Human Capital and the Rise and Fall of Families

Becker, Gary S.; Tomes, Nigel

doi:10.1086/298118

Cited by 1,964 publications

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“…Much of the economic research on socioeconomic mobility derives its theoretical foundation from the highly influential model developed by Becker and Tomes (1986). Socioeconomic attainment (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sweden, for example, appears to have higher earnings mobility, and thus lower intergenerational persistence in earnings than either the U.S. or Great Britain Jäntti 1997, 2000;Solon 2002) However, a process of regression to the mean should cause the influence of earlier generations on socioeconomic outcomes to gradually diminish. In fact, according to Becker and Tomes (1986) most ancestral influences in developed countries are eliminated already after three generations, giving little room for an important role played by grandparents on their grandchildren's outcomes. This view is consistent with a first-order Markov (AR1) process, where the outcome in one generation is only determined by characteristics of the parental generation (e.g., Hodge 1966).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Lasting Impact of Grandfathers: Class, Occupational Status, and Earnings over Three Generations in Sweden 1815–2011

Dribe

Helgertz

2016

J. Econ. Hist.

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Most research on social and economic mobility follows a two-generation approach, studying the correlations between the socioeconomic status of, for example, fathers and sons. Much less attention has been given to transmissions of status beyond two generations. This issue is of considerable relevance both for our understanding of societal openness and the stability of class structures. In this paper we look at socio-economic mobility across three generations in Sweden in the period 1813-2010. Using longitudinal micro-level data from the Scanian EconomicDemographic Database, we identify three-generation genealogies (grandfather, father, son) that we are able to observe in their prime working ages. We examine the multigenerational transmission of socio-economic status according to three different dimensions; social class, occupational status, and earnings, through estimated lifetime earnings, the HISCLASS scheme, and the HISCAM scale. We find clear associations between grandparental class and occupational status and grandchildren's outcomes, when controlling for the associations between fathers and sons. These associations are remarkably stable over time, and do not appear to be contingent upon close interaction between grandfathers and grandchildren. For earnings, on the other hand, we find no association at all between grandfathers and grandsons, regardless if we are looking at grandparental influence on the paternal or maternal side, or both sides combined

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Lasting Impact of Grandfathers: Class, Occupational Status, and Earnings over Three Generations in Sweden 1815–2011

Dribe

Helgertz

2016

J. Econ. Hist.

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“…Art very gently led me down the path to statistical respectability in our joint 1971 paper, "The Treatment of Unobservable Variables in Path Analysis," in which he generously gave me first authorship, despite my minimal statistical contributions (Hauser & Goldberger 1971). Art's Woytinsky Lecture (Goldberger 1989) was a vigorous commendation and defense of sociological models of social stratification relative to the then-popular theoretical schemes of Gary Becker (Becker & Tomes 1986). As I recall, Becker was displeased; I was most grateful.…”

Section: Career Beginningsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Life in Sociology

Hauser

2017

Annu. Rev. Sociol.

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There has lately been a slew of movies-biopics-that depict the lives of immensely talented individuals-the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, the cryptographer and computing pioneer Alan Turing, the physicist extraordinaire Stephen Hawking, and the southern-born novelist Thomas Wolfe, among others. As I think about my life and accomplishments, I know full well that they are way out of my league. All the same, I offer the following autobiographical account. FAMILY ORIGINSMy first and most important teachers were Sylvia, Julius, and Michael Hauser. Sylvia, my mother, had high standards, and she constantly feared I would drop out of school and never return. Her fears were justified. I grew to share them, so I stayed in school decade after decade. My mother also encouraged me to read the work of the young Christopher Jencks and Richard Easterlin. She had exceptionally good taste. My father, Julius Hauser, taught me how to look at the world from the outside in, and what and who not to believe. He encouraged me to read the muckrakers-Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell, and Upton Sinclair-and from dinner-table conversations, I learned how the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) really worked.My older brother, Mike, whose career encompassed both experimental high-energy particle physics and observational astrophysics, taught me that someone was always smarter, tougher, faster, harder-working, and thinner than me, and he set an example of a life in science that few can equal.My memories of childhood are few, fragmentary, and, often, unhappy. I often broke lamps or other items when my family visited the homes of relatives. Bigger kids stole or broke my balsawood gliders. I wore bifocals by the time I was seven. I transitioned from being the skinny kid who always was last picked to play touch football or basketball to the chubby kid who was always last picked. On the bright side, my brother and I built a Christmas tree of tinker toys when our parents refused to buy one, and Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry was a favorite place to visit.Two male role models dominated the family horizon. Dad was an ABD in organic chemistry from the University of Chicago and moved the family from Chicago to Washington, DC, in 1949 because he had no opportunity for advancement in the FDA's Chicago branch office. He became the house expert on regulatory law within the FDA. In that role, he wrote the first draft of the 1962 Kefauver-Harris Amendments to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which required proof of efficacy and safety, required disclosure of side effects, and concurrently introduced the first legislation mandating informed consent of participants in clinical trials. According to the Harvard political scientist and historian Daniel Carpenter, he was also responsible for the contemporary design of clinical drug trials.Dad's brother was the sociologist, demographer, and social statistician Philip M. Hauser, whose career wandered freely and frequently between federal service and a professorship at the University of Chic...

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“…According to P. Almond and J. Currie (2011), the most important determinants of child human capital before the age of 5 are as follows: (a) prenatal environ- Wulczyn, 2008: 4 Both parents and the public sector invest during the crucial period of early childhood. S. Becker and T. Nigel (1986) proved that if parental and public investments are substitutes, parental investments will be crowded out as public investments expand. In the case when those investments are not perfect substitutes, public investments might affect parental behaviour towards children.…”

Section: Conceptual Framework For the Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Human capital of the child population and its selected determinants: Case study of Lviv city, Ukraine

Pantyley

2017

Bulletin of Geography. Socio-Economic Series

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Abstract. In conditions of modern economic and political destabilisation in Ukraine, human capital of the child population is considered as the most reliable indicator of socioeconomic development of the country and its regions. The primary goal of the study is the analysis of health status as the main element of human capital among the child population aged 0-14, and external and family environmental factors influencing this population group in the city of Lviv (in the light of available statistics and materials of the author's own sociological research). Research results show a potential crisis of human capital among the child population in Lviv city. Results of own field research show a statistically important correlation between the willingness of parents to have more children and the following independent variables: number of members in the household, and the household's income. The state of health among the child population showed a significant correlation between the following variables: household's income, life satisfaction among parents, availability of healthcare in the place of residence, financial affordability of healthcare, physical activity among children, influence of noise and unpleasant scents.

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Human Capital and the Rise and Fall of Families

Abstract: Ontario. We especially thank Robert Willis for his helpful discussion at the Conference on the Family and the Distribution of Economic Rewards. We have also benefited from suggestions by Arthur Goldberger and Sherwin Rosen.

Cited by 1,964 publications

References 39 publications

The Lasting Impact of Grandfathers: Class, Occupational Status, and Earnings over Three Generations in Sweden 1815–2011

The Lasting Impact of Grandfathers: Class, Occupational Status, and Earnings over Three Generations in Sweden 1815–2011

A Life in Sociology

Human capital of the child population and its selected determinants: Case study of Lviv city, Ukraine

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