The political economy of skills, occupational entitlements, and social mobility: evidence from industrializing Coventry, 1790-1850

Lou Henderson and Moritz Kaiser

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This paper examines the interaction between political economy and social mobility during early industrialization in England. We analyze changes in male social mobility patterns in industrializing Coventry (c.1790–1850) following a transformation of key institutions affecting the labor market. Social mobility was framed by the interaction between trade policy, occupational skill formation, and municipal government. Using a longitudinal dataset and regression-discontinuity analysis, we find that liberal reforms to trade policy and municipal government during the late-1820s and early-1830s eroded the value of industry-specific social capital, while increasing the contribution of general human capital to social mobility.

Keywords: social mobility; human capital; industrialisation; labour markets; institutions; political economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2025-08-31
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pol
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Published in European Review of Economic History, 31, August, 2025, 29(3), pp. 385 - 411. ISSN: 1361-4916

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