Back to Search
Start Over
Inheritance Institutions and Landholding Inequality in Nineteenth-Century Germany: Evidence from Hesse-Cassel Villages and Towns
- Source :
- The Journal of Economic History. 81:909-942
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2021.
-
Abstract
- This paper considers the German principality of Hesse-Cassel in the 1850s, comparing inheritance institutions and landholding inequality for roughly a thousand mostly agricultural villages and towns. The principality lay between impartible northern Europe and the partible southwest. Inequality in landholding size is measured, showing an average Gini of 0.615 and substantial variation across communities. Places with relatively larger populations and ones that practiced impartible inheritance had mostly higher wealth inequality. The main result is that inheritance norms played a role in causing higher landholding inequality. Higher emigration rates in the impartible communities helped to alleviate landholding inequality.
Details
- ISSN :
- 14716372 and 00220507
- Volume :
- 81
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- The Journal of Economic History
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........9d9df99f5dbe4c8b5b6afb313d633823