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American exceptionalism in a new light: a comparison of intergenerational earnings mobility in
the Nordic countries, the United Kingdom and the
United States
By Jäntti, Markus, Bernt Bratsberg, Knut Røed,
Oddbjørn Raaum, Robin Naylor, Eva
Österbacka, Anders Björklund and Tor
Eriksson
2006
IZA Discussion paper no 1938
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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 coeffi-
cients. 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.. |
| JEL Classification:
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J62, C23 |
| Keywords:
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Intergenerational mobility, earnings inequality, long-run earnings |
| Project:
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1211 Inequality of opportunity and socio-economic outcomes from an intergenerational perspective
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| Financing:
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Nordic Programme on Welfare Research under the Nordic Council of Ministers |
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