Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T02:34:37.742Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Changes in Income within a Cohort over the Later Life Course: Evidence for Income Status Convergence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2010

Steven G. Prus
Steven G. Prus*
Affiliation:
Carleton University*
*
Requests for offprints should be sent to: / Les demandes de tirés-a-part doivent être adressées à : Steven Prus, Ph.D., Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa ONK1S 5B6. ([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines the extent to which an individual's income-status position relative to that of others in the same cohort is maintained over the later life course. Changes in the income status of individuals born between 1924 and 1928 are estimated by means of synthetic cohort methods. Using a series of cross-sectional data files from every fifth Survey of Consumer Finances, starting in 1978, the findings show that, from ages 50 to 64, persons of this birth cohort with early-life socio-economic status advantages (namely high education) improve their absolute and relative income status position vis-à-vis others with status disadvantages. For ages 65 to 74, the economic well-being of individuals with status advantages and disadvantages converge. Since Canada's public pension programs are relatively well developed in terms of comprehensiveness and generosity, they do a good job at countering the effects of status background characteristics on the distribution of income in old age. In the absence of these programs (i.e., up to age 64), the relative position of those with high education and other advantaged groups is strengthened.

Résumé

Cette étude examine jusqu'à quel point la position en matière de statut de revenu d'une personne est soutenue au cours de la vie avancée en relation aux autres personnes de la même cohorte. L'étude offre une évaluation par moyen de cohortes synthétiques des changements de statut de revenu des personnes nées de 1924 à 1928. La recherche repose sur une série de fichiers de données transversales tirées de chaque cinquième Enquête sur les finances des consommateurs dès 1978. Les résultats démontrent que les personnes de 50 à 64 ans figurant à cette table de mortalité et qui bénéficient des avantages d'un statut socio-économique dès leur bas âge (surtout la formation supérieure), améliorent leur position en matière de statut de revenu absolu et relatif vis-à-vis les autres personnes désavantagées en matière de statut. Le bien-être économique des personnes de 65 à 74 ans et favorisées et défavorisées en matière de statut est sujet à une convergence. La mature quasi complète et généreuse des programmes canadiens d'éparque retraite permet d'aller à l'encontre des conséquences des caractéristiques des antécédents de statut sur la distribution de revenus durant la vieillesse. Lorsque ces programmes n'existent pas (c.-à.-d. jusqu'à l'âge de 64 ans), la position relative est renforcie pour ceux qui bénéficient d'une formation supérieure et ceux dans les groupes favorisés.

Keywords

agingincome inequalitystatus maintenancecohort analysisvieillissementinégalité de revenusmaintien du statutanalyse de cohorte
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , Winter/Hiver 2002 , pp. 495 - 504
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Association on Gerontology 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) through a grant (Grant No. 412–98–0008) to the SEDAP (Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population) Research Program. The author wishes to thank Byron G. Spencer and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of this article.

References

Allison, P. (1978). Measures of inequality. American Sociological Review, 6, 865–880.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, A.B., Rainwater, L., & Smeeding, T.M. (1995). Income distribution in OECD countries: Evidence from the Luxembourg Income Study. Washington, DC: OECD Publications and Information Center.Google Scholar
Browning, M., Deaton, A., & Irish, M. (1985). A profitable approach to labour supply and commodity demands over the life-cycle. Econometrica, 3, 503–543.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crystal, S. (1996). Economic status of the elderly. In Binstock, R.H. & George, L.K. (Eds.), Handbook of aging and the social sciences (pp. 388–407). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Crystal, S., & Shea, D. (1990a). Cumulative advantage, cumulative disadvantage, and inequality among elderly people. The Gerontologist, 30, 437–443.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crystal, S., & Shea, D. (1990b). The economic well-being of the elderly. The Review of Income and Wealth, 36, 227–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crystal, S., Shea, D., & Krishnaswami, S. (1992). Educational attainment, occupational history, and stratification: Determinants of later-life economic outcomes. Journal of Gerontology, 47, S213–S221.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crystal, S., & Waehrer, K. (1996). Later-life economic inequality in longitudinal perspective. Journal of Gerontology, 51, 307–318.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990). The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Hedstrom, P., & Ringen, S. (1990). Age and income in contemporary society. In Smeeding, T. M., O'Higgins, M., & Rainwater, L. (Eds.), Poverty, inequality and income distribution in comparative perspective: The Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) (pp. 77–104). London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar
Henretta, J.C., & Campbell, R.T. (1976). Status attainment and status maintenance: A study of stratification in old age. American Sociological Review, 41, 981–992.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, V.W. (1995). Rethinking retirement: Issues for the twenty-first century. In Gee, E. M. & Gutman, G.M. (Eds.), Rethinking retirement (pp. 31–50). Vancouver, BC: Simon Fraser University.Google Scholar
Mehdizadeh, S., & Luzadis, R. (1994). Effect of job mobility on pension wealth. Gerontologist, 2, 173–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mustard, C.A., Derksen, S., Berthelot, J., Wolfson, M., & Roos, L.L. (1997). Age-specific education and income gradients in morbidity and mortality in a Canadian province. Social Science and Medicine, 45, 383–397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myles, J. (1981). Income inequality and status maintenance: Concepts, methods, and measures. Research on Aging, 3, 123–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myles, J. (1989). Old age and the welfare state. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, and Co.Google Scholar
Myles, J. (2000). Maturation of Canada's retirement income system: Income levels, income inequality and low income among older persons. Canadian Journal on Aging, 3, 287–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myles, J., & Quadagno, J. (1994). The politics of income security for the elderly in North America: Founding cleavages and unresolved conflicts. In Marmor, T., Smeeding, T., & Greene, V. (Eds.) Economic security and intergenerational justice: A look at North America (pp. 61–90). Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.Google Scholar
O'Rand, A.M. (1996). The precious and the precocious: Understanding cumulative disadvantage and cumulative advantage over the life course. The Gerontologist, 36, 230–238.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pampel, F.C., & Hardy, M. (1994a). Status maintenance and change during old age. Social Forces, 73, 289–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pampel, F.C., & Hardy, M. (1994b). Changes in income inequality during old age. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 13, 239–263.Google Scholar
Rainwater, L., Martin, R., & Schwartz, J. (1986). Income packaging in the welfare state: A comparative study of family income. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schellenberg, G. (1994). The road to retirement: Demographic and economic changes in the 90s. Ottawa: Centre for International Statistics, Canadian Council on Social Development.Google Scholar
Statistics Canada (1998). Survey of Consumer Finances 1998, Economic Families: Microdata file documentation. Ottawa: Statistics Canada, Income Statistics Division.Google Scholar
Theil, H. (1967). Economics and information theory. Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar