The Intergenerational Earnings and Income Mobility of Canadian Men: Evidence from Longitudinal Income Tax Data

Statistics Canada Working Paper No. 113

37 Pages Posted: 16 Nov 1998

See all articles by Miles Corak

Miles Corak

Statistics Canada; University of Ottawa; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Andrew Heisz

Government of Canada - Analytical Studies Branch

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: October 1998

Abstract

Our objective is to obtain an accurate estimate of the degree of intergenerational income mobility in Canada. We use income tax information on about 400,000 father-son pairs, and find intergenerational earnings elasticities to be about 0.2. Earnings mobility tends to be slightly greater than income mobility, but non-parametric techniques uncover significant non-linearities in both of these relationships. Intergenerational earnings mobility is greater at the lower end of the income distribution than at the upper end, and displays an inverted V-shape elsewhere. Intergenerational income mobility follows roughly the same pattern, but is much lower at the very top of the income distribution.

JEL Classification: D31, I32, J62

Suggested Citation

Corak, Miles and Heisz, Andrew, The Intergenerational Earnings and Income Mobility of Canadian Men: Evidence from Longitudinal Income Tax Data (October 1998). Statistics Canada Working Paper No. 113, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=139768 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.139768

Miles Corak (Contact Author)

Statistics Canada ( email )

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Andrew Heisz

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