Welcome to Mining Microdata: Economic Opportunity and Spatial Mobility in Britain, Canada and the United States, 1850-1911
This project investigates levels of social mobility in Canada, Great Britain and the United States from 1850 to 1911.
- It uses census records from the 1850s, 1880s, and 1910s to create two panels of men observed in childhood living with their father, and then thirty years later in adulthood.
- We measure social mobility by comparing fathers' and sons' occupations at similar points in their lives.
Aims and objectives
Aims
- To create linked panels of census data in a comparable manner in three different countries
- To measure social mobility over two generations in three countries, and compare levels and changes in social mobility
Objectives
- To complete several academic articles comparing social mobility across three countries, contributing to a long academic debate on this issue
- To demonstrate the potential of historical longitudinal data for social science research
Outputs and outcomes
- Integrated set of programmes for creating linked data panels between pairs of censuses
- Representative samples of men linked between censuses at 30 year intervals, made available as public use datasets
Project timeline
Duration: Twenty four months
Project start date: 1 February 2012
Project completion date: 31 January 2014