Considerations on some methodologies usually used for the study of social mobility tables. Benefits of an alternative based on Markov’s Chains

Abstract

Social mobility is a classic issue in social science and it have had different approaches. This paper presents some methodological tools for the analysis of social mobility based on transition matrixes. We will try to discuss the limits and scopes of some classical methodologies: inflows and outflows analysis, the mobility/ stability index, the one based on Joule´s Q coefficient wich has been developed by Andrea Tyree and log-linear models. These methodologies work under the assumption of «statistical independence » between the different moments of the mobility matrixes. We will try to show the utility that Markov`s chains have, because they allow to flexibilize these assumptions working with probabilistics mobility distribution (called «mobility matrixes»). We will propose some elements towards the construction of a «mobility index» and we will compare the results with the others methodologies of analysis. We will illustrate this ideas with secondary data wich come from other works.