Two-Sample Two-Stage Least Squares (TSTSLS) estimates of earnings mobility: how consistent are they?

Academics and policymakers have shown great interest in cross-national comparisons of intergenerational earnings mobility. However, producing consistent and comparable estimates of earnings mobility is not a trivial task. In most countries researchers are unable to observe earnings information for t...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Jerrim, John; Choi Mendizábal, Álvaro B. (Álvaro Borja); Simancas Rodríguez, Rosa
Format: Article
Status:Published version
Publication date:2016
Country:España
Institution:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repository:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:2445/102532
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/102532
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Integració social
Igualtat
Estimació d'un paràmetre
Variables aleatòries
Social integration
Equality
Parameter estimation
Random variables
Description
Summary:Academics and policymakers have shown great interest in cross-national comparisons of intergenerational earnings mobility. However, producing consistent and comparable estimates of earnings mobility is not a trivial task. In most countries researchers are unable to observe earnings information for two generations. They are thus forced to rely upon imputed data from different surveys instead. This paper builds upon previous work by considering the consistency of the intergenerational correlation as well as the elasticity, how this changes when using a range of different instrumental (imputer) variables, and highlighting an important but infrequently discussed measurement issue. Our key finding is that, while TSTSLS estimates of and are both likely to be inconsistent, the magnitude of this problem is much greater for the former than it is for the latter. We conclude by offering advice on estimating earnings mobility using this methodology.