Occupational mobility during South Africa's industrial take-off
(2018) In South African Journal of Economics 86(1). p.3-22- Abstract
- In the absence of historical income or education data, the change in occupations over time can be used as a measure of mobility. This paper investigates intergenerational occupational mobility using a novel genealogical dataset for settler South Africa, spanning its transition from an agricultural to an early industrialised society (1800-1909). We identify fathers and sons for whom we have complete information on occupational attainment. We follow a two-generation discrete approach to measure changes in both absolute and relative mobility over time. Consistent with qualitative evidence of a shift away from agriculture as the economy’s dominant sector, we see the farming class shrinking and the skilled and professional classes growing.... (More)
- In the absence of historical income or education data, the change in occupations over time can be used as a measure of mobility. This paper investigates intergenerational occupational mobility using a novel genealogical dataset for settler South Africa, spanning its transition from an agricultural to an early industrialised society (1800-1909). We identify fathers and sons for whom we have complete information on occupational attainment. We follow a two-generation discrete approach to measure changes in both absolute and relative mobility over time. Consistent with qualitative evidence of a shift away from agriculture as the economy’s dominant sector, we see the farming class shrinking and the skilled and professional classes growing. Controlling for changes in the structure of the labour market over time, we find increasing mobility, becoming significant after the discovery of minerals in 1868. We find this mobility particularly for semiskilled workers but virtually no improved mobility for sons of farmers. We also test hypotheses related to the mobility prospects for first-born sons and sons of immigrants. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1ecd9e03-4633-427a-8e1c-c7246c75ad23
- author
- Cilliers, Jeanne LU and Fourie, Johan
- organization
- publishing date
- 2018
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- intergenerational mobility, occupational mobility, resource curse, industrialisation, colonialism, J60, J61, J62, N30, N37
- in
- South African Journal of Economics
- volume
- 86
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 3 - 22
- publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85033782774
- ISSN
- 0038-2280
- DOI
- 10.1111/saje.12177
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 1ecd9e03-4633-427a-8e1c-c7246c75ad23
- date added to LUP
- 2017-11-14 12:55:39
- date last changed
- 2022-03-24 22:20:57
@article{1ecd9e03-4633-427a-8e1c-c7246c75ad23, abstract = {{In the absence of historical income or education data, the change in occupations over time can be used as a measure of mobility. This paper investigates intergenerational occupational mobility using a novel genealogical dataset for settler South Africa, spanning its transition from an agricultural to an early industrialised society (1800-1909). We identify fathers and sons for whom we have complete information on occupational attainment. We follow a two-generation discrete approach to measure changes in both absolute and relative mobility over time. Consistent with qualitative evidence of a shift away from agriculture as the economy’s dominant sector, we see the farming class shrinking and the skilled and professional classes growing. Controlling for changes in the structure of the labour market over time, we find increasing mobility, becoming significant after the discovery of minerals in 1868. We find this mobility particularly for semiskilled workers but virtually no improved mobility for sons of farmers. We also test hypotheses related to the mobility prospects for first-born sons and sons of immigrants.}}, author = {{Cilliers, Jeanne and Fourie, Johan}}, issn = {{0038-2280}}, keywords = {{intergenerational mobility; occupational mobility; resource curse; industrialisation; colonialism; J60; J61; J62; N30; N37}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{1}}, pages = {{3--22}}, publisher = {{Wiley-Blackwell}}, series = {{South African Journal of Economics}}, title = {{Occupational mobility during South Africa's industrial take-off}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/saje.12177}}, doi = {{10.1111/saje.12177}}, volume = {{86}}, year = {{2018}}, }