Measuring Absolute Income Mobility: Lessons from North America and Europe
利用北美和欧洲五个国家的行政数据及两个国家的调查数据，研究了估计绝对收入流动性时的方法论挑战，发现常用的近似方法表现良好，但非代表性边际收入分布是主要误差来源。
We use linked parent–child administrative data for five countries in North America and Europe, as well as detailed survey data for two more, to investigate methodological challenges in the estimation of absolute income mobility. We show that the commonly used “copula and marginals” approximation methods perform well across countries in our sample, and the greatest challenges to their accuracy stem not from assumptions about relative mobility rates over time but from the use of nonrepresentative marginal income distributions. We also provide a multicountry analysis of sensitivity to specification decisions related to age of income measurement, income concept, family structure, and price index.