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Probability Models for Mobility

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Probability in Social Science

Part of the book series: Mathematical Modeling ((MMO,volume 1a))

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Abstract

We are a mobile society. Movement up the social ladder, movement among occupations and ranks in employment, movement from one residential location to another are all routine. It is not surprising that mobility has been studied at great length by social scientists, especially by sociologists, economists, and demographers. Many probability models have been introduced in an attempt to understand the possible dynamics of the observed transition process among social, occupational, income, or geographic states followed by subjects in studies of social, occupational, income, or geographic mobility. One seeks some reasonably concise set of assumptions of how people behave that will fit experimentally obtained mobility data. As we shall see, the simplest Markov chain model assuming a homogeneous population produces theoretical projections that deviate significantly from observed values. Much subsequent research was therefore focused on developing ways to accommodate population heterogeneity. Our aim here is to survey a small part of this work, following a line of research initiated by Blumen, Kogan, and McCarthy (BKM) [3] in their study of intragenerational labor mobility.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics, Oberlin College, 44074, Oberlin, Ohio, USA

    Samuel Goldberg

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  1. Samuel Goldberg
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© 1983 Birkhäuser Boston, Inc.

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Goldberg, S. (1983). Probability Models for Mobility. In: Probability in Social Science. Mathematical Modeling, vol 1a. Birkhäuser Boston. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5616-8_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5616-8_6

  • Publisher Name: Birkhäuser Boston

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-5618-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-5616-8

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