American exceptionalism in a new light: a comparison of intergenerational earnings mobility in the Nordic countries, the United Kingdom and the United States

Jäntti, Markus (), Bernt Bratsberg (), Røed, Knut (), Raaum, Oddbjørn (), Robin Andrew Naylor (), Österbacka, Eva (), Bjørklund, Anders () and Tor Eriksson ()
Additional contact information
Jäntti, Markus: Department of Economics and Statistics, Åbo Akademi University, Finland., Postal: Department of Economics and Statistics, Åbo Akademi University, FIN-20500 Turku, Finland., http://www.abo.fi/~mjantti/
Røed, Knut: The Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Researc, Postal: Frisch Centre, Gaustadalléen 21, N-0349 Oslo, Norway, http://www.frisch.uio.no/cv/knutro_eng.html
Raaum, Oddbjørn: The Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Researc, Postal: Frisch Centre, Gaustadalléen 21, N-0349 Oslo, Norway, http://www.frisch.uio.no/cv/oraaum_eng.html
Österbacka, Eva: Åbo Akademi University,Department of Economics and Statistics, Postal: Fänriksgatan 3 B, FIN-20500 Turku, FINLAND
Bjørklund, Anders: Swedish Institute for Social Research at Stockholm University, Postal: SE-10691 Stockholm, SWEDEN, http://www.sofi.su.se/~abj/
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Anders Bjorklund () and Knut Røed ()

No 34/2005, Memorandum from Oslo University, Department of Economics

Abstract: We develop methods and employ similar sample restrictions to analyse differences in intergenerational earnings mobility across the United States, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. We examine earnings mobility among pairs of fathers and sons as well as fathers and daughters using both mobility matrices and regression and correlation coefficients. Our results suggest that all countries exhibit substantial earnings persistence across generations, but with statistically significant differences across countries. Mobility is lower in the U.S. than in the U.K., where it is lower again compared to the Nordic countries. Persistence is greatest in the tails of the distributions and tends to be particularly high in the upper tails: though in the U.S. this is reversed with a particularly high likelihood that sons of the poorest fathers will remain in the lowest earnings quintile. This is a challenge to the popular notion of ’American exceptionalism’. The U.S. also differs from the Nordic countries in its very low likelihood that sons of the highest earners will show downward ’long-distance’ mobility into the lowest earnings quintile. In this, the U.K. is more similar to the U.S..

Keywords: Intergenerational mobility; earnings inequality; long-run earnings (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec
Date: 2005-12-25
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Related works:
Working Paper: American exceptionalism in a new light: a comparison of intergenerational earnings mobility in the Nordic countries, the United Kingdom and the United States (2007)
Working Paper: American Exceptionalism in a New Light: A Comparison of Intergenerational Earnings Mobility in the Nordic Countries, the United Kingdom and the United States (2006)
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