IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/irs/cepswp/2010-36.html

Earnings Mobility in the EU: 1994-2001

Author

Listed:
  • SOLOGON Denisa
  • O'DONOGHUE Cathal

Abstract

Using a consistent comparative dataset for 14 EU countries, we explore the earnings mobility-inequality linkage in the EU over the period 1994-2001 on two axes: first the evolution of short-term mobility and its link with cross-sectional inequality; second, the evolution of long-term mobility relative to short-term mobility and the implications for lifetime or long-term inequality. We use two types of mobility measures: (i) a rank measure derived from the changes in the individual ranks in the earnings distribution; (ii) a recent measure of mobility as an equalizer of longer-term incomes, complementary to the wellknown Shorrocks index. We find evidence supporting a negative association between the evolution of cross-sectional inequality and short-term rank mobility across the EU. Long-term, Denmark appears to have the most mobile earnings distribution with the second highest equalizing effect in the EU. The only disequalizing mobility in a lifetime perspective is found in Portugal. Besides making a substantive contribution to the literature on cross-national comparisons of earnings mobility at the EU level, our paper brings evidence to the debate regarding the ability of the Shorrocks index in capturing the true equalizing/disequalizing effect of mobility.

Suggested Citation

  • SOLOGON Denisa & O'DONOGHUE Cathal, 2010. "Earnings Mobility in the EU: 1994-2001," LISER Working Paper Series 2010-36, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    • Handle: RePEc:irs:cepswp:2010-36
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.liser.lu/publi_viewer.cfm?tmp=2832
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roland Benabou & Efe A. Ok, 2000. "Mobility as Progressivity: Ranking Income Processes According to Equality of Opportunity," Working Papers 150, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Discussion Papers in Economics.
    2. Luis Ayala & Carolina Navarro & Mercedes Sastre, 2011. "Cross-country income mobility comparisons under panel attrition: the relevance of weighting schemes," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(25), pages 3495-3521.
    3. repec:bla:revinw:v:48:y:2002:i:4:p:443-69 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Rolf Aaberge & Anders Björklund & Markus Jäntti & Mårten Palme & Peder J. Pedersen & Nina Smith & Tom Wennemo, 2002. "Income Inequality and Income Mobility in the Scandinavian Countries Compared to the United States," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 48(4), pages 443-469, December.
    5. John Creedy, 1998. "The Dynamics of Inequality and Poverty," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1484, June.
    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. Denisa Maria Sologon & Cathal O'Donoghue, 2009. "Equalizing or Disequalizing Lifetime Earnings Differentials?: Earnings Mobility in the EU: 1994-2001," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 251, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    2. Liss, Erik & Korpi, Martin & Wennberg, Karl, 2023. "Absolute income mobility and the effect of parent generation inequality: An extended decomposition approach," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    3. Markus Jäntti & Stephen P. Jenkins, 2013. "Income Mobility," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 607, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    4. Peter Gottschalk & Enrico Spolaore, 2002. "On the Evaluation of Economic Mobility," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 69(1), pages 191-208.
    5. 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.
    6. Denisa Maria Sologon & O'Donoghue, Cathal, 2011. "Earnings Mobility in Europe: 1994-2001 : Do more flexible labour markets experience a higher earnings mobility?," MERIT Working Papers 2011-070, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    7. Andrew Leigh, 2009. "Permanent Income Inequality: Australia, Britain, Germany, and the United States Compared," CEPR Discussion Papers 628, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    8. Luis Ayala & Mercedes Sastre, 2008. "The structure of income mobility: empirical evidence from five UE countries," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 451-473, November.
    9. Stephen P. Jenkins & Philippe Van Kerm, 2016. "Assessing Individual Income Growth," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 83(332), pages 679-703, October.
    10. Ronald Bachmann & Peggy Bechara & Sandra Schaffner, 2016. "Wage Inequality and Wage Mobility in Europe," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 62(1), pages 181-197, March.
    11. Denisa Maria Sologon & Cathal O'Donoghue, 2009. "Increased Opportunity to Move up the Economic Ladder?: Earnings Mobility in EU: 1994-2001," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 221, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    12. Malcolm Keswell, 2004. "Non‐Linear Earnings Dynamics In Post‐Apartheid South Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 72(5), pages 913-939, December.
    13. Christopher Herrington, 2015. "Public Education Financing, Earnings Inequality, and Intergenerational Mobility," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 18(4), pages 822-842, October.
    14. 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.
    15. Michael Savage, 2016. "Poorest Made Poorer? Decomposing income losses at the bottom of the income distribution during the Great Recession," Papers WP528, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    16. Michael Fertig & Stefanie Schurer, 2007. "Earnings Assimilation of Immigrants in Germany: The Importance of Heterogeneity and Attrition Bias," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 30, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    17. Alexander W Cappelen & Johanna Mollerstrom & Bjørn-Atle Reme & Bertil Tungodden, 2022. "A Meritocratic Origin of Egalitarian Behaviour," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(646), pages 2101-2117.
    18. Maximo Camacho & Aida Galiano, 2009. "Income distribution changes across the 1990s expansion: the role of taxes and transfers," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 29(4), pages 3177-3185.
    19. Andrew J. Houtenville, 2001. "Income Mobility in the United States and Germany: A Comparison of Two Classes of Mobility Measures using the GSOEP, PSID, and CPS," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 70(1), pages 59-65.
    20. Juan Ignacio Martín‐Legendre & Pablo Castellanos‐García & José Manuel Sánchez‐Santos, 2024. "The Dynamics of Inequality and Mobility: A Panel Data Analysis of the Spanish Income Tax," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 105(3), pages 696-708, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J60 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:irs:cepswp:2010-36. 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: Library and Documentation The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Library and Documentation to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepsslu.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.