IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/lde/journl/y2025i104p113-145.html

Income and Wealth Mobility among the Wealthiest: The Case of Income Tax Filers in Colombia

Author

Listed:
  • Alejandro Montoya Castano

    (Grupo de Microeconomía Aplicada, Universidad de Antioquia)

  • Luis Fernando Gamboa Niño

    (Adjunct Professor Department of Economics, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana)

  • Luis Carlos Reyes

    (Associate Professor Department of Economics, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana)

Abstract

This article examines income and wealth mobility, as well as changes in income inequality in Colombia from 2014 to 2022, with particular emphasis on gender and taxation. Given that Colombia is characterized by one of the highest levels of income inequality globally, economic mobility emerges as a crucial issue for analysis. Our results suggest that there is a dual nature of economic mobility. On the one hand, there is significant income mobility, indicating that within less than a decade, individuals are likely to move from the bottom to the top income percentiles. On the other hand, this mobility does not effectively reduce income inequality or gender disparities. Specifically, income mobility is more pronounced among men, who experienced higher gains or milder losses and are overrepresented in the top income percentiles. Taxation appears to have a limited impact in mitigating income inequality, suggesting the need for further research in this area

Suggested Citation

  • Alejandro Montoya Castano & Luis Fernando Gamboa Niño & Luis Carlos Reyes, 2025. "Income and Wealth Mobility among the Wealthiest: The Case of Income Tax Filers in Colombia," Lecturas de Economía, Universidad de Antioquia, Departamento de Economía, issue 104, pages 113-145, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:lde:journl:y:2025:i:104:p:113-145
    DOI: 10.17533/udea.le.n104a359194
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://revistas.udea.edu.co/index.php/lecturasdeeconomia/article/view/359194
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://revistas.udea.edu.co/index.php/lecturasdeeconomia/article/download/359194/20820421
    File Function: Main text
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17533/udea.le.n104a359194?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. World Bank, 2021. "Building an Equitable Society in Colombia," World Bank Publications - Reports 36535, The World Bank Group.
    2. Guido Neidhöfer, 2019. "Intergenerational mobility and the rise and fall of inequality: Lessons from Latin America," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(4), pages 499-520, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Javier Cortés Orihuela & Juan D. Díaz & Pablo Gutiérrez Cubillos & Pablo A. Troncoso & Gabriel I. Villarroel, 2024. "Intergenerational earnings mobility in Chile: the tale of the upper tail," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 67(5), pages 2411-2447, November.
    2. Claver Sanz, Raúl, 2022. "¿Cómo evoluciona el nivel educativo entre generaciones en Asia (Pacífico y Oriente Medio)? [How is educational attainment evolving between generations in Asia (Pacific and Middle East)?]," MPRA Paper 111792, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Suarez, Andres, 2025. "(Re)making landscapes into resources: the role of Hass avocado plantations in Salamina, Colombia," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    4. Nora Lustig & Valentina Martinez Pabon & Guido Neidhöfer & Mariano Tommasi, 2020. "Short and Long-Run Distributional Impacts of COVID-19 in Latin America," Working Papers 2013, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    5. Ferreira, Francisco H. G. & Brunori, Paolo & Neidhöfer, Guido & Salas-Rojo, Pedro & Sirugue, Louis, 2025. "Inherited inequality in Latin America," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 130163, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Roantree, Barra & Russell, Helen & Alamir, Anousheh & Griffin, Míde & Maître, Bertrand & Mitchell, Tara, 2025. "Poverty, income inequality and living standards in Ireland: Fifth annual report," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number JR14.
    7. Muñoz, Ercio, 2021. "The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in Latin America and the Caribbean," SocArXiv mc78h, Center for Open Science.
    8. Guido Neidhöfer & Nora Lustig & Mariano Tommasi, 2021. "Intergenerational transmission of lockdown consequences: prognosis of the longer-run persistence of COVID-19 in Latin America," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(3), pages 571-598, September.
    9. Claver Sanz, Raúl, 2022. "La transmisión intergeneracional de educación: evidencia en América Latina (1870 – 2010) [The Intergenerational Transmission of Education: Evidence from Latin America (1870 - 2010)]," MPRA Paper 111434, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Andros Kourtellos & Chih Ming Tan & Steven N. Durlauf, 2022. "The Great Gatsby Curve," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 571-605, August.
    11. Trombetta Martin & Villafañe María Fernanda, 2023. "Movilidad ocupacional intergeneracional en Argentina," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4695, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.
    12. Pinto-Delacadena, Pablo A. & Liern, Vicente & Acosta-Vargas, Patricia & Vinueza-Cabezas, Andrea, 2024. "A multicriteria approach to ranking Latin-American universities based on region-specific criteria," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    13. Emran, M. Shahe & Shilpi, Forhad, 2017. "Estimating Intergenerational Mobility with Incomplete Data: Coresidency and Truncation Bias in Rank-Based Relative and Absolute Mobility Measures," MPRA Paper 80724, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Baldermann, Claudia & Salvati, Nicola & Schmid, Timo, 2016. "Robust small area estimation under spatial non-stationarity," Discussion Papers 2016/5, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.
    15. Martín Trombetta, 2023. "The distributional implications of short-term income mobility: evidence for Latin America," Working Papers 241, Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE).
    16. Guido Neidhöfer & Matías Ciaschi & Leonardo Gasparini & Joaquín Serrano, 2021. "Social Mobility and Economic Development: Evidence from a Panel of Latin American Regions," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0286, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    17. Brunori, Paolo & Ferreira, Francisco H. G. & Neidhöfer, Guido, 2023. "Inequality of opportunity and intergenerational persistence in Latin America," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120555, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Guido Neidhöfer & Matías Ciaschi & Leonardo Gasparini & Joaquín Serrano, 2024. "Social mobility and economic development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 327-359, June.
    19. World Bank Group, 2023. "Colombia - Informe Sobre el Clima y el Desarrollo del País [Colombia Country Climate and Development Report]," World Bank Publications - Reports 40056, The World Bank Group.
    20. repec:osf:socarx:qwb6k_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Baez, Maria Josefina & Giannelli, Gianna Claudia & Mangiavacchi, Lucia, 2025. "Institutions, Development, and Parenting in Latin America," IZA Discussion Papers 18048, IZA Network @ LISER.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:lde:journl:y:2025:i:104:p:113-145. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Carlos Andrés Vasco Correa (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deantco.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.