This project proposes several inter-linked analyses of topics relating to income mobility, again a core issue for the network. The first is to study intra-generational income mobility in the small number of countries for which suitable longitudinal data are available, including the European Community Household Panel, the Swedish Level of Living Study and the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The focus is on overall income mobility and particularly changes in household disposable income, and the factors driving this mobility. Long-term stability and change of individual positions in the income distribution can also be studied using the Swedish Level of Living Survey and the PSID since their period of observation is more than thirty years; to take one example, this will make it possible to identify people who persistently remain in poverty, and the extent to which those who move out of poverty face higher risks of returning there. While the ECHP will only allow for analysis over a much shorter period, it will still allow the overall scale of mobility and re-ranking from one year to the next, and over a seven or eight year period, to be studied. It will also the role of the family of orientation for stability and change of income over a long period to be studied. It is well known that the economic conditions of one’s childhood family have a strong impact one’s own income, but to what extent does the economic situation in the childhood family influence intra-generational income change – will for instance the probability of moving out of poverty for an adult person depend upon her childhood conditions? Information in the European Community Household Panel about the financial circumstances of adults in the survey during their childhood seems to have significant potential in addressing this question, since it can be related to their current income and other measures of living standards and command over resources.
Income Mobility