Income Mobility: The Recent American Experience

25 Pages Posted: 31 Mar 2007

See all articles by Robert Carroll

Robert Carroll

Office of Tax Analysis

David Joulfaian

U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Tax Analysis (OTA); Georgetown University - Department of Economics

Mark Rider

Georgia State University - Department of Economics

Date Written: April 2006

Abstract

This paper examines the pattern of income mobility during the 1980s and the mid 1990s. It employs a panel of individual income tax returns for the years 1979 through 1995 to study this pattern, and explore whether income mobility has increased during the period. We focus on working age Americans, those age 30 and over in 1979, the first year of the panel, and up to age 61 in 1995, the last year of the panel. Consistent with other research, we find evidence of considerable mobility. For example, more than one-half of those in the bottom quintile move to a higher quintile over the period.

Suggested Citation

Carroll, Robert and Joulfaian, David and Rider, Mark, Income Mobility: The Recent American Experience (April 2006). Andrew Young School of Policy Studies Research Paper Series No. 07-18, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=976055 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.976055

Robert Carroll

Office of Tax Analysis

Main Treasury Building
15th and Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20220
United States

David Joulfaian (Contact Author)

U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Tax Analysis (OTA) ( email )

1500 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20220
United States

Georgetown University - Department of Economics ( email )

37th St NW & O St NW
Washington, DC 20007
United States

Mark Rider

Georgia State University - Department of Economics ( email )

35 Broad Street
Atlanta, GA 30303-3083
United States