Early-life circumstances and late-life income

This paper aims at evaluating and comparing across European countries the influence of early-life circumstances, like childhood disparities and educational attainments, on incomes in later life. Using life-history data from SHARELIFE, country-specific structural relationships among childhood socio-economic status, education and incomes at the first and the last job are investigated by means of recursive models, controlling for individual covariates. Poorer childhood socio-economic conditions are associated with higher differentials in years of full-time education and higher income inequalities. The extent of these results varies across countries.