Changing Fortunes: Income Mobility and Poverty Dynamics in Britain
Changing Fortunes: Income Mobility and Poverty Dynamics in Britain
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财富的变化：英国的收入流动性和贫困动态
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发表时间：
2011
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影响因子：
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通讯作者：
S. Jenkins
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
S. Jenkins
今天，关于英国人收入的大多数信息，比如官方统计数据，都告诉我们某一年有多少不平等或有多少穷人，并将这些数字与前一年的相应统计数据进行比较。像这样的快照中缺少的信息是，某一年贫穷的人是否与下一年贫穷的人是同一批人;而那些中等收入或高收入的人的情况也没有随着时间的推移而被跟踪。这本书填补了缺失的信息。作者将英国的收入分配比作一栋多层公寓楼，不同楼层的居民人数对应于任何特定年份不同收入水平人群的集中程度。最穷的人住在地下室，最富的人住在顶层公寓，大多数人住在两者之间。这本书评估了楼层之间有多少移动，移动的频率，过去二十年来移动的距离是否发生了变化，以及地下室居民是否到达过顶层公寓。自1991年以来，英国家庭小组调查每年都对同一批人进行跟踪和采访，它记录了英国收入流动和贫困动态的模式，显示了它们在过去二十年中的变化，并探讨了原因。它提请人们注意收入变化与人们生活其他方面变化之间的关系--不仅是他们的工作、收入、福利和信贷，而且还有他们所生活的家庭（人们结婚和离婚;孩子出生）。随着时间的推移，趋势也与英国劳动力市场的变化以及工党政府在20世纪90年代末推出的税收福利制度改革有关。
Most information about the incomes of people in Britain today, such as provided by official statistics, tells us how much inequality there is or how many poor people there are in a given year and compares those numbers with the corresponding statistics from the previous year. Missing from snapshot pictures like these is information about whether the people who were poor one year are the same people who are poor the following year; and the circumstances of those with middle-income or top-income origins are not tracked over time. This book fills in the missing information. The author likens Britain's income distribution to a multi-story apartment building with the numbers of residents on the different floors corresponding to the concentration of people at different income levels in any particular year. The poorest are in the basement, the richest are in the penthouse, and the majority somewhere in between. This book assesses how much movement there is between floors, the frequency of moves, whether the distance travelled has been changing over the last two decades, and whether basement dwellers ever reach the penthouse. Using the British Household Panel Survey, which has followed and interviewed the same people annually since 1991, it documents the patterns of income mobility and poverty dynamics in Britain, shows how they have changed over the last two decades, and explores the reasons why. It draws attention to the relationships between changes in income and changes in other aspects of people's lives - not only in their jobs, earnings, benefits, and credits, but also in the households within which they live (people marry and divorce; children are born). Trends over time are also related to changes in Britain's labour market and the reforms to the tax-benefit system introduced by the Labour government in the late-1990s.