Consumption and Income Inequality across Generations


How much of the cross-sectional dispersion of income and consumption can be accounted for by parental heterogeneity and family background? How strong are intergenerational linkages? We examine data on expenditures and income of parent-child pairs and document the presence of significant family persistence in earnings, consumption, saving behaviours, and marital sorting patterns. However, we also show that idiosyncratic (family independent) heterogeneity has a quantitatively bigger role than parental effects for the evolution of cross-sectional inequality.
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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.

Citation

@techreport{GLM,
  title={Consumption and Income Inequality across Generations},
  author={Gallipoli, Giovanni and Low, Hamish and Mitra, Aruni},
  year={2020},
  institution={Discussion Paper}
}

Author: gallipol

Giovanni Gallipoli is a professor at UBC in Vancouver. Giovanni's research focuses on the origins and consequences of economic inequality with a focus on how heterogeneity shapes individual behaviors and aggregate economic outcomes. Giovanni has worked on a variety of topics, including the equilibrium effects of policies that promote skill formation; the link between skill heterogeneity and a country's comparative advantage; the influence of families on long-term outcomes such as labor supply and consumption; intergenerational mobility and the linkages between parental heterogeneity and inequality; and how firm-level differences contribute to variation in workers’ skill returns. Giovanni is a recipient of the Killam Research Award, the FEEM Award, and the Young Economist Award of the European Economic Association. He is a CEPR research fellow as well as a former Fulbright Scholar and Weatherhall fellow. He serves as a member of the external board of overseers of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and as an associate editor of the Journal of Political Economy. Giovanni is an alumnus of the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies and the University of Pisa in Italy. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from University College London in the UK.