Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in Great Britain and the United States since 1850: Comment

Yu Xie and Alexandra Killewald

American Economic Review, 2013, vol. 103, issue 5, 2003-20

Abstract: Using historical census and survey data, Long and Ferrie (2013) found a significant decline in social mobility in the United States from 1880 to 1973. We present two critiques of the Long-Ferrie study. First, the data quality of the Long-Ferrie study is more limiting than the authors acknowledge. Second, and more critically, they applied a method ill-suited for measuring social mobility of farmers in a comparative study between 1880 and 1973, a period in which the proportion of farmers dramatically declined in the United States. We show that Long and Ferrie's main conclusion is all driven by this misleading result for farmers.

JEL-codes: J62 N31 N32 N51 N52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.103.5.2003
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

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