American baby-losers? Robust indirect comparison of affluence across generations

Alessandra Michelangeli (), Eugenio Peluso () and Alain Trannoy ()

No 133, Working Papers from ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality

Abstract: We propose an indirect and robust method to detect a change in the concentration of economic affluence defined as an aggregate measure of the command over lifetime resources when the full stream of income receipts along the life cycle is unknown and only consumption surveys are available. The method relies on a new stochastic ordering, the “Generalized Top Lorenz” and the key-property of concavity of consumption with respect to wealth. Our application on US data for the period 1980-2002 shows a moderate increase in economic affluence and points out the di¢ cult start in life of people belonging to the "Baby loser generation" (people born in the sixties).

Keywords: concavity; wealth; dominance orderings; consumption. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 D63 D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009

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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2009-133

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