This working paper directs to an historical puzzle, the rapid upward mobility of the east-European Jews who came to the United States between 1880 and 1920. Theoretically important issues are inherent in the explanations for Jewish upward mobility, and in any case, this particular historical...

Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932) rose from modest means as the son of a peddler to immense wealth at the helm of Sears, Roebuck. Yet his most defining legacy stands not upon his business acumen but on the pioneering changes he introduced to the practice of philanthropy. While few may recall...

Traditional measures of intergenerational mobility such as the intergenerational elasticity are not useful for inferences concerning group differences in mobility with respect to the pooled income distribution. This paper uses transition probabilities and measures of "directional rank mobility"...