Speaker
Description
We study the emergence of modern social mobility in England, connected to the breakdown of a society regulated by ascriptive inherited characteristics, and its association with the Industrial Revolution. We combine two new datasets on individual wealth holdings before and after the Industrial Revolution. We show that ascriptive characteristics, such as hereditary titles, occupational last names,or ethnic identity explain less of the variation in wealth and are less predictive of being rich, after the Industrial Revolution. Moreover, these declines are larger in the parts of England most impacted by the revolution. We then study a key facet of this increased social mobility - geographical mobility. We show that areas that experienced greater outward mobility were those that were; more urbanized; less agrarian; had institutionalized markets; higher incomes; were more politically competitive; were less feudal; and where common lands has been enclosed by an act of Parliament.
