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Social mobility in Finnish Who’s Who data during 1909-2005
| This paper tries to explain long term social mobility in Finland by looking at influential individuals and families. The data used comes from the 1909-2005 editions of ”Who’s Who in Finland”.
A matching algorithm has been programmed to trace out family linkages in the data. Men and women are linked with their offspring in different generations, provided they are also included in the register. The formation and persistence of these family linkages will be explained by a host of individual and society level characteristics.
This study is unique for several reasons. First, the set of data used is quite large. It covers more than 20,000 individuals, which makes the statistical inference very robust. Moreover, the data includes a continuing sample of representatives not only from the business elite and nobility but also from politics and the arts.
Finland experienced a number of radical changes during the data period, including the attainment of independence, civil war, world war, industrialisation and membership in the EU. It will be interesting to find out how these exogenous effects have altered the structure and perseverance of members of the registry. How much of the movement can be explained by personal characteristics and how much by other variables?
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