Letter to the National Post (November 23, 2012) This article on the Fraser Institute’s take on income mobility confuses personal income growth with (inter-generational) income mobility. Over a course of a lifetime income rises as people get promoted, etc., and typically peaks in the 40s and 50s. So there’s no surprise that 83% of the lowest earners move up the income ladder over a decade. Income mobility, as it is commonly understood or measured by economists, looks at how well parental income predicts offspring income. What is important to know is where in the income distribution were Charles Lammam’s parents at similar age-experience profile. Studies on inter-generational income mobility (a.k.a. “economic mobility”) show greater portability of Canadian society vis-à-vis the United States; however, this does not negate the fact that income inequality, especially at the very top end, has been on a steep rise in Canada. Kai Chan, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Letter as it appeared in the NP © 2012 National Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized distribution, transmission or republication strictly prohibited.
This topic was first presented at the Asia Global Institute (AGI) on the campus of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) on 11 Jan 2019. It was subsequently also shared at: The Conference Board of Canada - CBC (Banff): 17 Oct 2019 Oliver Wyman (Montreal): 03 May 2019 HKU SPACE (Hong Kong): 28 Mar 2019 Centre for the Study of Living Standards - CSLS (Ottawa): 18 Mar 2019 Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business - CKGSB (Beijing): 21 Jan 2019 The version presented at the Conference Board of Canada (National Immigration Centre) is available here. 
