The persistence of wealth Economic inequality in a Caribbean slave colony in the very long run

Klas Rönnbäck (), Stefania Galli, Dimitrios Theodoridis and Kathrine Faust Larsen
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Klas Rönnbäck: Unit for Economic History, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: Box 720, SE 40530 Göteborg, Sweden
Dimitrios Theodoridis: Unit for Economic History, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: Unit for Economic History, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Box 720, SE 40530 Göteborg, Sweden
Kathrine Faust Larsen: Unit for Economic History, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: Box 720, SE 40530 Göteborg, Sweden

No 35, Göteborg Papers in Economic History from University of Gothenburg, Unit for Economic History

Abstract: It has been proposed that slave societies were the most unequal societies in recorded human history. What little evidence there is shows an ambiguous picture. We contribute with a study on the wealth distribution in a Caribbean society, based on individual-level data for the full population, combining tax and census records into the largest comparable historical dataset from the Global South. Our results show a distribution of wealth shockingly close to perfect inequality. Our results also show a remarkable degree of persistence: even after slavery was abolished, the freedmen never managed to accumulate physical wealth to any measurable degree.

Keywords: Inequality; wealth; slavery; Caribbean; emancipation; long-term (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 J47 N36 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2024-02-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo, nep-his and nep-ltv
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