Intergenerational status mobility in nineteenth-century Korea: Evidence of Seoul household registers from 1897 to 1906

Abstract

In this study, we examine intergenerational status mobility in nineteenth-century Korea by using population registers collected at the turn of the twentieth century. We trace a long-term mobility trend by using ancestral (to great-grandfathers) and household heads’ status information in those registers. We find that both absolute and relative mobility certainly increased in the late nineteenth century when Korea encountered severe international and domestic challenges. This suggests that these challenges triggered fundamental changes in chances for status mobility. We also find diverging trends of social fluidity. Intergenerational inheritance among the commoners became weaker, increasing social fluidity at the bottom. At the same time, top elite people remained successful in preventing their offspring’s downward mobility, thus strengthening social rigidity at the top. We interpret that the diverging mobility pattern was related to tremendous socioeconomic changes after the port opening in 1876. We compare our findings to those of Western countries and discuss the implications for understanding social mobility in the past.