The names in Spain are mainly not in vain: Intergenerational mobility and the informational content of surnames

The paper presents a (genetic) model of the joint distribution of surnames and income. It shows that we can infer how important background is by looking at how informative surnames are. Extensions of the model allow for the possibility of assortative mating, and the introduction of ethnic differences in the income process (due to discrimination or any other reason).

Intergenerational Mobility and the Informative Content of Surnames

We propose a new methodology for measuring intergenerational mobility in economic wellbeing. Our method is based on the joint distribution of surnames and economic outcomes. It circumvents the need for intergenerational panel data, a long-standing stumbling block for understanding mobility. A single cross-sectional dataset is su cient. Our main idea is simple. If `inheritance' is important for economic outcomes, then rare surnames should predict economic outcomes in the cross-section. This is because rare surnames are indicative of familial linkages. Of course, if the number of rare surnames is small, this won't work. But rare surnames are abundant in the highly-skewed nature of surname distributions from most Western societies. We develop a model that articulates this idea and shows that the more important is inheritance, the more informative will be surnames. This result is robust to a variety of di erent assumptions about fertility and mating. We apply our method using the 2001 census from Catalonia, a large region of Spain. We use educational attainment as a proxy for overall economic well-being. Our main nding is that mobility has decreased among the di erent generations of the 20th century. A complementary analysis based on sibling correlations con rms our results and provides a robustness check on our method. Our model and our data allow us to examine one possible explanation for the observed decrease in mobility. We nd that the degree of assortative mating has increased over time. Overall, we argue that our method has promise because it can tap the vast mines of census data that are available in a heretofore unexploited manner.

Intergenerational mobility and the informative content of surnames

We propose an alternative method for measuring intergenerational mobility. Measurements obtained fromtraditional methods (based on panel data) are scarce, difficult to compare across countries and almost impossible to get across time. In particular, this means that we do not know how intergenerational mobility is correlated with growth, income or the degree of inequality.Our proposal is to measure the informative content of surnames in one census. The more information thesurname has on the income of an individual, the more important is her background in determining her outcomes; and thus, the less mobility there is.The reason is that surnames provide information about family relationships because the distribution ofsurnames is necessarily very skewed. A large percentage of the population is bound to have a very unfrequent surname. For them the partition generated by surnames is very informative on family linkages.First, we develop a model whose endogenous variable is the joint distribution of surnames and income.There, we explore the relationship between mobility and the informative content of surnames. We allow for assortative mating to be a determinant of both.Second, we use our methodology to show that in large Spanish region the informative content of surnamesis large and consistent with the model. We also show that it has increased over time, indicating a substantial drop in the degree of mobility. Finally, using the peculiarities of the Spanish surname convention we show that the degree of assortative mating has also increased over time, in such a manner that might explain the decrease in mobility observed.Our method allows us to provide measures of mobility comparable across time. It should also allow us tostudy other issues related to inheritance.

Our Italian surnames.

Includes bibliographies.

A law dictionary: or the interpreter of words and terms, used ... in the common or statute laws ... with an appendix containing ... the antient names of places ... and ... surnames .

Mode of access: Internet.

An explanatory and pronouncing dictionary of the noted names of fiction,: including also familiar pseudonyms, surnames bestowed on eminent men, and analogous popular appellations often referred to in literature and conversation.

Mode of access: Internet.

The Huntington family in America; a genealogical memoir of the known descendants of Simon Huntington from 1633 to 1915, including those who have retained the family name, and many bearing other surnames.

"Constitution of the Huntington family association": p. 7-8.

English surnames. An essay on family nomenclature, historical, etymological, and humorous; with several illustrative appendices.

Mode of access: Internet.

Guide to similar surnames.

Mode of access: Internet.

Byberry Waltons : an account of four English brothers, Nathaniel & Thomas & Daniel & William Walton, who settled about 1683 in Byberry Township, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania: with accounts of more than 4000 Waltons and many more by other surnames descended from these four brothers.

Mode of access: Internet.

Remains concerning Britain : their languages, names, surnames, allusions, anagramms, armories, moneys, impresses, apparel, artillerie, wise speeches, proverbs, poesies, epitaphs /

Mode of access: Internet.

A dictionary of names, nicknames and surnames, of persons, places and things,

Mode of access: Internet.

Old Hancock county families; containing genealogies of families resident in Hancock county in 1933, whose ancestors of their surnames settled in the town in which they live, in or before 1790 ...

"A series of thirty-five articles [which] appeared in the Ellsworth American, in 1932-33. The articles, slightly revised and supplemented, are here republished."--Pref.

A dictionary of English and Welsh surnames, with special American instances,

Preface by the Lord bishop of Carlisle.

English surnames : their sources and significations.

Mode of access: Internet.