New analyses of personal income distribution in Germany, based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), show that the disparity in income distribution decreased in Germany in the period 2006-2010. However, this decline comes to a halt in 2011. The most influential forces for...

Assessments of whose income growth is the greatest and whose is the smallest are typically based on comparisons of income changes for income groups (e.g. rich versus poor) or income values (e.g. quantiles). However, income group and quantile composition changes over time because of income...

This paper considers the phenomenon of income mobility during the process of economic transition in Russia. The study is based on the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) data. The process of economic transition has generated sharp changes in the distribution of income among Russian...

The paper presents a decomposition of income mobility indices into two basic sources: Mobility induced by a change of the income distribution shape and mobility induced by a re-ordering of individuals in the income pecking order. The decomposition procedure based on counterfactual distributions...

We provide an analytical framework within which changes in income inequality over time are related to the pattern of income growth across the income range, and the reshuffling of individuals in the income pecking order. We use it to explain how it was possible both for ‘the poor’ to have...

This paper develops a framework for the quantitative analysis of individual income dynamics, mobility and welfare. Individual income is assumed to follow a stochastic process with two (unobserved) components, an i.i.d. component representing measurement error or transitory income shocks and an...

We examine the determinants of low income transitions using first-order Markov models that control for initial conditions effects (those found to be poor in the base year may be a non-random sample) and for attrition (panel retention may also be non-random). Our econometric model is a form of...

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), this paper analyzes the dynamics of equivalent income in Germany in the eighties and nineties. Special emphasis is given to the separation of permanent and transitory components, the persistence of transitory shocks and their implications...