THE AGE PROFILE OF MOBILITY MEASURES - AN APPLICATION TO EARNINGS IN WEST-GERMANY

This paper develops a technique for estimating age-profiles of earning s mobility using conditional kernel density estimation and establishes their statistical properties. Both pointwise and simultaneous confide nce intervals are derived. The paper then examines the age-profile of short-run earnings mobility in Germany between 1983 and 1993 using the Socio-Economic Panel data. It turns out that earnings mobility is sig nificantly higher for young people than for elder ones. Mobility decli nes rather rapidly until the age of thirty-five or so and remains cons tant thereafter. The shape of the profile does not change significantl y during the observation period. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.