The paper proposes an approach to evaluate hypotheses about transition dynamics when only the distributions at two points in time are observed. Using the principle of statistical mechanics, we show how to adjust in the most probable way a hypothesis so that it becomes compatible with the...

Based on a relative entropy approach, this paper proposes a method to estimate or update transition matrices using just cross-sectional observations at two points in time. The method is then applied to explain the development of the US income distribution. Starting from three hypothesized...

The paper proposes an approach to evaluate hypotheses about transition dynamics when only the distributions at two points in time are observed. Using the principle of statistical mechanics, we show how to adjust in the "most probable" way a hypothesis so that it becomes compatible with the...

We propose an approach to measure the mobility immanent in regular Markov processes. For this purpose, we distinguish between mobility in equilibrium and mobility associated with convergence towards equilibrium. The former aspect is measured as the expectation of a functional, defined on the...

Based on a relative entropy approach, this paper proposes a method to estimate or update transition matrices using just cross-sectional observations at two points in time. The method is then applied to explain the development of the US income distribution. Starting from three hypothesized...

The paper proposes an approach to evaluate hypotheses about transition dynamics when only the distributions at two points in time are observed. Using principles of statistical mechanics, we show how to adjust in the "most probable" way a hypothesis such that it becomes compatible with the...

We propose an approach to measure the mobility immanent in regular Markov processes. For this purpose, we distinguish between mobility in equilibrium and mobility associated with convergence towards equilibrium. The former aspect is measured as the expectation of a functional, defined on the...

We propose an approach to measure the mobility immanent in Markov processes. For this purpose, we distinguish between mobility in equilibrium and mobility associated with convergence towards equilibrium. The former aspect is measured as the expectation of a functional, defined on the Cartesian...

This paper proposes to measure the mobility of a stochastic process as the expected value of a "mobility functional" with respect to its stationary distribution. The mobility functional thereby measures the valuation of movements between states. We not only highlight the conceptual advantages of...