What is GRID?
The Global Repository of Income Dynamics—GRID—is an open-access international database that provides a wealth of micro statistics on income inequality and income dynamics at the individual level. All statistics in the database have been computed from administrative records data on earnings histories from each country and harmonized for comparability.
There are currently 13 countries in GRID: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the US. The plan is to expand the coverage of GRID to 25+ countries in the very near future.
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 income mobility, among others.
GRID TEAM
The GRID team currently includes 51 economists who are leading experts on income inequality and income dynamics. Each country team includes economists with special expertise in the data and institutions of the respective country. The project is led by Fatih Guvenen (MEBDI/UMN), Luigi Pistaferri (Stanford) and Gianluca Violante (Princeton).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Funding for the GRID Project was provided by the Data-Driven Social Science Initiative and Simpson Center at Princeton University, Stanford University, Heller-Hurwicz Institute and MEBDI at University of Minnesota, Litigation Analytics, and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.
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 want to learn more, send us a message below.
Support the GRID Project
To contribute to GRID’s mission to provide high-quality socio-economic statistics freely to researchers and the public, you can message us using the “contact us” button .