The Prince and the Pauper: Movement of Children Up and Down the Canadian Income Distribution, 1994-2004

This paper uses longitudinal microdata from the Statistics Canada National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) spanning the years 1994 through 2004 to study patterns of family income experienced by a cohort of 7163 Canadian children for most of their childhood. Five principal questions are addressed: 1) What trends in the level of real family income are apparent?; 2) What happens to inequality of income among this group of children as they grow up?; 3) Are the same children always the ones to be ‘stuck at the bottom’ or, alternatively, ‘secure at the top’ of the relative income distribution?; 4) What are the characteristics of the children who are most likely to ever or always be in the bottom (or top) of the distribution?; 5) What changes in characteristics are associated with movements up or down the income distribution?