@article{bibcite_51666,
  author = {Yu Xie and Alexandra Killewald},
  title = {Historical Trends in Social Mobility: Data, Methods, and Farming},
  abstract = {<p>Using historical census data and survey data, Ferrie and Long (forthcoming) have found that the pre-1900 United States was much more socially mobile than either Britain around the same time or the post-1970 United States. In this paper, we present three major critiques of the Ferrie-Long study. First, the data quality of the Ferrie-Long study is far more limiting than the authors acknowledge, and we are able to detect some bias in their data in favor of their conclusion. Second, the Ferrie-Long study capitalizes on a particular method that is highly sensitive to an operationalization of the concept {\textquotedblleft}social mobility.{\textquotedblright} Third, almost all the findings of the Ferrie-Long study are driven by farmers, who have not only constituted a unique sector in the labor market but also experienced a tremendous decline in the labor force since the nineteenth century in the United States.</p>},
  year = {2010},
  journal = {Michigan Population Studies Center Research Report},
  volume = {10-716},
}