson Handledare: Ann-Charlotte Ståhlberg
Industrialization and intergenerational mobility in Sweden
Acta Sociologica, 2002
The relationship between industrialization and intergenerational mobility has been a topic of discussion for over forty years. In this article both total mobility and relative mobility chances are studied in the decades preceding industrialization and the decades during industrialization. A high-quality data set is used covering the male population of a region in the north of Sweden during the 19th century. Total intergenerational mobility increased during industrialization until, at the end of the century, both industrialization and the growth of mobility stagnated. Sectorial barriers resulted in unequal relative mobility chances before and also during industrialization. However, sons from self-employed classes were less likely to inherit the class position of their father after the onset of industrialization. At the same time, mobility between classes differing in status became less frequent. These results show a decline in the importance of the direct transfer of resources between generations and may indicate the increasing importance of education.
Income mobility among the elderly in Sweden during the 1990s
International Journal of Social Welfare, 2006
Using a large panel dataset, this article investigates the degree of, and explanatory factors for, income mobility amongst the elderly in Sweden during the 1990s. It contributes to literature on welfare indicators for the older population as it supplements the welfare picture of the income adequacy with insights into income certainty during old age. Our methodological approach is to work with the administrative register data for Sweden, and this allows us to use a reliable record of incomes for a large sample of the elderly. Results for Sweden-born and foreign-born elderly persons are analysed separately and compared with corresponding groups of people of working age. Not surprisingly, nearly all of our results indicate that the income of the older population is more stable than that of the working age population, and upward income mobility is not as usual among the elderly as among other groups. The multivariate regression analyses identify several explanatory factors affecting those elderly who experienced income mobility. Most importantly, the death of a spouse increases the probability of downward income mobility, particularly amongst women. These and other findings of this research point to triggers of income poverty in old age that should be taken into account in policies concerned with the level and indexation of retirement income of future pensioners.