Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Sebastian Königs
Author-Name: Javier Terrero-Dávila
Title: Who climbs the income ladder?: Cross-country evidence on income mobility from tax record data
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.
Classification-JEL: D31; I31
Keywords: Administrative Microdata, Income Distribution, Income Mobility
Creation-Date: 2025-06-27
Number: 322
Handle: RePEc:oec:elsaab:322-EN