Intergenerational Mobility of Daughters and Marital Sorting: New Evidence from Imperial China

During this Quantitative History Webinar, Wolfgang Keller of the University of Colorado Boulder will present his latest research with his co-author Carol H. Shiue studying the role of marriage for women’s intergenerational mobility using original information on women’s status from family histories of Central China over the 15th to 19th century. Their latest research documents that women who are first wives have higher status than other wives, which is supported both by relatively strong positive sorting between biological and in-law families for first-wife marriages and by the relatively high status of the husbands of the first wives. As early as the 15th century, daughters with high-status fathers are more likely to be the first wife in their households. Further, accounting for the role of marriage changes the understanding of the level, sources, and trends in the intergenerational mobility of daughters. In particular, due to positive sorting, a focus on biological family would considerably overestimate father-daughter mobility. In addition, the intergenerational contribution to daughter status from the in-law family is about 40%, which is crucial for consistent comparisons of mobility as the extent of marital sorting fell over time. Overall, the implied level of mobility between father and daughter is comparable to that between father and son, and once marital sorting is accounted for, the intergenerational mobility of daughters follows a similar trend as that of the son as well.