Partial Ordering of Unpredictable Mobility with Welfare Implications

Abstract:     
We propose a partial ordering of "unpredictable mobility" based on Blackwell's ordering of Markov (information) matrices. This partial ordering ranks mobility matrices according to the degree to which elements in a given set are likely to transit from one state to another, independently of their origin and, furthermore, for an important class of transition structures, it implies Dardanoni (1993) ordering - thus carries significant welfare implications. The proposed partial ordering further entails several renowned mobility measures and is both testable and applicable for ranking social mobility, economic mobility, .occupational mobility, housing market mobility, credit rating mobility, and more.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 23

working papers series