Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 4 of 4
Full-Text Articles in Labor Relations
The Meaning And Measurement Of Income Mobility, Gary S. Fields, Efe A. Ok
The Meaning And Measurement Of Income Mobility, Gary S. Fields, Efe A. Ok
Gary S Fields
Income mobility may be seen as arising from two sources: (i) the transfer of income among individuals with total income held constant, and (ii) a change in the total amount of income available. In this paper, we propose several sensible properties defining the concept of income mobility and show that an easily applicable measure of mobility is uniquely implied by these properties. We also show that the resulting measure is additively decomposable into the two sources listed above, namely, mobility due to the transfer of income within a given structure and mobility due to economic growth or contraction. Finally, these …
Income Mobility: Concepts And Measures, Gary S. Fields
Income Mobility: Concepts And Measures, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
People’s economic positions may change for a variety of reasons. The economy in which they participate may improve or deteriorate because of macroeconomic growth or contraction, employer-specific events and circumstances, business expansions and contractions, and ups and downs in local communities. Individuals may experience major life events with important economic consequences, among them completion of schooling, promotions and other movements up the career ladder, marriage and divorce, poor health, and retirement. Economic mobility studies are concerned with quantifying the movement of given recipient units through the distribution of economic well-being over time, establishing how dependent ones current economic position is …
The Measurement Of Income Mobility: An Introduction To The Literature, Gary S. Fields, Efe A. Ok
The Measurement Of Income Mobility: An Introduction To The Literature, Gary S. Fields, Efe A. Ok
Gary S Fields
[Excerpt] Our main purpose in this survey is, therefore, to provide a somewhat unified setting within which the basic features of the theory of income mobility measurement can be outlined. Our aim is to provide a (subjectively) selective introduction to the literature on income mobility, and thereby shed some light on particular aspects of mobility measurement. Consequently, the present study should not be viewed as an exhaustive survey of the related literature. It is rather a very concise account of some key elements of the theory of income mobility measurement.
Does Income Mobility Equalize Longer-Term Incomes? New Measures Of An Old Concept, Gary S. Fields
Does Income Mobility Equalize Longer-Term Incomes? New Measures Of An Old Concept, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
This paper develops a new class of measures of mobility as an equalizer of longer-term incomes – a concept different from other notions such as mobility as time-independence, positional movement, share movement, income flux, and directional income movement. A number of properties are specified leading to a class of indices, one easily-implementable member of which is applied to data for the United States and France. Using this index, income mobility is found to have equalized longer-term earnings among U.S. men in the 1970s but not in the 1980s or 1990s. In France, though, income mobility was equalizing throughout, and it …