RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The name says it all Multigenerational social mobility in Basel (Switzerland), 1550–2019
JF Journal of Human Resources
JO J Hum Resour
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 0621-11749R2
DO 10.3368/jhr.0621-11749R2
A1 Häner, Melanie
A1 Schaltegger, Christoph A.
YR 2022
UL http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2022/01/04/jhr.0621-11749R2.abstract
AB We analyze multigenerational social mobility by drawing on a novel hand-collected dataset from Basel (1550–2019) and using a new surname-based approach. We find an average parent-child persistence of about 0.4 and an average grandparent-child persistence of about 0.2 in a three-generational model applied to a time span of more than 450 years. A cyclical pattern indicates that social mobility was lowest in wartime generations, with spreading afterward. We measure a statistically significant additional influence of the grandparental generation but not of earlier generations. This reveals the importance of multigenerational analyses to examine equal opportunities in society.