🔴 Nepotism vs. intergenerational transmission of human capital in Academia (1088–1800)

"From the Bernoullis to the Eulers, families of scholars have been common in academia since the foundation of the first university in 1088. In this paper, we have shown that this was the result of two factors: Initially, scholars’ sons benefited from their fathers’ connections to get jobs at their fathers’ university. Between 1088 and 1543, about one in two scholars’ sons benefited from nepotism. They became academics even when their underlying human capital was lower than that of marginal first-generation scholar. After the Scientific Revolution, nepotism faded but families remained in academia."

Croix, D.d.l., Goñi, M. Nepotism vs. intergenerational transmission of human capital in Academia (1088–1800). J Econ Growth 29, 469–514 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10887-024-09244-0

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