Abstract:
This paper explores differences in economic well-being across cohorts of the population in four modern nations (Canada, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States). It focuses on relative incomes within countries, poverty rates and social expenditures by age group over the 1974 to 1994 period. Cross-national patterns of level (most recent years data) and trend are both explored. This work follows in the long tradition of Richard Easterlin to examine patterns of economic change over the life cycle from a cross-national perspective. Ultimately, economists are primarily interested in the ways in which individuals respond to economic conditions in terms of choice of housing arrangements, marriage, childbearing, and work status. Our work will eventually explore each of these arenas from a cross-national perspective. This paper should therefore be seen as an appetizer for a wider range of in-depth explorations to follow.