The GRID Project:
A Global Repository of Income Dynamics
The GRID Project is an ongoing initiative to build an open-access, international, database of micro statistics on income inequality and income dynamics. All statistics in the database are computed from administrative data on earnings histories from each country and are harmonized for comparability.
Countries in GRID
There are currently 13 countries in the project: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the US. The project team includes 51 economists and is led by Fatih Guvenen (MEBDI/UMN), Luigi Pistaferri (Stanford) and Gianluca Violante (Princeton). The plan is to expand coverage to 25+ countries in the next few years.
Granular statistics on income inequality and income risk
The large sample sizes of micro datasets used in GRID enable precise measurement of granular statistics for finely defined subpopulations (eg., cohort/age, gender, education, permanent income, among others). The panel dimension enables going beyond measures of annual income inequality to income dynamics (how the income of an individual evolves over time) and compute measures like income volatility, downside income risk, tail shocks, and short- and long-run mobility, among others.
A special issue of Quantitative Economics that contains papers written by the 13 country teams is also scheduled to be published in 2022.
HOW to access grid?
GRID website is now live! Click below to go to the GRID landing web page to learn more about the project and access the database.
Join the GRID Team
The GRID project will expand coverage to more countries in the coming year. We are looking for researchers who can contribute to the next phase of this exciting venture in various capacities (management, technical development, country teams, etc.).
If you are interested or have questions, send us a message below.
GRID Project Co-Directors
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Fatih Guvenen
Professor of Economics
University of Minnesota -
Luigi Pistaferri
Professor of Economics
Stanford University -
Gianluca Violante
Professor of Economics
Princeton University
GRID Working Papers
You can find the latest version (as of June 1, 2021) of the working papers written about each of the 13 countries in the GID Project here.
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“Global Trends in Income Inequality and Income Dynamics: New Insights from GRID” by Fatih Guvenen, Luigi Pistaferri, and Gianluca Violante
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“Four Decades of Canadian Earnings Inequality and Dynamics Across Workers and Firms“, by Bowlus, Gouin-Bonenfant, Liu, Lochner, and Park.
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“Trends in Income Risk in Denmark 1987-2016” by Leth-Petersen and Saeverud
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“Inequality and Earnings Dynamics in France: National Policies and Local Consequences“, by Kramarz, Nimier-David, and Delemotte.
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“Inequality and Income Dynamics in Germany“, by Drechsel-Grau, Peichl, Schmieder, Schmid, Walz, and Wolter.
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“Labor Reforms and Earnings Dynamics: The Italian Case“, by Hoffman, Malacrino, and Pistaferri.
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“Income Dynamics and Inequality: The Case of Mexico“, by Puggioni, Calderón, Cebreros Zurita, Fernandez Bujanda, Gonzalez, and Jaume.
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“Earnings Dynamics and Its Intergenerational Transmission: Evidence from Norway“, by Halvorsen, Ozkan, and Salgado.
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“Income Risk Inequality: Evidence from Spanish Administrative Record”, by Arellano, Bonhomme, De Vera, Hospido, and Wei.
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“Income Dynamics in Sweden 1985-2016,” by Friedrich, Laun, and Meghir.
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“Income Dynamics in the United Kingdom 1975-2020”, by Bell, Bloom, and Blundell.
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“U.S. Long-Term Earnings Outcomes by Sex, Race, Ethnicity, and Place of Birth”, by Abowd, McKinney, and Janicki.