Family size and intergenerational social mobility during the fertility transition

Family size and intergenerational social mobility during the fertility transition: Evidence of resource dilution from the city of Antwerp in nineteenth century Belgium

It has been argued in sociology, economics, and evolutionary anthropology that family size limitation enhances the intergenerational upward mobility chances in modernized societies. If parents have a large flock, family resources get diluted and intergenerational mobility is bound to head downwards. Yet, the empirical record supporting this resource dilution hypothesis is limited. This article ...

The effect of fertility limitation on intergenerational social mobility: the quality-quantity trade-off during the demographic transition.

The hypothesis that family size limitation by parents enhances the upward mobility chances of their children in (post)industrial populations has a long-standing record in many disciplines, including sociology and economics, as well as evolutionary anthropology and social biology. Yet the empirical record supporting or contradicting the theory is surprisingly limited. The aim of this contributio...

Intergenerational Associations and the Fertility Transition

Fertility change is distinct from other forms of social and economic change because it directly alters the size and composition of the next generation. This paper studies how changes in population composition over the fertility transition feed back into the path of average fertility across generations. Consistent with a quality-quantity model drawn from theories of long-run growth and the demog...

A Family Affair: Intergenerational Social Mobility across OECD Countries

A Family Affair: Intergenerational Social Mobility across OECD Countries

Policy reform can remove obstacles to intergenerational social mobility and thereby promote equality of opportunities across individuals. Such reform will also enhance economic growth by allocating human resources to their best use. This chapter assesses recent crosscountry patterns in intergenerational social mobility and examines the role that public policies play in affecting mobility. Inter...