Should-Read: Fatih Guvenen, Greg Kaplan, Jae Song, and Justin Weidner: Lifetime Incomes in the United States over Six Decades

Should-Read: Fatih Guvenen, Greg Kaplan, Jae Song, and Justin Weidner: Lifetime Incomes in the United States over Six Decades: “From the cohort that entered the labor market in 1967 to the cohort that entered in 1983… http://www.nber.org/papers/w23371

…median lifetime income of men declined by 10%–19%…. Accounting for rising employer-provided health and pension benefits partly mitigates these findings but does not alter the substantive conclusions. For women, median lifetime income increased by 22%–33% from the 1957 to the 1983 cohort, but these gains were relative to very low lifetime income for the earliest cohort. Much of the difference between newer and older cohorts is attributed to differences in income during the early years in the labor market…. Inequality in lifetime incomes has increased significantly within each gender group. However, the closing lifetime gender gap has kept overall lifetime inequality virtually flat…. Substantial changes in labor market outcomes for younger workers… [are] critical driver of trends in both the level and inequality of lifetime income over the past 50 years…