Full Citation

Title: Geographic and Occupational Mobility in Britain and the U.S., 1850-1881

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2004

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI:

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: Using longitudinal data on individual males linked between censuses separated by 30 years,we examine patterns of geographic and occupational mobility in the last half of thenineteenth century for two industrializing economies: Britain (1851-81) and the U.S. (1850-80). We find considerably higher rates of geographic mobility in the U.S. Though thefrequency of moves was similar (roughly two thirds moved over 30 years in each country),moves were ten times as great in distance in the U.S. Upward occupational mobility betweenfathers and sons occupations and between an individuals first and last jobs wasconsiderably more frequent in the U.S. For example, only one in five sons of unskilledfathers in the U.S. at the start of the 1850s failed to attain a higher status job by the start ofthe 1880s; the corresponding figure for Britain was nearly one in two. Upward mobility wasassociated more strongly with education in Britain than in the U.S. Backgroundcharacteristics more generally were better predictors of occupational attainment in Britainthan in the U.S.

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Long, Jason; Ferrie, Joseph

Publisher: Colby College

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration, Other

Countries: