Using rare surnames to track the descendants of two formerly elite groups in Japan – the Samurai, and the Kazoku of 1869-1946 – we estimate social mobility rates in Japan 1900-2012. We would expect that the dramatic social changes of Meiji Japan 1868-1946, and postwar Japan 1946-2012, would create substantial social mobility. However, we find high rates of persistence of the descendants of the ...

Many communities in Mozambique fi nd themselves in the rural-urban interface, either Many communities in Mozambique fi nd themselves in the rural-urban interface, either by being small towns or rural areas in the vicinity of cities. There is growing evidence by being small towns or rural areas in the vicinity of cities. There is growing evidence that the households and individuals who manage to...

This report sets out to illustrate the origin of family incomes and abilities of those entering into the Professions across time. It is for submission to the Panel for Fair Access to the Professions.

Introduction and Summary Each historical era creates a system of education that addresses its needs. In the 19th century, the educational revolution was driven by a radical shift from family-centric production to manufacturing and industrial organization, and the associated rapid urbanization and social mobility in industrializing countries. In this process, the home, the workplace, community l...

Dispersion or Concentration for the 1.5 Generation? Destination Choices of the Children of Immigrants in the US This paper examines determinants of inter-metropolitan destination choice for foreign-born and 1.5 generation adult children of immigrants in the US. An immigrant concentrationweighted accessibility parameter is included to assess the spatial structure of destination choice. A compara...

This paper focuses on the central problem of the strong work ethic underlying capitalism. Historians and sociologists have found it impossible to determine why this arose or to what it is related. Comparing Japan and England, I first look at some social structural features common to both civilizations, in particular the large middling strata, social mobility, and the absence of family security....

This paper exploits a rich data source to provide new measures of social mobility in England and Wales from 1851 to 1901. Existing measures of intergenerational mobility derived from marriage registries fail to control for life-cycle differences between father and son. Correcting for this reveals significantly more mobility across generations than previous estimates: half of all sons occupy a d...

2.1 Investment in education has played a central role in Sri Lankan government policy for several generations. Key aims of public education policy have included: (i) enhancing economic equity; (ii) promoting inter-generational social mobility; (iii) increasing labor productivity and earnings through human capital accumulation; and (iv) producing a healthy and prosperous society. The economic an...

We study the information contained in surnames on the socioeconomic status of people in Spain. We find that people bearing uncommon surnames tend to enjoy a higher socioeconomic status than people bearing more common surnames. This bias is statistically very significant and robust to di erent measures of socioeconomic status, and it holds at the national aggregate level as well as at the region...