Four centuries’ trends of Socioeconomic mobility and inequality in Southern Europe: The area of Barcelona, 16th- 19th centuries

Summary, in English

This paper assesses the interrelation between economic inequality and social mobility in the long run. We use the unique Barcelona Historical Marriage Database for 1545-1880, accounting for more than 60,000 parents-children links. Analytically, we combine individuals' socioeconomic relative position for decomposing inequality individually in the overall population and by subgroups (social class) with multilevel modeling. Our results show that social mobility was uneven in intensity and direction depending on the background. We highlight the significance of arguing relative mobility only with occupational or social group intergenerational mobility. In this sense, for instance, even if children of artisans and farmers achieved social mobility upward (as traders), they would still be much more likely to be disadvantaged in terms of inequality contribution than children of traders.

• Author: Gabriel Brea-Martinez; Joana-Maria Pujadas-Mora
• Department/s: Centre for Economic Demography; Department of Economic History
• Publishing year: 2022-03-04
• Language: English
• Document type: Conference - other
• Topic: Economic History
• Conference name: European Society of Historical Demography
• Conference date: 2022-03-02 - 2022-03-04
• Conference place: Madrid, Spain
• Status: Published