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The name says it all. Multigenerational social mobility in Switzerland, 1550-2019

Author

Listed:
  • Häner, Melanie
  • Schaltegger, Christoph A.

Abstract

Social mobility is a key element of meritocratic societies. We analyze multigenerational social mobility with a hand-collected yearly Swiss dataset from 1550 to 2019. With our surname-based approach, we measure the Swiss society's overall permeability over more than 450 years. Furthermore, we can provide insights into the distinct influence of the respective parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. We measure an average persistence rate of 0.42 over 15 generations and show how close the different social status indicators match with each other. A cyclical pattern indicates that social mobility was lowest in wartime generations with a spreading afterwards. Furthermore, we measure a significant influence of the grandparental generation but not for earlier generations. A purely two-generation view thus overestimates persistence. This reveals the importance of multigenerational social mobility analyses to examine equal opportunities in society. Overall, we conclude that our surname-based approach is suitable to investigate society's multigenerational permeability.

Suggested Citation

  • Häner, Melanie & Schaltegger, Christoph A., 2021. "The name says it all. Multigenerational social mobility in Switzerland, 1550-2019," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242355, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:vfsc21:242355
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    multigenerational social mobility; education; wealth; guilds; surnames;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • N33 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: Pre-1913

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