Legacy on Deck: Skill Transmission and Occupational Dynasties in the Royal Navy

Abstract

Do occupational dynasties reflect the intergenerational transmission of skills or nepotism? We use detailed data on the fighting record of the 18th century Royal Navy to show that sons of navy officers are markedly more successful than non-legacies, outperforming in terms of enemy captures by a third. This performance differential is not due to better equipment or more favorable assignments, and also holds for those whose patron has passed away. We provide evidence for positive selection as a channel through which the outperformance is sustained - sons of successful officers are more likely to join and be promoted in the navy. Consistent with vertical transmission, we use computer vision to analyze facial landmarks from over 1,000 portraits. We find that sons of service inherited traits predictive of greater success in naval warfare.