Vive la différence » ? Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in France and the U.S. in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Though rates of intergenerational mobility differ little between the U.S. and Europe today, attitudes toward redistribution – that should reflect at least in part those rates – differ substantially. We examine the differences in intergenerational mobility between the U.S. and France since the middle of the nineteenth century to trace the path these economies have followed to the choice of their modern redistributive regimes. We use data for both countries that allows us to compare the occupations of fathers and sons across up to thirty years. The results demonstrate that, as a variety of commentators noted, the U.S. was a considerably more mobile economy in the past, though such differences are far from apparent today. The nineteenth century differences between France and the U.S., as well as the changes in each country over time, correspond to patterns of public investment in education.