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Who climbs the income ladder?: Cross-country evidence on income mobility from tax record data

Sebastian Königs and Javier Terrero-Dávila
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Javier Terrero Davila ()

No 322, OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: Income shocks and limited upward mobility can undermine people’s well-being and economic prospects. Most cross-country studies on income mobility over people’s lives rely on survey data, but small samples limit detailed analysis by socio-demographic group or segment of the distribution. This paper presents first results of an OECD initiative collecting and harmonising administrative microdata to study income dynamics across countries. Applying rank-rank methods, it measures relative mobility in disposable incomes over five years for working-age people in Austria, Belgium, Canada and Estonia. The paper shows that: i) income persistence is strongest at the bottom and top of the distribution; ii) young people experience larger shifts in income ranks, though not always greater upward mobility; iii) women experience weaker upward mobility than men, particularly in the bottom half of the distribution; and iv) people with tertiary education move up the income ladder, at the expense of those with lower education.

Keywords: Administrative Microdata; Income Distribution; Income Mobility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-06-27
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