Measuring Upward Mobility

Debraj Ray and Garance Genicot

No 29796, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We conceptualize and measure upward mobility over income or wealth. At the core of our exercise is the Growth Progressivity Axiom: transfers of instantaneous growth rates from relatively rich to poor individuals increases upward mobility. This axiom, along with mild auxiliary restrictions, identifies an “upward mobility kernel" with a single free parameter, in which mobility is linear in individual growth rates, with geometrically declining weights on baseline incomes. We extend this kernel to trajectories over intervals. The analysis delivers an upward mobility index that does not rely on panel data. That significantly expands our analytical scope to data-poor settings.

JEL-codes: D63 I32 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-02
Note: DEV EFG
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published as Debraj Ray & Garance Genicot, 2023. "Measuring Upward Mobility," American Economic Review, vol 113(11), pages 3044-3089.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w29796.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Measuring Upward Mobility (2023)
Working Paper: Measuring Upward Mobility (2022)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29796

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w29796

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().