Spatiotemporal analysis of multiscale income mobility in China

Income mobility is an important issue that can balance equity and efficiency in economic development. Specifically, income mobility is one of the most effective metrics for addressing the problem of income inequality and also a useful criterion for judging the vitality of economic development. Given its increasing regional income inequality, the study of regional income mobility is particularly significant for China. Considering the scale-dependent nature of income distribution, this article explores regional income mobility at multiple scales, including provincial, economic region and national from 1985 to 2015 under an analytical framework integrating a global indicator of mobility association (GIMA) and a family of local indicators of mobility association (LIMAs). The results can be used to fairly and comprehensively evaluate the levels of multiscale regional income mobility by combining corresponding regional economic policies. Based on the eight economic zones, intraregional concordance and interregional mobility are found to be the main characteristics of income mobility in the past few decades in China. This article concludes that policies aiming to increase income mobility in China should accelerate regional economic integration and develop leading cities to drive the economic development of the province.