Family background and income during the rise of the welfare state: Brother correlations in income for Swedish men born 1932-1968

A-Tier
Journal: Journal of Public Economics
Year: 2009
Volume: 93
Issue: 5-6
Pages: 671-680

Score contribution per author:

1.341 = (α=2.01 / 3 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We investigate if the association between family background and income in Sweden has changed for men born between 1932 and 1968. Our main finding is that the share of the variance in long-run income that is attributable to family background, the so-called brother correlation in income, has fallen by some 17% from 0.49 for the cohorts of brothers born in the early 1930s to below 0.32 for the cohorts born around 1950. From then on, the correlations have inched back up to around 0.37. We report suggestive evidence that the decline is driven by changes in education.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:pubeco:v:93:y:2009:i:5-6:p:671-680
Journal Field
Public
Author Count
3
Added to Database
2026-01-24