This paper reconsiders the fertility of historical social groups by accounting for singleness and childlessness. We find that the middle class had the highest reproductive success during England’s early industrial development. In light of the greater propensity of the middle class to invest in human capital, the rise in the prevalence of these traits in the population could have been instrumental to England’s economic success. Unlike earlier results about the survival of the richest, the paper shows that the reproductive success of the rich (and also the poor) were lower than that of the middle class, once accounting for singleness and childlessness. Hence, the prosperity of England over this period can be attributed to the increase in the prevalence of middle-class traits rather than those of the upper (or lower) class.

中文翻译：

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工业化前英格兰的无子女，独身和净生育：中产阶级的进化优势

本文通过考虑单一性和无子女性来重新考虑历史社会群体的生育能力。我们发现，在英格兰早期的工业发展中，中产阶级的生殖成功率最高。鉴于中产阶级对人力资本进行投资的倾向更大，这些特征在人口中的普及率上升可能对英格兰的经济成功起到了作用。与早期有关最富裕者生存的结果不同，该论文表明，一旦考虑到单身和无子女，富人（以及穷人）的生殖成功率就低于中产阶级。因此，英格兰在这段时期的繁荣可以归因于中产阶级特征而不是上层（或下层）特征的普及。