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Wed 12 April
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    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Thu 13 April
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    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
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Fri 14 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Sat 15 April
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    14.00 - 16.00

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Friday 14 April 2023 14.00 - 16.00
V-11 SOC12a Social Mobility I
Västra Hamngatan 25 AK2 134
Network: Social Inequality Chair: Ineke Maas
Organizers: - Discussant: Ineke Maas
Erik Bengtsson, Jakob Molinder & Svante Prado : Income Inequality in Sweden 1870–1970: Evidence from Micro Data
We present new estimates of the market income distribution in Sweden from 1870 to 1970, building on a new 1 % sample of taxpayers in 1870, 1900 and 1920, a 0.5 % sample in 1940 and 1950, the census in 1930 and a 1970 sample of all adult Swedes born ... (Show more)
We present new estimates of the market income distribution in Sweden from 1870 to 1970, building on a new 1 % sample of taxpayers in 1870, 1900 and 1920, a 0.5 % sample in 1940 and 1950, the census in 1930 and a 1970 sample of all adult Swedes born on the 15th day of a month. Going beyond the more aggregate level of previous studies of long-run income inequality to micro data with data on individuals, we bring out the importance of jobs and gender, and add a perspective including the entire income distribution, including low-income earners. For those who earned to little to pay tax (in 1900 70 %, in 1950 33 %), we estimate incomes by using other sources. We show that inequality was very high in 1870, decreasing until the 1900s, with a temporary spike of top incomes in 1920. The rural sector was very unequal in 1870 (almost as unequal as the urban). Beyond the rural-urban composition, we also show that domestic service was a very large sector in the beginning of our period, with low wages, and the shift out of domestic service (especially for women) induced greater equality, when people shifted to higher-paid jobs. Generally, the upgrading of working-class jobs to better paid, more skilled jobs is important to understand the equalization of incomes. In 1870 low skilled farm labourers and domestic servants were a large part of the working class but by 1930 the jobs structure had been upgraded. We also investigate the role of capital incomes versus labour incomes for equalization, and themes such as the shift away from farming, the gender gap, and regional and urban-rural income differences. (Show less)

Gabriel Brea-Martinez, Finn Hedefalk & Vinicius Souza Maia : The Long-Term Effects of Childhood Poverty in Adult's SES Attainment. How Important is the Neighborhood? (Sweden, 1939-2015)
Childhood poverty increases the likelihood of being poor as an adult. However, we know relatively little about this transmission of poverty in the past. What spheres of exposure could be more critical, as if only poverty at family level or the neighborhood. This study both analyses determinants of childhood poverty ... (Show more)
Childhood poverty increases the likelihood of being poor as an adult. However, we know relatively little about this transmission of poverty in the past. What spheres of exposure could be more critical, as if only poverty at family level or the neighborhood. This study both analyses determinants of childhood poverty and assesses the association between childhood poverty and economic outcomes in adulthood for men and women who grew up in southern Sweden between 1947 and 1967, and who were followed to adulthood regardless of where in Sweden they resided. Poverty is measured in relative terms in two ways: yearly exposure to familial poverty and neighborhood of various sizes (using k-neighbor and squared-meter grid’s approach). We use longitudinal, geocoded (at the address level) socioeconomic and demographic microdata for the industrial city of Landskrona (Southern Sweden), 1939-1967, linked to national registers, 1968-2015. Analytically, the paper interacts with the importance of geographic distance and time length to age-specific exposure to poverty through different childhood stages. In this regard, the paper first assesses which childhood poverty exposure and intensity could be more detrimental for children’s adult socioeconomic performance. Second, the paper also establishes a quasi-experimental approach using sibling’s fixed effect to establish if moving to a better-off neighborhood or newly built social housing could enhance children’s future outcomes. The paper brings substantial evidence on the familial and spatial transmission of poverty worked in the past and whether it changed as modern welfare societies developed (Show less)

Felix Meier zu Selhausen, Marco H. D. van Leeuwen & Jacob Weisdorf : Father-to-Son Social Mobility in Colonial Freetown, 1860-1960
Did colonial rule restrict or benefit African social mobility? Using a unique data set on the occupations of Christian grooms and their fathers from 23,000 digitized marriages certificates in the Colony of Sierra Leone (Freetown), Africa’s first black settler colony, we investigate the evolution and determinants of intergenerational (father-to-son) social ... (Show more)
Did colonial rule restrict or benefit African social mobility? Using a unique data set on the occupations of Christian grooms and their fathers from 23,000 digitized marriages certificates in the Colony of Sierra Leone (Freetown), Africa’s first black settler colony, we investigate the evolution and determinants of intergenerational (father-to-son) social mobility over one century of British colonial rule. Using HISCLASS to classify occupations, this study documents that the Christian sons in Freetown were remarkably mobile (i.e. 80% of sons experienced either upward or downward mobility), in particular reaping the benefits of early mission schooling and access to formal urban labour markets, enabling them to take large steps up the social ladder regardless of their social origin and religion. Although, the sons of white-collar fathers were twice as likely to enter white-collar jobs than sons’ any other social origin, about one in three sons of medium-skilled and lower-skilled fathers attained white-collar status. We also study the channels through which mobility was achieved, documenting that the colonial administration and commercial enterprises, as well as employment in Christian mission churches and schools functioned as key steps on the ladder to upward mobility. Information on sons’ religion, marriage age, urban/rural residence (within Freetown), derived ethnicity, slave liberation descendance and literacy status allow us to explore some of the underlying determinants of mobility. We compare the occupations of sons and fathers with those stated in representative census and birth records from Sierra Leone to assess potential biases in the Christian marriage registers. (Show less)

Jordi Joan Tur Escandell, Gabriel Brea-Martinez & Joana-Maria Pujades-Mora : Socioeconomic Mobility and Economic Inequality in the Long Run in Southern Europe: the Area of Barcelona, 16th- 19th Centuries
This paper assesses the interrelation between economic inequality and social mobility in the long run. We use the unique Barcelona Historical Marriage Database for 1570-1880, accounting for more than 60,000 parents-children links. Analytically, we combine individuals' socioeconomic relative position for decomposing inequality individually in the overall population and by subgroups ... (Show more)
This paper assesses the interrelation between economic inequality and social mobility in the long run. We use the unique Barcelona Historical Marriage Database for 1570-1880, accounting for more than 60,000 parents-children links. Analytically, we combine individuals' socioeconomic relative position for decomposing inequality individually in the overall population and by subgroups (social class) with multilevel modelling. Our results show that social mobility was uneven in intensity and direction depending on the background. We highlight the significance of arguing relative mobility only with occupational or social group intergenerational mobility. In this sense, for instance, even if children of artisans and farmers achieved social mobility upward (as traders), they would still be much more likely to be disadvantaged in terms of inequality contribution than children of traders.


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