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The Mechanisms of Intergenerational Status Transmission in Modern Scandinavia

Author

Listed:
  • Gregory Clark

    (University of Southern Denmark, Danish Institute for Advanced Study, and LSE)

  • Martin Hørlyk Kristensen

    (University of Southern Denmark)

Abstract

There is continued debate, with important social consequences, about how social status is transmitted between parents and children. In particular, how much does genetics as opposed to social causation matter? In an ingenious recent article, Collado et al. (2023), using an extended family lineage from Sweden and the outcome of years of education, claim that outcome correlations across relatives are inconsistent with genetic transmission. In contrast, Clark (2023) claims that a simple 3-parameter additive genetic model of social outcomes predicts well correlations as remote as 4th cousins in a stable way for England 1600-2022. In this paper we show that the genetic model of Clark (2023) fits the correlation in educational attainment for extended sets of relatives in modern Denmark and Sweden as well as the 20-parameter social causation model of Collado et al. Further, the parameter values in the genetic model for Denmark and Sweden are similar to those found for a variety of social outcomes in both pre-industrial and modern England.

Suggested Citation

  • Gregory Clark & Martin Hørlyk Kristensen, 2026. "The Mechanisms of Intergenerational Status Transmission in Modern Scandinavia," Working Papers 0299, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    • Handle: RePEc:hes:wpaper:0299
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Heckman, James & Landersø, Rasmus, 2022. "Lessons for Americans from Denmark about inequality and social mobility," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    2. M Dolores Collado & Ignacio Ortuño-Ortín & Jan Stuhler, 2023. "Estimating Intergenerational and Assortative Processes in Extended Family Data," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(3), pages 1195-1227.
    3. Gregory Clark, 2015. "The Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of Social Mobility," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 10181-2, December.
    4. Helena Holmlund & Mikael Lindahl & Erik Plug, 2011. "The Causal Effect of Parents' Schooling on Children's Schooling: A Comparison of Estimation Methods," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(3), pages 615-651, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality

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