| Abstract: | The actual behaviour of groups of persons yields post factum objective data of the extent to which they availed themselves of the opportunities open to them. It is shown that after having accounted for the influence of selected factors, statistical measures of the realized freedom displayed by the group can be derived from the data, and that these measures may legitimately be interpreted as indices of the freedom of the average person. The problems of social mobility are particularly suited for this novel type of analysis, and the method is demonstrated by application to the choice of occupation of a group of Stockholm-born young men. |
