EIGENVALUE IMMOBILITY MEASURES FOR MARKOV-CHAINS

Two eigenvalue measures of immobility are proposed for social processes described by a Markov chain. One is the second largest eigenvalue modulus of the chain's transition matrix. The other is the second largest eigenvalue modulus of a closely related transition matrix. The two eigenvalue measures are compared to each other and to correlation and regression-to-the-mean measures. In illustrative applications to intergenerational occupational mobility, the eigenvectors corresponding to the eigenvalue measures are found to be good proxies for occupational status rankings for a number of countries, thus reinforcing a pattern noted by Klatsky and Hodge and by Duncan-Jones. © 1979, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.