PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Martin Nybom
AU  - Jan Stuhler
TI  - Heterogeneous Income Profiles and Lifecycle Bias in Intergenerational Mobility Estimation
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.51.1.239
DP  - 2016 Jan 01
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 239--268
VI  - 51
IP  - 1
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/51/1/239.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/51/1/239.full
SO  - J Hum Resour2016 Jan 01; 51
AB  - Using short snapshots of income in intergenerational mobility estimation causes “lifecycle bias” if the snapshots cannot mimic lifetime outcomes. We use uniquely long series of Swedish income data to show that this bias is large and to examine current strategies to reduce it. We confirm that lifecycle bias is smallest when incomes are measured around midlife, a central implication from a widely adopted generalization of the classical errors-in-variables model. However, the model cannot predict the ideal age of measurement or eliminate lifecycle bias at other ages. We illustrate how extensions of this model can reduce the bias further.