Intergenerational Top Income Mobility in Sweden – Capitalist Dynasties in the Land of Equal Opportunity?

Anders Bjorklund, Jesper Roine () and Daniel Waldenström

No 775, Working Paper Series from Research Institute of Industrial Economics

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Intergenerational income mobility; Top incomes; Earnings inequality; Income inequality; Welfare state; Non-linear regression; Quantile regression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2008-11-03, Revised 2010-09-27
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-ltv
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Intergenerational top income mobility in Sweden: Capitalist dynasties in the land of equal opportunity? (2012)
Working Paper: Intergenerational top income mobility in Sweden: Capitalist dynasties in the land of equal opportunity? (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0775

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