Handbook Ch: Jantti & Jenkins (2015)

This is chapter 10 in the Handbook of Income Distribution vol 2A (2015). 
"We survey the literature on income mobility, aiming to provide an integrated discussion of mobility within and between generations. We review mobility concepts, descriptive devices, measurement methods, data sources, and recent empirical evidence."
== Summary ==
=== 10.1 Introduction ===
=== 10.2 Mobility Concepts ===
=== 10.3 Mobility Measurement ===
=== 10.4 Intragenerational Mobility: Evidence ===
==== 10.4.1 Data and Issues of Empirical Implementation (856-863) ====
Any study of mobility faces three 'W' issues: mobility of What, among Whom, and When?
* Mobility of 'What': refers to which types/sources are included in the definition of 'income'. E.g. taxes, (in-kind) transfers, just earnings, or also self-employment, etc.
* Mobility among 'Whom': refers to the definition of the income-receiving unit. E.g. individual, household, family, or tax-unit, but also sample restrictions such as focus on work-age population, etc.
* 'When' mobility refers to two aspects of time: (1) the length of the income period, e.g. week, month, year.This seems to be in part an empirical question, determined by the extent to which individuals smooth out fluctuations over time. A week seems very short, as income is usually not even paid out so frequently (thereby, enforcing smoothing for at least the pay-period frequency). Instead, look at lifetime income seems naive given the reality of shocks and uncertainty. It would be interesting to study how much smoothing there is for the poor. My guess would be that most are hand-to-mouth consumers, so that for the very poor monthly or yearly might be most realistic? E.g. there are some yearly flows (tax rebates, yearly subscriptions, yearly bills, etc.) and (2) the length of the interval, e.g. yearly income one, five, or ten years apart.
How researchers choose to answer these questions is much constrained by the data. There are two main types of data used for within-generation income mobility analysis: (1) HH panel surveys, and (2) administrative data (e.g. tax files).
==== 10.4.2 Intragenerational Income Mobility in the US: Levels and Trends (863-875) ====
* Hungerford (2011): PSID
* Hungerford (1993): PSID?
* Bradbury (2011): PSID, adults who are a family head or spouse, instead of all individuals
==== 10.4.3 Is There More Income Mobility in the US than in (Western) Germany? (875-881) ====
==== 10.4.4 Intragenerational Income Mobility: Selected Other Evidence (881-887) ====
* Aaberge et al. (2002): US compared with Denmark, Norway, and Sweden
* Chen (2009): US compared with Canada, Germany and GB
* Leigh (2009) US, Australia, GB, Germany, using CNEF
* Ayala & Sastre (2008): GB, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, using CNEF
* Gangl (2005): 11 EU countries, using ECHP, and the US using PSID
* Van Kerm & Pi Alperin (2013): EU-SILC
=== 10.5 Intergenerational Mobility: Evidence ===
=== 10.6 Conclusions ===