Ensuring that the poorest people do not persistently stay poor and enabling sufficient income mobility can help to prevent long spells of poverty and their damaging impact, for example in terms of social exclusion. In that sense, income mobility provides “a short way from rags to riches” (Jendemy, 2016). A society where people ranking in the top incomes are not persistently the same can be preferred to a society where there is no turnover among people ranking at the top.2 Similarly, if inequality reflects discrimination against certain groups or the results of cultural, ethnic or family backgrounds, it is likely that income mobility can contribute to a more equal society. Excessive" income mobility, in the sense of frequent and uncertain income changes, can also be associated with greater income insecurity.