PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Dahl, Molly
AU  - DeLeire, Thomas
AU  - Schwabish, Jonathan A.
TI  - Estimates of Year-to-Year Volatility in Earnings and in Household Incomes from Administrative, Survey, and Matched Data
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.46.4.750
DP  - 2011 Oct 02
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 750--774
VI  - 46
IP  - 4
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/46/4/750.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/46/4/750.full
SO  - J Hum Resour2011 Oct 02; 46
AB  - We document trends in the volatility in earnings and household incomes between 1985 and 2005 in three different data sources: administrative earnings records, the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) matched to administrative earnings records, and SIPP survey data. In all data sources, we find a substantial amount of year-to-year volatility in workers’ earnings and household incomes. In the data sources that contain administrative earnings, we find that volatility has been roughly constant, and has even declined slightly, since the mid-1980s. These findings differ from what is found using survey data and what has been reported in previous studies.