More on surnames and social mobility

10:47 am
Wed October 17, 2012

More on surnames and social mobility

Lead in text: 
Last week, we brought you the story of economic historian Gregory Clark, who's found new evidence that suggests social mobility happens more slowly than anyone imagined. Yesterday, NPR ran the story nationally. Here's a sidebar I wrote for their website to describe Clark's research a little more
Using data on surnames dating back almost 1,000 years, economic historian Gregory Clark says he's found evidence that families rise and fall across generations at a much slower rate than anyone previously thought. And he says that rate remains constant across national boundaries and time periods.