Research

Income Inequality

Professor Deborah Mitchell
Dr Trevor Breusch

Leading US and UK studies have found high levels of income mobility over time. Analyses of the Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the British Household Panel Survey show that relatively small proportions of those with low incomes at any one time are subject to long-term poverty, and as a corollary, relatively large numbers of the population experience low incomes at some time in their lives. Substantial income changes are connected with major life course events such as marriage, divorce and childbirth, as well as movements in and out of the labour market.

NLC research in this area is currently focussed on exploring the dynamics of income between the first two waves of the Negotiating the Lifecourse survey and relate the observed income changes to other life course events.