Mobility and Mobility Measures

45 Pages Posted: 24 Feb 2025

See all articles by Frank Cowell

Frank Cowell

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines (STICERD)

Emmanuel Flachaire

Aix-Marseille University

Date Written: February 16, 2025

Abstract

We examine whether mobility measures appropriately represent changes in individual status, like income or ranks. We suggest three elementary principles for mobility comparisons and show that many commonly used indices violate one or more of them. These principles are used to characterise two classes of measures that have a natural interpretation in terms of distributional analysis. Class-1 measures are based on the summation of power functions of individual status levels and have connections with generalised-entropy and Kolm inequality measures. Class-2 measures are based on the weighted aggregation of individual status changes and have connections with (extended) Gini inequality measures.

Keywords: income mobility, rank mobility, measurement, axiomatic approach

JEL Classification: C6, D6, I3

Suggested Citation

Cowell, Frank A. and Flachaire, Emmanuel, Mobility and Mobility Measures (February 16, 2025). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5140051 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5140051

Frank A. Cowell (Contact Author)

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines (STICERD) ( email )

Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom
+44 (0)171-955 7277 (Phone)
+44 (0)171-242 2357 (Fax)

Emmanuel Flachaire

Aix-Marseille University ( email )

3 Avenue Robert Schuman,
France

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