IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwrsa/ersa02p212.html

Mobility and regional inequality in the European Union: Implications for economic policy

Author

Listed:
  • Ezcurra, Roberto
  • Gil, Carlos

  • Pascual, Padro

  • Rapun, Manuel

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse the mobility of per capita income distribution in the European regions during the period 1977-1996. In doing so we will attempt highlight some aspects of the nature of interregional inequality. We also hope to draw inferences that might be applied by European regional policy makers. If, for example, there proves to be very little mobility, this might mean that the regional positions are consolidated. If this were the case, a belligerent regional policy could be introduced in order to reduce regional disparities. If, on the other hand, our results suggest that income variability accounts for most of the disparities, regional policy could be focused on the negative effects of economic cycles. In this case, a regional convergence policy might be made to take second place. Our methodological approach involves calculating indices commonly used in the dynamic income distribution literature, such as those of Theil, Atkinson and Shorrocks. These indices are calculated at different levels, both temporal and geographical, in order to discover different regional behaviour patterns throughout the study period.

Suggested Citation

  • Ezcurra, Roberto & Gil, Carlos & Pascual, Padro & Rapun, Manuel, 2002. "Mobility and regional inequality in the European Union: Implications for economic policy," ERSA conference papers ersa02p212, European Regional Science Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa02p212
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa02/cd-rom/papers/212.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard V. Burkhauser & John G. Poupore, 1997. "A Cross-National Comparison Of Permanent Inequality In The United States And Germany," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 79(1), pages 10-17, February.
    2. Sala-i-Martin, Xavier X., 1996. "Regional cohesion: Evidence and theories of regional growth and convergence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 1325-1352, June.
    3. Lillard, Lee A & Willis, Robert J, 1978. "Dynamic Aspects of Earning Mobility," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(5), pages 985-1012, September.
    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 Bibby, 1975. "Methods of measuring mobility," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 107-136, June.
    6. Enrique Lopez Bazo & Esther Vaya Valcarce & Antonio Jose Mora & Jordi Surinach Caralt, 1997. "Regional economic dynamics and convergence in the european union," Working Papers in Economics 12, Universitat de Barcelona. Espai de Recerca en Economia.
    7. Raffaele Paci, 1997. "More similar and less equal: Economic growth in the European regions," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 133(4), pages 609-634, December.
    8. Shorrocks, Anthony, 1978. "Income inequality and income mobility," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 376-393, December.
    9. Gottschald, Peter T, 1982. "Earnings Mobility: Permanent Change or Transitory Fluctuations," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 64(3), pages 450-456, August.
    10. repec:bla:revinw:v:48:y:2002:i:4:p:443-69 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Jenkins, Stephen P, 1996. "Recent Trends in the UK Income Distribution: What Happened and Why?," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 12(1), pages 29-46, Spring.
    12. Sen, Amartya, 1973. "On Economic Inequality," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198281931.
    13. Arulampalam, W. & Robin A. Naylor & Jeremy P. Smith, 2002. "University of Warwick," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2002 9, Royal Economic Society.
    14. Conlisk, John, 1985. "Comparative statics for markov chains," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 139-151, October.
    15. Hart, Peter E, 1983. "The Size Mobility of Earnings," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 45(2), pages 181-193, May.
    16. Shorrocks, A F, 1978. "The Measurement of Mobility," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(5), pages 1013-1024, September.
    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. Olga Cant⊙, 2000. "Income Mobility In Spain: How Much Is There?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 46(1), pages 85-102, March.
    2. Paul Gregg & Claudia Vittori, 2008. "Exploring Shorrocks Mobility Indices Using European Data," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 08/206, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    3. Riphahn, Regina T. & Schnitzlein, Daniel D., 2016. "Wage mobility in East and West Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 11-34.
    4. David Cantarero & Marta Pascual, 2005. "Regional Differences In Health In Spain - An Empirical Analysis," ERSA conference papers ersa05p551, European Regional Science Association.
    5. Ingrid Woolard & Stephan Klasen, 2005. "Determinants of Income Mobility and Household Poverty Dynamics in South Africa," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(5), pages 865-897.
    6. Formby, John P. & Smith, W. James & Zheng, Buhong, 2004. "Mobility measurement, transition matrices and statistical inference," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 120(1), pages 181-205, May.
    7. Austin Nichols & Philipp Rehm, 2014. "Income Risk in 30 Countries," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(S1), pages 98-116, May.
    8. Julie Le Gallo, 2004. "Space-Time Analysis of GDP Disparities among European Regions: A Markov Chains Approach," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 27(2), pages 138-163, April.
    9. Pascual, Marta, 2009. "Intergenerational income mobility: The transmission of socio-economic status in Spain," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 835-846, November.
    10. 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).
    11. P. Jenkins, Stephen & Jäntti, Markus, 2013. "Income mobility," ISER Working Paper Series 2013-23, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    12. Murray Leibbrandt & Ingrid Woolard, 2001. "The labour market and household income inequality in South Africa: existing evidence and new panel data," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(6), pages 671-689.
    13. Stéphane Bonhomme & Jean-Marc Robin, 2008. "Articles : Conférence François-Albert-Angers – 2008 - La mesure des inégalités de long terme avec des panels courts : 1990-2000," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 84(4), pages 325-363.
    14. Satya R. Chakravarty & Nachiketa Chattopadhyay & Nora Lustig & Rodrigo Aranda, 2020. "Measuring Directional Mobility: The Bartholomew and Prais-Bibby Indices Reconsidered," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Inequality, Redistribution and Mobility, volume 28, pages 75-96, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    15. Rolf Aaberge & Magne Mogstad, 2015. "Inequality in current and lifetime income," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 44(2), pages 217-230, February.
    16. Aristei, David & Perugini, Cristiano, 2015. "The drivers of income mobility in Europe," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 197-224.
    17. 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.
    18. Sergio J. Rey, 2001. "Spatial Dependence in the Evolution of Regional Income Distributions," Urban/Regional 0105001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Roberto Ezcurra & Pedro Pascual & Manuel Rapún, 2007. "Spatial Inequality in Productivity in the European Union: Sectoral and Regional Factors," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 30(4), pages 384-407, October.
    20. 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.

    More about this item

    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:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa02p212. 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: Gunther Maier (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ersa.org .

    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.