A rejoinder

Abstract

In his thoughtful paper, Westoff has clearly shown that even if the ‘correct’ procedure is followed, it does not alter the finidngs of the Princeton studies. This is puzzling since his findings are so at odds with those reported by Duncan & Blau (footnote 21) for a National Sample of the U.S. population in the mid 1960s. The latter reported that the fertility of mobile couples was ‘intermediate’, between that prevailing in their place of origin, and in their place of destination, which is, of course, consistent with what we have noted for the Aberdeen sample. Thus, it would seem that one cannot easily dismiss the Aberdeen case as being different on the grounds that the social class system is more structured in Britain than in the U.S. The discrepancy in the findings is yet to be resolved.