Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/316149 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
EHES Working Paper No. 275
Publisher: 
European Historical Economics Society (EHES), s.l.
Abstract: 
In this paper we estimate social mobility rates, free of measurement errors, using register data for Denmark and Sweden, 1968 to 2021. To correct for measurement error attenuation, we take ratios of the correlation of relatives at different locations in family trees, such as cousins relative to siblings. Three things emerge from these estimates. First social mobility rates in both Denmark and Sweden are much lower than conventionally estimated. Second these countries, despite their reputation for high social mobility rates, have nearly the same degree of persistence as in modern England, and also nineteenth century England or Sweden. Finally in all the cases observed marital assortment is much stronger than conventionally estimated, and this helps explain the low rates of intergenerational mobility.
Subjects: 
intergenerational mobility
social mobility
assortative mating
JEL: 
J62
J12
D31
I24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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