ECONOMIC growth doesn’t always lead to bigger pay packets. But it helps. A new study by economists Fatih Guvenen of the University of Minnesota, Sam Schulhofer-Wohl of the Chicago Federal Reserve, Jae Song of the United States Social Security Administration and Motohiro Yogo of Princeton University looks at how individuals’ incomes change depending on the fluctuations of the economy.

The authors find that the effects of GDP changes are different for people of different income levels. Low-wage workers are highly exposed to the changes in the economy because they tend to work in pro-cyclical sectors, like construction and manufacturing. By contrast, the rich are highly exposed because more of their income comes in the form of bonuses and stock options.

Demographics matter too. Men’s earnings tend to be more strongly correlated with overall economic activity than those of women; younger workers’ wages track the economy more closely than those of older workers. The industry one works in is also important. The authors calculate that male financiers who are in the top 0.1% earnings bracket can expect to see a 5.6% pay rise for every 1% increase in GDP. The earnings of doctors at the top of the medical profession are far less volatile: they receive just a 0.25% increase in pay for the same uptick in GDP.

The stockmarket has similar effects on personal incomes. Financial theory says that individuals should invest while taking into account how volatile their personal earnings are—this paper shows that such considerations are far more important for some than others.