Intergenerational equity by educational attainments in France

Abstract

This article analyses the development of inequalities across ages and generations in France using a pseudo-panel developed from the successive waves of the French Household Expenditure Survey that took place between 1979 and 2011. The standard of living of individuals, evaluated using individualized disposable income or private consumption, including housing expenditure and imputed rent, is decomposed by sex and educational attainment. The estimation of Age-Period-Cohort models reveal that men with lower education attainments who were born after 1950 experienced a significant decline in disposable income with respect to those who were born between 1918 and 1950. Conversely, when the whole population of men is considered, no decline in disposable income is observed. The evolution is rather different for women: those with lower education attainments did not experienced any decline whereas the whole population of women benefitted from a strong increase in disposable income across generations.