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Author: Hunt, Jennifer
Resulting in 2 citations.
1. Buchinsky, Moshe
Hunt, Jennifer
Wage Mobility in the United States
NBER Working Paper No. 5455, National Bureau of Economic Research, February 1996.
Also: http://nber.nber.org/papers/W5455
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Keyword(s): Mobility; Wage Differentials; Wage Dynamics; Wages

This paper examines the mobility of individuals through the wage and earnings distributions. This is of extreme importance since mobility has a direct implication for the way one views the vast changes in wage and earnings inequality in the United States over the last few decades. The measures of wage and earnings mobility analyzed are based on data for individuals surveyed in the National Longitudinal Survey for Youth from 1979 to 1991. We introduce summary measures of mobility computed over varying time horizons in order to examine how the effect on measured inequality as the time frame is increased The results suggest that mobility is predominantly within group mobility and increases most rapidly when the time horizon is extended up to four years, reducing wage inequality by 12-26%. We proceed therefore with more detailed examination of short-term (year-to-year) within group mobility, by estimating non-parametrically transition probabilities among quintiles of the distribution. We find that the staying probabilities by quintiles, were higher at the higher quintiles throughout the period for both wages and earnings and that mobility is declining over time. Hence, this paper suggests that while the level of wage inequality in the United States is somewhat lower once mobility is taken into account, the sharp increase in inequality during the 1980's is worse than it appears, due to falling mobility over time. Full-text available on-line: http://nber.nber.org/papers/W5455
Bibliography Citation
Buchinsky, Moshe and Jennifer Hunt. "Wage Mobility in the United States." NBER Working Paper No. 5455, National Bureau of Economic Research, February 1996.
2. Buchinsky, Moshe
Hunt, Jennifer
Wage Mobility in the United States
Review of Economics and Statistics 81,3 (August 1999): 351-368.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2646760
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Keyword(s): Earnings; Mobility; Wages

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This paper examines the mobility of individuals through the wage and earnings distributions, using 1979-1991 data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Lifetime wages will be more equally distributed than wages from any single year if individuals change position in the wage distribution over time. The results suggest that mobility is predominantly within group mobility, reducing wage inequality by 12%-26% over a four-year horizon. A detailed examination of within-group mobility, using year-to-year estimates of transition probabilities among quintiles of the distribution, reveals similar general patterns across all skill groups: mobility declined significantly over the years, especially at the lower end of the wage and earnings distributions.
Bibliography Citation
Buchinsky, Moshe and Jennifer Hunt. "Wage Mobility in the United States." Review of Economics and Statistics 81,3 (August 1999): 351-368.