The Department of Economics invites you to a virtual seminar titled 'Consumption and Income Inequality across Generations’ {Co-authors: Giovanni Gallipoli (University of British Columbia) and Hamish Low (University of Oxford)} by Dr. Aruni Mitra, Assistant Professor, University of Manchester, on 21 January 2022 at 5:00 PM.
Abstract
We characterize the joint evolution of cross-sectional inequality in earnings, other sources of income and consumption across generations in the U.S. To account for cross-sectional dispersion, we estimate a model of intergenerational persistence and separately identify the influences of parental factors and of idiosyncratic life-cycle components. We find evidence of family persistence in earnings, consumption and saving behaviours, and marital sorting patterns. However, the quantitative contribution of idiosyncratic heterogeneity to cross-sectional inequality is significantly larger than parental effects. Our estimates imply that intergenerational persistence is not high enough to induce further large increases in inequality over time and across generations.