Fathers and Children: Can the state reduce the influence of the heredity and status of parents?

George Bush Sr. and George Bush Jr. Photo: Larry Downing / Reuters

British economist Gregori Clark received wide fame in academic circles in 2007 with the release of the book “Farewell, Poverty!”, Was an original view of the nature of differences in the welfare of the West and East. The new work of the author, written seven years later, is “ Fathers and children. Surnames and history of social mobility ” (published at the Publishing House of the Institute of Gaidar, Like the translation of the first book). In it, Clark claims that the trajectory of movement along the social ladder has changed little over the past eight centuries. But now we are closer to the understanding that the low level of mobility in society is often due to inheritance of abilities - at least based on Western experience. Russia? Here, as an apologetic tone, the author writes in the preface to the Russian publication, there is too little information. If to help the researcher of England - parish books with records of baptisms, burials and marriages over several centuries, then "so far there are no such information about the prevalence of surnames either for the current or the previous eras." Unless a superficial analysis allows us to judge the existence of “elite surnames” along with those that are “characteristic of predominantly lower classes”: “For example, the surnames ending in“ ... sky ”or“ ... Ich ”and equivalent to them are three times more often than among the population as a whole”, which can not be said about the ends with “... ou”, “... Ev” and “... Ev” and “... "... in." Surname is a sure sign of origin. And the influence of the social status of parents on the fate of their children is not in doubt. Nevertheless, you should not understand this influence too literally.

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