Global trends in income inequality and income dynamics: New insights from GRID

Abstract

The Global Repository of Income Dynamics (GRID) is a new open‐access, cross‐country database that contains a wide range of micro statistics on income inequality, dynamics, and mobility. It has four key characteristics: it is built on micro panel data drawn from administrative records; it fully exploits the longitudinal dimension of the underlying data sets; it offers granular descriptions of income inequality and income dynamics for finely defined subpopulations; and it is designed from the ground up with the goals of harmonization and cross‐country comparability. This paper introduces the database and presents a set of global trends in income inequality and income dynamics across the 13 countries that are currently in GRID. Our results are based on the statistics created for GRID by the 13 country teams who also contributed to this special issue with individual articles.

Subjective Earnings Risk

“…Grouping observations, they further show how these moments vary with age and the level of earnings to help characterize labor market risks that workers face. Similar analyses have been implemented in many countries in the Global Repository of Income Dynamics (GRID) project, and findings are remarkably homogeneous across countries (Guvenen et al, 2022). Yet inferring earnings risk from administrative data comes with assumptions that are hard to test without subjective expectations data.…”

Current Trend in Gender Stereotypes and Unpaid Care Work: Evidence From Three Countries, the UK, Nigeria, and Ghana

“…The study is significant because it highlights the ongoing discrimination that women experience in both industrialized and developing nations (Akhtar et al, 2023;Apotsu et al, 2023;Guvenen et al, 2022). These studies show that women in the Global North spend a disproportionate amount of time on unpaid household chores in comparison to men, creating a double burden of duties because they also perform paid jobs.…”

“…We can enable women to follow their career aspirations, contribute to the economy, and ultimately remove barriers that impede advancement and advancement in society by making investments in accessible, high-quality childcare. Furthermore, research (Zagel & Van-Lancker, 2022;Guvenen et al, 2022;Herrera Torelli, 2013) has indicated that nations with higher rates of female labor force participation tend to see long-term economic gains from having adequate childcare choices.…”

More unequal we stand? Inequality dynamics in the United States, 1967–2021

“…1 Another drawback of survey data relative to administrative data is their smaller sample size which limits the granularity of the analysis. See Guvenen et al (2022) for a discussion.…”