The political economy of skills, occupational entitlements, and social mobility:evidence from industrialising Coventry, 1790-1850

This paper examines the interaction between political economy and social mobility during early industrialisation in England. We analyse changes in male social mobility patterns in industrial-ising Coventry (c.1790-1850) following a transformation of key institutions affecting the labour market. Social mobility was framed by the interaction between trade policy, occupational skill formation, and municipal government. Using a longitudinal dataset and regression-discontinuity analysis, we find that liberal reforms to trade policy and municipal government during the late-1820s and early-1830s eroded the value of industry-specific social capital, while increasing the contribution of general human capital to social mobility.