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Has the instability of personal incomes been increasing?

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  • Jenkins, Stephen P.

Abstract

This paper examines trends in the instability of personal incomes in Britain in terms of changes in the transitory variance and in volatility, measures that have received much recent attention in research about the USA. It is shown that, although US measures have trended upwards over the past two decades, there is no such trend in Britain between the early-1990s and the mid-2000s. Explanations for these differences are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Jenkins, Stephen P., 2011. "Has the instability of personal incomes been increasing?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 39727, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:39727
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/39727/
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    Cited by:

    1. P. Jenkins, Stephen & Jäntti, Markus, 2013. "Income mobility," ISER Working Paper Series 2013-23, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    2. Cappellari, Lorenzo & Jenkins, Stephen P., 2013. "Earnings and Labour Market Volatility in Britain," IZA Discussion Papers 7491, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Temesgen, Yalfal & Ketema, Mengistu & Ademe, Alelign, 2021. "The Existence and Structure of Rural Households’ Income Mobility: Evidence from Panel Data in Ethiopia (2011-2016)," Ethiopian Journal of Economics, Ethiopian Economics Association, vol. 30(01), April.
    4. Spyridon Lazarakis & James Malley & Konstantinos Angelopoulos, 2017. "Asymmetries in Earnings, Employment and Wage Risk in Great Britain," 2017 Meeting Papers 1314, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    5. Cappellari, Lorenzo & Jenkins, Stephen P., 2014. "Earnings and labour market volatility in Britain, with a transatlantic comparison," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 201-211.
    6. Brian Bell & Nicholas Bloom & Jack Blundell, 2022. "Income dynamics in the United Kingdom and the impact of the Covid‐19 recession," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(4), pages 1849-1878, November.
    7. Silvia Avram & Mike Brewer & Paul Fisher & Laura Fumagalli, 2022. "Household Earnings and Income Volatility in the UK, 2009–2017," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 20(2), pages 345-369, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    ISI; British Household Panel Survey; income instability; income risk; income volatility; longitudinal data; transitory variance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

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