Measuring Social Mobility as Unpredictability

C-Tier
Journal: Economica
Year: 2001
Volume: 68
Issue: 269
Pages: 63-76

Authors (2)

Score contribution per author:

0.503 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 0.5x C-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

By associating mobility with the unpredictability of social states, new measures of social mobility may be constructed. We propose a family of three state‐by‐state and aggregate (scalar) predictability measures. The first set of measures is based on the transition matrix. The second uses a sampling approach and permits statistical testing of the hypothesis of perfect mobility, providing a new justification for the use of the χ2 statistic. The third satisfies the demanding criterion of ‘period consistency’. An empirical example demonstrates the usefulness of the new measures to complement existing ones in the literature.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:bla:econom:v:68:y:2001:i:269:p:63-76
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-28