[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/sza/wpaper/wpapers280.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Social mobility during South Africa’s industrial take-off

Author

Listed:
  • Jeanne Cilliers

    (Department of Economic History, Lund University)

  • Johan Fourie

    (Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University)

Abstract
In the absence of historical income or education data, the change in occupations over time can be used as a measure of social 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 industrialized 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 labor market over time, we find increasing social mobility, becoming significant after the discovery of minerals in 1868. We find this mobility particularly for semi-skilled 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.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeanne Cilliers & Johan Fourie, 2017. "Social mobility during South Africa’s industrial take-off," Working Papers 04/2017, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers280
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ekon.sun.ac.za/wpapers/2017/wp042017/wp042017.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2017
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jo Blanden, 2013. "Cross-Country Rankings In Intergenerational Mobility: A Comparison Of Approaches From Economics And Sociology," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 38-73, February.
    2. Roland Benabou & Efe A. Ok, 2001. "Social Mobility and the Demand for Redistribution: The Poum Hypothesis," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(2), pages 447-487.
    3. Blanden, Jo, 2013. "Cross-national rankings of intergenerational mobility: a comparison of approaches from economics and sociology," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 59310, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, 2001. "The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1369-1401, December.
    5. Donald Wood Gilbert, 1933. "The Economic Effects of the Gold Discoveries upon South Africa: 1886–1910," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 47(4), pages 553-597.
    6. Bhashkar Mazumder, 2005. "Fortunate Sons: New Estimates of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States Using Social Security Earnings Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(2), pages 235-255, May.
    7. Frederick van der Ploeg, 2011. "Natural Resources: Curse or Blessing?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 366-420, June.
    8. Jason Long & Joseph Ferrie, 2007. "The Path to Convergence: Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in Britain and the US in Three Eras," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(519), pages 61-71, March.
    9. W.H. Boshoff & J. Fourie, 2017. "When did South African Markets Integrate into the Global Economy?," Studies in Economics and Econometrics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(1), pages 19-32, April.
    10. Johan Fourie, 2006. "The South African poor white problem in the early 20th century: Lessons for poverty today," Working Papers 14/2006, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    11. Felix Meier Zu Selhausen & Jacob Weisdorf, 2016. "A colonial legacy of African gender inequality? Evidence from Christian Kampala, 1895–2011," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 69(1), pages 229-257, February.
    12. Felix Meier zu Selhausen, 2014. "Missionaries and female empowerment in colonial Uganda: New evidence from Protestant marriage registers, 1880-1945," Economic History of Developing Regions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(1), pages 74-112, June.
    13. Johan Fourie & Jan Luiten Zanden, 2013. "GDP in the Dutch Cape Colony: The National Accounts of a Slave-Based Society," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 81(4), pages 467-490, December.
    14. Jérôme Bourdieu & Joseph P. Ferrie & Lionel Kesztenbaum, 2009. "Vive la différence? Intergenerational Mobility in France and the United States during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries," Post-Print halshs-00824749, HAL.
    15. Christie Swanepoel & Johan Fourie, 2015. "“Impending ruin†or “remarkable wealth†? The role of private credit markets in a settler colony," Working Papers 517, Economic Research Southern Africa.
    16. Alfonso Herranz-Loncán & Johan Fourie, 2018. "“For the public benefit”? Railways in the British Cape Colony," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 22(1), pages 73-100.
    17. Hunt Allcott & Daniel Keniston, 2014. "Dutch Disease or Agglomeration? The Local Economic Effects of Natural Resource Booms in Modern America," NBER Working Papers 20508, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Landes,David S., 2003. "The Unbound Prometheus," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521826662, September.
    19. Patrizio Piraino & Sean Muller & Jeanne Cilliers & Johan Fourie, 2013. "The transmission of longevity across generations: The case of the settler Cape Colony," Working Papers 14/2013, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    20. Johan Fourie, 2013. "The quantitative Cape: Notes from a new Histriography of the Dutch Cape Colony," Working Papers 371, Economic Research Southern Africa.
    21. Landes,David S., 2003. "The Unbound Prometheus," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521534024, September.
    22. Johan Fourie, 2013. "The remarkable wealth of the Dutch Cape Colony: measurements from eighteenth-century probate inventories," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 66(2), pages 419-448, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Johan Fourie & Nonso Obikili, 2019. "Decolonizing with data: The cliometric turn in African economic history," Working Papers 02/2019, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    2. Abel Gwaindepi & Johan Fourie, 2020. "Public Sector Growth in the British Cape Colony: Evidence From New Data on Expenditure and Foreign Debt, 1830‐1910," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 88(3), pages 341-367, September.
    3. Markus Jäntti & Stephen P. Jenkins, 2013. "Income Mobility," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 607, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    4. Martin Dribe & Jonas Helgertz, 2015. "The lasting impact of grandfathers: class, occupational status, and earnings over three generations (Sweden, 1815-2010)," Working Papers 15027, Economic History Society.
    5. Jo Blanden, 2019. "Intergenerational income persistence," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 176-176, January.
    6. Chenhong Peng & Paul Siu Fai Yip & Yik Wa Law, 2019. "Intergenerational Earnings Mobility and Returns to Education in Hong Kong: A Developed Society with High Economic Inequality," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 133-156, May.
    7. Paul Gregg & Lindsey Macmillan & Claudia Vittori, 2017. "Moving Towards Estimating Sons' Lifetime Intergenerational Economic Mobility in the UK," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 79(1), pages 79-100, February.
    8. Bhashkar Mazumder, 2018. "Intergenerational Mobility in the United States: What We Have Learned from the PSID," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 680(1), pages 213-234, November.
    9. Chris Belfield & Claire Crawford & Ellen Greaves & Paul Gregg & Lindsey Macmillan, 2017. "Intergenerational income persistence within families," IFS Working Papers W17/11, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    10. Stelios Michalopoulos & Elias Papaioannou, 2020. "Historical Legacies and African Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(1), pages 53-128, March.
    11. Zhang, Xinmiao & Deguilhem, Thibaud, 2022. "Climbing the Social Ladder: Does Intergenerational Solidarity matter?," MPRA Paper 115241, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Jo Blanden & Robert Haveman & Timothy Smeeding & Kathryn Wilson, 2014. "Intergenerational Mobility in the United States and Great Britain: A Comparative Study of Parent–Child Pathways," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(3), pages 425-449, September.
    13. Gwaindepi, Abel, 2019. "Serving God and Mammon: The ‘Minerals-Railway Complex’ and its effects on colonial public finances in the British Cape Colony, 1810-1910," African Economic History Working Paper 44/2019, African Economic History Network.
    14. Andros Kourtellos & Chih Ming Tan & Steven N. Durlauf, 2022. "The Great Gatsby Curve," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 571-605, August.
    15. Silvia Mendolia & Peter Siminski, 2016. "New Estimates of Intergenerational Mobility in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 92(298), pages 361-373, September.
    16. Francesco Bloise & Michele Raitano, 2019. "Intergenerational earnings elasticity of actual father-son pairs in Italy accounting for lifecycle and attenuation bias," Working Papers 504, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    17. Sambit Bhattacharyya, 2020. "A History of Global Capitalism: Feuding Elites and Imperial Expansion," Working Paper Series 1020, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    18. Junwu, Xu & Zhaoxiong, Chen & Junjie, Wu, 2022. "Return of migrant workers, educational investment in children and intergenerational mobility in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 997-1009.
    19. Paul Gregg & Lindsey Macmillan & Claudia Vittori, 2014. "Moving Towards Estimating Lifetime Intergenerational Economic Mobility in the UK," DoQSS Working Papers 14-12, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    20. Juan C. Palomino & Gustavo A. Marrero & Juan G. Rodríguez, 2018. "One size doesn’t fit all: a quantile analysis of intergenerational income mobility in the U.S. (1980–2010)," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(3), pages 347-367, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Intergenerational mobility; social mobility; resource curse; industrialization; colonialism; longitudinal data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J60 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - General
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • N30 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • N37 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Africa; Oceania

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers280. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Melt van Schoor (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/desunza.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.