Comparisons of income mobility profiles

Methods are developed for income mobility comparisons between countries or between population subgroups based on the construction of mobility profiles. Mobility profiles provide an evocative picture of both the magnitude of income changes in a population, and its distribution across the income range. Comparisons of mobility profiles permit assessments in which mobility among the poor is given greater weight than mobility among the rich. Non-intersection of mobility profiles is shown to correspond with unambiguous rankings according to a large class of functions for the social evaluation of mobility. Particular focus is put on generalized Gini social evaluation functions from which summary indices are derived to obtain complete orderings. An empirical application based on the European Community Household Panel survey illustrates the usefulness of the methods and show how they can be used to shed new light on 'pro-poor growth' issues.