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Europe vs. The United States: Is There a Trade-Off Between Mobility and Inequality?

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  • Ayala, L.
  • Sastre, M.

Abstract

This paper asses the scope of income mobility from a comparative perspective and explores if there is an observable relationship with inequality. More specifically, the main hypotheses to be tested are the existence of notable differences in mobility between the USA and the European Union which could offset the observed differences in inequality, the possible differences within the European Union and, finally, whether or not the factors which determine mobility differ greatly. To this end, a broad range of mobility indicators is used, their structure in each country is studied and the principal determinants are analyzed by means of different decomposition exercises.

Suggested Citation

  • Ayala, L. & Sastre, M., 2002. "Europe vs. The United States: Is There a Trade-Off Between Mobility and Inequality?," European Economy Group Working Papers 19, European Economy Group.
  • Handle: RePEc:eeg:euroeg:19
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    Cited by:

    1. Allanson, Paul, 2008. "On the characterisation and measurement of the welfare effects of income mobility from an ex-ante perspective," SIRE Discussion Papers 2008-48, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    2. Rolf Aaberge & Magne Mogstad, 2009. "On the Measurement of Long-Term Income Inequality and Income Mobility," ICER Working Papers 09-2009, ICER - International Centre for Economic Research.
    3. Gerhard Riener, 2012. "Inequality and mobility of household incomes in Europe: evidence from the ECHP," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(3), pages 279-288, January.
    4. Claudio, Sapelli, 2013. "Movilidad intrageneracional del ingreso en Chile," Estudios Públicos, Centro de Estudios Públicos, vol. 0(131), pages 1-35.
    5. Rodrigo Arim & Matías Brum & Andrés Dean & Martín Leites & Gonzalo Salas, 2013. "Movilidad de ingreso y trampas de pobreza: nueva evidencia para los países del Cono sur," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 28(1), pages 3-38.
    6. Sourafel Girma, 2005. "Absorptive Capacity and Productivity Spillovers from FDI: A Threshold Regression Analysis," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 67(3), pages 281-306, June.
    7. Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung (ed.), 2007. "Das Erreichte nicht verspielen. Jahresgutachten 2007/08 [The gains must not be squandered. Annual Report 2007/08]," Annual Economic Reports / Jahresgutachten, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, volume 127, number 200708, February.
    8. Krawczyk, Michal, 2010. "A glimpse through the veil of ignorance: Equality of opportunity and support for redistribution," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1-2), pages 131-141, February.
    9. Olga Cantó & Carlos Gradín & Coral Del Río, 2012. "Pobreza Crónica, Transitoria Y Recurrente En España," Revista de Economia Aplicada, Universidad de Zaragoza, Departamento de Estructura Economica y Economia Publica, vol. 20(1), pages 69-94, Spring.
    10. Timothy Smeeding & Teresa Munzi, 2017. "Conditions of Social Vulnerability, Work and Low Income, Evidence for Spain in Comparative Perspective," LIS Working papers 448, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    11. Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina & Serrano-Padial, Ricardo, 2010. "Labor market flexibility and poverty dynamics," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 632-642, August.
    12. Gulgun Bayaz-Ozturk & Richard V. Burkhauser & Kenneth A. Couch, 2014. "Consolidating The Evidence On Income Mobility In The Western States Of Germany And The United States From 1984 To 2006," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(1), pages 431-443, January.
    13. Gulgun Bayaz-Ozturk & Richard V. Burkhauser & Kenneth A. Couch, 2012. "Consolidating the Evidence on Income Mobility in the Western States of Germany and the U.S. from 1984-2006," NBER Working Papers 18618, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Jaime Turrion & Carmela Martin, 2003. "Eastern Enlargement of the European Union and Foreign Direct Investment Adjustments," European Economy Group Working Papers 24, European Economy Group.
    15. Francesco Farina & Gianluca Grimalda, 2011. "A cross-country experimental comparison of preferences for redistribution," Department of Economic Policy, Finance and Development (DEPFID) University of Siena 0211, Department of Economic Policy, Finance and Development (DEPFID), University of Siena.
    16. Louis Chauvel & Anne Hartung & Flaviana Palmisano, 2017. "Dynamics of Income Rank Volatility: Evidence from Germany and the US," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 926, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    17. Hyungna Oh & Yun Jeong Choi, 2018. "Limited Income Mobility: Empirical Evidence from Korea," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(2), pages 665-687, July.
    18. Paul Allanson, 2012. "On the characterization and economic evaluation of income mobility as a process of distributional change," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 10(4), pages 505-528, December.
    19. Rolf Aaberge & Magne Mogstad, 2014. "Income mobility as an equalizer of permanent income," Discussion Papers 769, Statistics Norway, Research Department.

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