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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent, nonprofit limited liability company (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung) supported by the Deutsche Post AG. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its research networks, research support, and visitors and doctoral programs. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. The current research program deals with (1) mobility and flexibility of labor markets, (2) internationalization of labor markets and European integration, (3) the welfare state and labor markets, (4) labor markets in transition, (5) the future of work, (6) project evaluation and (7) general labor economics. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E SIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. Even though these results turn out to be somewhat sensitive to some assumptions that have to be made, we conclude that the family and community factors are more important determinants of long-run earnings in the United States than in the Nordic countries.JEL Classification: D1, D3, J62

This paper compares income inequality and income mobility in the Scandinavian countries and the United States during the 1980's. The results demonstrate that inequality is greater in the United States than in the Scandinavian countries and that the ranking of countries with respect to inequality remains unchanged when the accounting period of income is extended from one to 11 years. The pattern of mobility turns out to be remarkably similar despite major differences in labor market and social policies between the Scandinavian countries and the United States.Keywords: Income inequality, income mobility. JEL classification: D31Acknowledgement The authors would like to thank the discussant Stephen P Jenkins for helpful comments. We also thank Stephen E. Rhody and seminar pa rticipants at the University of Michigan and the University of Western Ontario.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte.

Unemployment is strongly associated with mortality on the individual level. The reasons for this association are not fully established. The authors estimated the effects of unemployment and workplace downsizing on mortality during periods of low (1989) and high (1994) unemployment in Finland. They used prospective population registration data containing detailed socioeconomic and demographic information on two cohorts aged 35-64 years at the beginning of 1989 (N = 87,317) and 1994 (N = 72,419) followed up for mortality in 1990-1997 and 1995-2002, respectively. Unemployment was found to be associated with a 2.38-fold increase in the hazard of mortality after 1989 and with a 1.25-fold increase after 1994. No excess mortality was observed among those who, at baseline, were employed at workplaces that had experienced large reductions in employment. Furthermore, the association between unemployment and mortality was weaker among those working in establishments that had been strongly downsized. By showing that, in the context of either a high level of unemployment or rapid downsizing, the effects of unemployment on mortality are modest, this study provides strong evidence of unaccounted confounding. Individual-level studies may thus overestimate the causal effects of unemployment on mortality.

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