Ongoing projects

So far, reliable estimates based on administrative data exist only for a handful of countries. Austria is not among them. In our proposal, we offer three work packages. Each work package should result in a working paper that will eventually be published in a general interest or leading-field journal of economics. Each paper is also highly policy relevant and will inform the policy debate in Austria. The distribution and equality of life's opportunities are at the center of the current political debate, but reliable empirical evidence is missing and highly needed. 

First work package — "Income"

In ourfirst work package, we start with microdata analysis at the national level. We use the Austrian Social Security Database, which allows to observe daily wages since 1972 for the universe of Austrian workers. Thus, for some cohorts we can observe earnings from the time they enter the labor market until retirement. To estimate canonical measures of intergenerational income mobility, we focus on children born between 1979 and 1987. We link them to their parents, who were mostly born in the 1950s and 1960s. The choice of these birth cohorts ensures that we observe the income of both generations in the same age range. We complement this analysis with data from the Austrian Micro Data Center, which allows us to observe income and educational attainment in a random sample of children and parents. In this package, we compute and discuss all relevant measures of intergenerational income mobility. We further apply alternative approaches suggested in the moste recent literature  to assess the sensitivity of the obtained IgM estimates.

Dataset to be used

Austrian Social Security Database (ASSD): The ASSD allows to observe wages since 1972 for the universe of Austrian workers. Thus, for some cohorts, we can observe earnings from the time of entry into the labor market until retirement. We begin by examining the patterns of lifetime earnings. To estimate canonical measures of intergenerational income mobility, we focus on children born between 1979 and 1987 and link them to their parents, who were mostly born in the 1950s and 1960s. The choice of these birth cohorts ensures that we observe the income of both generations in the same age range. For both generations, we obtain the average annual income earned between the ages of 30 and 40. The literature agrees that this is a valid proxy for permanent income. To define parental income, we consider the father’s income, the mother’s income, and the sum. We use rank-rank regressions to account for observations with zero income. We also compute the correlation between siblings.

Second work package— "Heterogeneity"

In the second work package, we investigate the heterogeneity of IgM across different sub-populations, age at exposure, and regions. This work is more innovative and aims to push the research frontier. Among other things, we provide an analysis of natives and immigrants, which is very interesting in the context of Austria. 

• Here we have already joined an international consortium lead by Leah Boustan (Princeton) and Ran Abramitzky (Stanford). In this collaboration of more than 30 authors, we study intergenerational mobility of immigrants in 15 receiving countries.  We have contribute the estimates from Austria, see below

• We will also analyze the timing of parental income (shocks) over different periods of childhood . This analysis will show during which periods of childhood parental income is most productive. 

• Finally, we examine the impact of historical events (such as the Soviet versus non-Soviet occupation of Austria) and historical family norms. 

Third work package— "Health"

The third work package leverages high-quality data from the Austrian Birth Register and the statutory health insurance system to estimate intergenerational correlations in health. In the Austrian Birth Register we observe the universe of births since 1974, with basic information on health at birth (such as birth weight and APGAR scores). For a set of cohorts, we can match this information for children and parents. This enables us to estimate the intergenerational correlations in health at birth.  To study the correlation in health care-utilization we have access to data from the Upper Austrian Health Insurance Fund database. This is the statutory health insurance provider that covers the population of all private- sector workers and non-employed residents in the province of Upper Austria. We complement this work package with an analysis of intergenerational correlation in cancer diagnosis and mortality using the cancer registry in the Austrian Micro Data Center. The cancer registry starts in 1983.