prime age men and women in the United States and Germany during the growth years of the 1980s. Despite major differences in …-specific differences among men, while in Germany random shocks are found to persist longer for men. Women in Germany and the United States …

economic mobility. Using standard measures of mobility (with panel data for the western states of Germany and the U.S.) over … the entire period 1984-2006, we find the conventional result that income mobility is greater in Germany. But when we cut … significantly over the years immediately following reunification in Germany but not in the U.S …