The measurement of structural and exchange income mobility

Chakravarty, Dutta and Weymark (1985) present operational axioms for an ethical index of income mobility that are best suited for a two period world. This paper suggests a decomposition of this index into two terms: (i) an index of structural or snapshot mobility, which captures the welfare effect of differences in the inequality of the cross-section income distributions; and (ii) an index of exchange or rerankings mobility, which captures the welfare impact of rank reversals between the first- and the second-period income distributions. Income inequality reductions and rank reversals are always welfare enhancing. The properties of all the income mobility concepts introduced in the paper do not require any new value judgements beyond the traditional ones.     

Measurement of income mobility: a re-examination

This paper reviews different characterizations of income mobility, trying to establish links between them and showing that some of them are equivalent. Furthermore, exploiting recent advances in multidimensional inequality measurement, we generalize mobility measurement from the two-period to the multi-period setting, come up with new ways to decompose total mobility into exchange as opposed to structural mobility, and introduce new indices of mobility with desirable properties.     

The Sociology of Unequal Exchange in Ecological Context: A Panel Study of Lower‐Income Countries, 1975–20001

The structural theory of ecologically unequal exchange posits that through the vertical flow of exports from lower‐income countries, the stratified world economy enables higher‐income countries to misappropriate global environmental space. Tied to their unsustainable consumption levels, this misappropriation by higher‐income countries leads to the suppression of resource consumption in lower‐income countries, well below globally sustainable thresholds, which negatively impacts the well‐being of domestic populations. To evaluate key aspects of the theory, I test the hypothesis that lower‐income countries with elevated levels of exports sent to higher‐income countries exhibit lower consumption‐based environmental demand, measured as per‐capita ecological footprints. Findings for generalized least squares panel regression analyses of 66 lower‐income countries from 1975 to 2000 confirm the hypothesis, providing support for the theory. Additional results indicate that the strength of the hypothesized relationship increased in magnitude during the 25‐year period. These findings hold, net of the effects of economic development, ecological conditions, and other structural factors.     

Social Class and Success Goals: An Examination of Relative and Absolute Aspirations*

Aspirations may be measured in absolute terms, by asking individuals how much of a given goal they desire, or in relative terms, by asking individuals how much they desire a given goal relative to other goals . Prior studies on the relationship between social class and success goals have always employed either relative or absolute measures alone, with the absolute measures focusing on desire for education, occupational prestige, or income and the relative measures usually focusing on such goals as job security, advancement, and importance. This paper argues that a focus on absolute or relative aspirations alone can produce a misleading image of the relationship between social class and success goals, and it remedies the above neglect by examining the absolute and relative aspirations of different social classes for the same, set of goals. Using a sample of males from Detroit and Baltimore, it was found that the lower class places more emphasis on economic security, while the upper class places more emphasis on self-actualization goals like job advancement and importance. However, when absolute aspirations were examined, it was found that lower-class people have a strong desire for self-actualization and that middle-class people do not have a strong desire for security. These findings provide a more complete picture of the relationship between social class and success goals, and they are relevant to such topics as Rodman's "lower-class value stretch." social mobility, anomie theories of deviance, and explanations of social movements based on relative deprivation.     

The mobility problem in Britain: new findings from the analysis of birth cohort data

Social mobility is now a matter of greater political concern in Britain than at any time previously. However, the data available for the determination of mobility trends are less adequate today than two or three decades ago. It is widely believed in political and in media circles that social mobility is in decline. But the evidence so far available from sociological research, focused on intergenerational class mobility, is not supportive of this view. We present results based on a newly‐constructed dataset covering four birth cohorts that provides improved data for the study of trends in class mobility and that also allows analyses to move from the twentieth into the twenty‐first century. These results confirm that there has been no decline in mobility, whether considered in absolute or relative terms. In the case of women, there is in fact evidence of mobility increasing. However, the better quality and extended range of our data enable us to identify other ‘mobility problems’ than the supposed decline. Among the members of successive cohorts, the experience of absolute upward mobility is becoming less common and that of absolute downward mobility more common; and class‐linked inequalities in relative chances of mobility and immobility appear wider than previously thought.     

Trend Analysis of Anticipated Lifetime Income Inequality among Post‐war Japanese Youth

This study aims to measure the inequality of anticipated lifetime income and the inequality of annual income among the younger generation (24–29‐year‐old men), and to examine any trends that can be found in terms of inequality between 1955 and 2005 in Japan. Anticipated lifetime income is defined in this study as the present value of the total anticipated annual income that one is likely to earn each year between the ages of 24 and 59 years, assuming that there is no intragenerational class mobility. The anticipated lifetime income for each young male is estimated using the Social Stratification and Social Mobility Survey dataset, which is a Japanese national cross‐sectional survey of social stratification and social mobility. An inequality in the anticipated lifetime income can be regarded as an “inequality of outlook” among the younger generation. As a result of this analysis, it was found that the Gini coefficient, the most general measurement of income inequality, had significantly increased for anticipated lifetime income between 1995 and 2005. At the same time, the gap between the Gini coefficient of anticipated lifetime income and that of annual income had narrowed. It is suggested that “inequality of outlook,” which cannot be easily identified using a superficial index, has increased significantly.     

The poor,the rich and the happy: Exploring the link between income and subjective well-being

The relationship between income and subjective well-being (SWB) is investigated using eight waves of the British Household Panel Survey and an estimation strategy that allows us to relax some assumptions typically made in the literature. First, we use a random effects generalised ordered probit model to investigate whether income effects are heterogeneous across SWB categories, and, second, we discretise (absolute and relative) income variables to allow for the income effects to vary across income groups. We find that higher absolute income increases SWB but up to a certain level, while low income is significantly correlated with low scores in the SWB ladder. Our results are consistent with the Easterlin Paradox that has been reported in the literature. We find that high-income groups are less likely to belong in the highest SWB level, which could be partly explained by the fact that the relative income status (rather than the absolute one) is more important in determining (the highest level of) SWB.     

Do comprehensive schools reduce social mobility?1

This paper investigates the claim that the shift from a selective to a comprehensive school system had a deleterious effect on social mobility in Great Britain. Using data from the National Child Development Study, we compare the chances, for both class and income mobility, of those who attended different kinds of school. Where media attention focuses exclusively on the chances for upward mobility of those children from lowly origins who were (or would have been) judged worthy of selection into a grammar school, we offer more rounded analyses. We match respondents in a way that helps us to distinguish those inequalities in mobility chances that are due to differences between children from those due to differences between the schools they attended; we look at the effects of the school system on the mobility chances of all children, not merely those from less advantaged origins; and we compare comprehensive- and selective-system schools, not merely comprehensive and grammar schools. After matching, we find, first, that going to a grammar school rather than a comprehensive does not make low-origin children more likely to be upwardly mobile but it helps them move further if they are; second, that grammar schools do not benefit working-class children, in terms of class mobility, more than they benefit service-class children, but, in terms of income mobility, such schools benefit low-income children somewhat more than they benefit higher-income children - that benefit relating only to rather modest and limited movements within the income distribution. Finally, however, the selective system as a whole yields no mobility advantage of any kind to children from any particular origins: any assistance to low-origin children provided by grammar schools is cancelled out by the hindrance suffered by those who attended secondary moderns. Overall, our findings suggest that comprehensive schools were as good for mobility as the selective schools they replaced.     

One size doesn’t fit all: a quantile analysis of intergenerational income mobility in the U.S. (1980–2010)

Conventional wisdom and previous literature suggest that economic mobility is lower at the tails of the income distribution. However, the few studies that have estimated intergenerational income elasticity (IGE) at different points of the distribution in the U.S. were limited by small samples, arrived at disparate results, and had not estimated the trend of elasticity over time. Using the PSID database, a large sample of income observations in the 1980–2010 period for the U.S. is built, which allows us to obtain robust quantile estimates of the IGE both for the pooled sample and for each wave. For the pooled sample, the IGE shows a U-shaped relation with the income distribution, with higher values at the tails (0.64 at the tenth percentile and 0.48 at the ninety-fifth percentile) and a minimum value –highest mobility- of 0.38 at the seventieth percentile. The trend evolution of the IGE also varies across the income distribution: at the lower and mid quantiles, income mobility increased during the 80s and 90s but declined in the 00s, while for the higher quantiles it remained relatively stable along the whole period. Finally, the impact of education and race on mobility is evaluated. Both factors are found to be important and related to the position at the income distribution.     

Interfamily economic exchange: A function of culture or economics?

This study explores differences in inter-household exchange of goods and services in Anglo- and Mexican-American families controlling for income level and for ethnicity. The extent of such exchange, its perceived importance to the family's quality of life, satisfaction with the exchange, and the relation of persons in the exchange process are examined. Significant differences are found more often between higher income Anglo- and Mexican-Americans than between low-income families, both in the family providing goods and services for others and in the receipt of them. Higher income Mexican-American families are more likely than their Anglo- counterparts to exchange with relatives. Ethnic effects are more prevalent in higher income households than in low-income households. Economic effects are more predominant than ethnic effects.This study contributes to interregional Agricultural Experiment Station Research Project NC-128, Quality of Life as Influenced by Area of Residence. Cooperating states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Texas.Flora L. Williams' current research interests include income adequacy, financial problems, and indicators of change in economic well-being. She is an Associate Professor, Consumer Sciences and Retailing, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907.     

Race,Gender, and Social Exchange in Young Adult Unions

Abstract

Social scientists often conceptualize romantic partner selection as an asymmetric exchange in which partners of different race or gender offer different desired qualities. For example, white women might leverage racial status into upward mobility by marrying socioeconomically advantaged minority men, or minority women might exchange beauty, sexual access, and domestic services for white men’s higher racial status and income. However, such approaches frequently assume gender and race asymmetry in preferences—for example, that men attach greater value to potential partners’ physical attractiveness than women do. These assumptions may be unwarranted, especially among contemporary young couples. In turn, assuming asymmetry in exchange can generate misleading results if partnering patterns are actually symmetric. Accordingly, we use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), including a supplementary sample of romantic partners, to reconsider recent findings with an emphasis on evaluating (a)symmetry.     

WHAT DRIVES SECOND GENERATION SUCCESS? THE ROLES OF EDUCATION,CULTURE, AND CONTEXT

I explore differences in intergenerational income mobility among second generation Australians—why do some communities do better or worse than would be expected from first generation incomes alone? I present a new decomposition of this exceptional income mobility, finding exceptional educational mobility drives many of these differences. Drawing on rich survey and test score data, I provide evidence that educational mobility partly reflects a role for culture—but also the wider context of migration. In particular, migrants facing higher first generation income penalties tend to aspire to and acquire more education, and see it as more important to success. (JEL J62, F22, I2)     

DO POSITIONAL CONCERNS DESTROY SOCIAL CAPITAL: EVIDENCE FROM 26 COUNTRIES

Research on the effects of positional concerns on individuals' attitudes and behavior is sorely lacking. To address this deficiency, we use the International Social Survey Programme 1998 data on 25,000 individuals from 26 countries to investigate the impact of relative income position on three facets of social capital: horizontal and vertical trust as well as norm compliance. Testing relative deprivation theory, we identify a deleterious positional income effect for persons below the reference income, particularly for their social trust and confidence in secular institutions. Also often a social capital‐lowering effect of relative income advantage occurs, while a rise in absolute income almost always contributes positively. These results indicate that a rise in income inequality in a society too large is rather detrimental to the formation of social capital. (JEL Z130, I300, D310)     

Ethical indices of income mobility

Ethical indices of income mobility measure the change in welfare resulting from mobility. The concept of mobility we explore consists of a welfare comparison between the actual time path of the income distribution with a hypothetical time path obtained by supposing that starting from the actual first-period distribution, the remaining income receipts exhibit complete immobility.     

A deprivation-based axiomatic characterization of the absolute Bonferroni index of inequality

We investigate several properties of the Bonferroni inequality index, including its welfare theoretic interpretation. We also interpret and characterize the absolute Bonferroni index as the average of subgroup average depression indices, where to each income we associate a subgroup containing all persons whose incomes are not higher than this income. An aggregate depression index for a subgroup has been derived axiomatically as the sum of gaps between the subgroup highest income and all incomes not higher than that.      

Has social mobility in Britain decreased? Reconciling divergent findings on income and class mobility

Social mobility has become a topic of central political concern. In political and also media circles it is widely believed that in Britain today mobility is in decline. However, this belief appears to be based on a single piece of research by economists that is in fact concerned with intergenerational income mobility: specifically, with the relation between family income and children's later earnings. Research by sociologists using the same data sources – the British birth cohort studies of 1958 and 1970 – but focusing on intergenerational class mobility does not reveal a decline either in total mobility rates or in underlying relative rates. The paper investigates these divergent findings. We show that they do not result from the use of different subsets of the data or of different analytical techniques. Instead, given the more stable and generally less fluid class mobility regime, it is the high level of income mobility of the 1958 cohort, rather than the lower level of the 1970 cohort, that is chiefly in need of explanation. Further analyses – including ones of the relative influence of parental class and of family income on children's educational attainment – suggest that the economists' finding of declining mobility between the two cohorts may stem, in part at least, from the fact that the family income variable for the 1958 cohort provides a less adequate measure of ‘permanent income’ than does that for the 1970 cohort. But, in any event, it would appear that the class mobility regime more fully captures the continuity in economic advantage and disadvantage that persists across generations.     

Social Exchange Theory and the Division of Household Labor in Same-Sex Couples

Same-sex couples are often not seen as a family unit and are excluded from research, including family research on topics such as household division of labor. The author examined division of household labor, using social exchange theory, among 165 survey respondents in a same-sex relationship. Division of labor was measured by the percentage of tasks performed according to the respondent. Status differences between partners (e.g., higher, equal, lower) in terms of income, education, hours spent on paid labor outside the home, employment status, age, and race (here, only same or different races) were the independent variables. In general, as predicted by social exchange theory, partners with greater resources or power performed fewer household tasks. Satisfaction with division of labor and sense of being appreciated for one's contributions to household tasks were positively correlated with global relationship satisfaction. However, some inconsistencies indicate gaps in social exchange theory and that other factors may be important in understanding division of labor among same-sex couples.     

CONSOLIDATING THE EVIDENCE ON INCOME MOBILITY IN THE WESTERN STATES OF GERMANY AND THE UNITED STATES FROM 1984 TO 2006

The cross‐national intragenerational literature has often analyzed income mobility within short time periods over which mobility might reasonably be thought of as invariant. Here, we argue that a great social transformation—German reunification—abruptly and permanently altered mobility. Using standard measures (with panel data for the western states of Germany and the United States) over the period 1984–2006, we find the conventional result that income mobility is greater in Germany. But when we cut the data into 5‐year windows, we find that income mobility declines significantly over the years immediately following reunification in Germany but not in the United States, using both measures. (JEL J1, J6)     

Industrialization, class structure, and social mobility in postwar Japan

This study examines intergenerational class mobility in Japan using cross-national comparisons with Western nations and cross-temporal comparisons of five national surveys conducted in postwar Japan. Cross-national comparisons highlight the similarity in relative mobility pattern between Japan and Western nations and at the same time the Japanese distinctiveness in absolute mobility rates especially regarding the demographic character of the Japanese manual working class. The results of cross-temporal comparisons of mobility pattern report some systematic trends in total mobility, inflow and outflow rates, reflecting the Japanese experience of late but rapid industrialization. The pattern of association between class origin and class destination, however, was stable in postwar Japan. It is therefore the combination of distinctive absolute mobility rates and similar relative mobility rates that characterizes the Japanese mobility pattern in comparison with the Western experience. Furthermore, Japan's distinctive pattern of postwar social mobility is characterized by a combination of rapidly changing absolute mobility rates and comparatively stable relative mobility rates.     

Income Inequality and Chronic Health Conditions: A Multilevel Analysis of the U.S. States

Recently, scholarly work has examined the effect of rising income inequality on health outcomes. However, this work is somewhat inconclusive. The mechanisms that could produce such an association are still being sorted out. Much of this work focuses on mortality outcomes with little attention to how this process operates for actual health conditions, including chronic health problems—arguably the main public health concerns of the developed world. In a series of multilevel binary logistic regression models using data from the 2005 and 2007 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, we examine the association between state-level income inequality, poverty, and social welfare measures on spending and policy to examine the association between these factors for three chronic health outcomes: diabetes, hypertension, and coronary heart disease. We find that income inequality is conditionally positively related only to the diagnosis of diabetes and hypertension, and only in 2007. However, absolute poverty is related to the outcome across all three dependent variables. Certain social welfare measures attenuate the effects of both income inequality and absolute poverty, suggesting that some policies reduce this association.