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Yes, after reading the article I'm not sure how they correct for the stark differences between places. Are the quintiles done locally or nationally? If they're
by Tarrosion 13y ago
Yes, after reading the article I'm not sure how they correct for the stark differences between places. Are the quintiles done locally or nationally? If they're done locally, then people who migrate are a problem for the statistics: it's very easy to move from bottom quintile to top quintile, just move from Palo Alto to rural Oklahoma. Or by excluding people who migrate, perhaps there are skewed effects.
But if the quintiles are national quintiles, not local quintiles, variation due to location still throws things off. The group of people in the 3rd national quintile living in Silicon Valley probably have quite different statistics than the group of folks in the 3rd national quintile living in a mid-size town.
- waveman2 13y agoOne of the criticisms of the study is just this point. A lot of the "upward mobility" is people moving to more expensive areas where they get somewhat higher pay but the cost of living is much higher. They may well be worse off, but in $USD terms they have moved up.
- yummyfajitas 13y agoGiven that physical mobility is down in the US, this means that income mobility for reasons other than physical mobility must have increased. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/magazine/why-are-so-many-americans-staying-put.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/magazine/why-are-so-many-a...