Social Mobility in Sweden before the Welfare State
(2023) In Journal of Economic History 102(5).- Abstract
We use historical census data to show that Sweden exhibited high levels of intergenerational occupational mobility several decades before the rise of the welfare state. Mobility rates were higher than in other nineteenth- and twentieth-century European countries, closer to those observed in the highly mobile nineteenth-century United States. We leverage mobility variation across Swedish municipalities to shed light on potential determinants: economic growth and migration are positively correlated with mobility, consistent with the patterns observed across countries.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/9a01eac7-0b7d-482b-8118-eeecf748df26
- author
- Berger, Thor LU ; Engzell, Per ; Eriksson, Björn LU and Molinder, Jakob LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Journal of Economic History
- volume
- 102
- issue
- 5
- publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85151480693
- ISSN
- 0022-0507
- DOI
- 10.1017/S0022050723000098
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 9a01eac7-0b7d-482b-8118-eeecf748df26
- date added to LUP
- 2023-05-23 09:50:48
- date last changed
- 2023-05-23 09:50:48
@article{9a01eac7-0b7d-482b-8118-eeecf748df26, abstract = {{<p>We use historical census data to show that Sweden exhibited high levels of intergenerational occupational mobility several decades before the rise of the welfare state. Mobility rates were higher than in other nineteenth- and twentieth-century European countries, closer to those observed in the highly mobile nineteenth-century United States. We leverage mobility variation across Swedish municipalities to shed light on potential determinants: economic growth and migration are positively correlated with mobility, consistent with the patterns observed across countries.</p>}}, author = {{Berger, Thor and Engzell, Per and Eriksson, Björn and Molinder, Jakob}}, issn = {{0022-0507}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{5}}, publisher = {{Cambridge University Press}}, series = {{Journal of Economic History}}, title = {{Social Mobility in Sweden before the Welfare State}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0022050723000098}}, doi = {{10.1017/S0022050723000098}}, volume = {{102}}, year = {{2023}}, }