Pooled Time Series Cross-Section Analysis of the Life-Cycle Deficit of Mexico

I analyze in this article differences by age and time of the components of the life-cycle deficit; namely, labor income and consumption. I use the specific case of Mexico, where no panel data is available for longitudinal analysis, but repeated cross-sectional survey data is used to construct age profiles of these variables by age for a period from 1992 to 2010. The age profiles where constructed following the National Transfer Accounts (NTA) methodology. Given this information, I try to answer the following questions. How bigger are the differences in the age pattern of consumption and labor income over time? Which part of those differences can be explained by policy issues, quality of data, period, and cohort effects? I apply an age-period-cohort (APC) analysis, using a random effects hierarchical APC model specification to explore in more detail possible answers to these questions.