Land Inequality, Education, and Marriage: Empirical Evidence from Nineteenth-Century Prussia

Francesco Cinnirella and Erik Hornung

No 11486, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: In this study we review the literature on the relationship between landownership inequality and the accumulation of human capital in historical perspective. Furthermore we provide new evidence on the relationship between landownership inequality and marriage patterns at the county level in nineteenth-century Prussia. Formally the landed elite could have influenced not only the labor relations with the peasants but also their marriage decisions. Using cross-sectional as well as panel analysis we find no evidence that noble landowners directly affected marriage rates. Instead we find a robust negative association between average formal education and the share of married women. This finding is in line with recent theoretical and empirical literature on the role of gender specific human capital in the demographic transition.

Keywords: Land inequality; Education; Marriage; Prussian economic history (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I25 J12 N33 O43 Q15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-gro, nep-his and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Working Paper: Land Inequality, Education, and Marriage: Empirical Evidence from Nineteenth-Century Prussia (2016)
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