Will removing inbound links harm PR?

[bleached]

When a boast in PR is received after a link campaign say from PR3 to PR5, what would happen if suddenly the inbound links that have caused this boast are removed from that linking site (for example a link from yahoo directory)? Back to PR3? Does PR come and go with the actual links pointing to your site?

[JS_Harris]

There are several factors at work here and so a definitive answer for your site would only apply to your site but IN GENERAL the benefit from such links being removed would cause Google to adjust rankings on the fly fairly quickly and other search engines to adjust rankings more slowly.

You won't see a difference in toolbar PR until an update and sometimes a brand new high PR link doesn't give you any benefit until it "matures" and is accepted as a qualified backlink and so losing such links will change nothing.

Not every link is created equal unfortunately... makes it hard to answer your question. Work on internal link structure and solid word of mouth and you'll do well anyway.

[nealrodriguez]

what would happen if suddenly the inbound links that have caused this boast are removed from that linking site (for example a link from yahoo directory)? Back to PR3? Does PR come and go with the actual links pointing to your site?

link loss is something you should either try to prevent or supplement by replacing links with links which are collectively equal or of higher quality.