Author: Erik Liss

Year: 2018

Income mobility is a cornerstone of liberalism and liberals have traditionally stood for the equality of opportunity. Erik Liss, ELF’s 2018 Research Coordinator, explores the income mobility trends in Scandinavia, Canada and Germany. He argues that if we have already picked all the low-hanging fruit in promoting income mobility – for instance, good public schools for everyone and egalitarian access to university – it is likely that the costs to achieve more income mobility will increase. Thus, reducing inequality and spurring upward mobility in a time of lower economic growth will be a major challenge for 21st-century liberalism.