Family types and the persistence of regional disparities in Europe

Gilles Duranton, Andrés Rodríguez-Pose and Richard Sandall
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Richard Sandall: London School of Economics

No 2008-07, Working Papers from Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados (IMDEA) Ciencias Sociales

Abstract: This paper examines the association between one of the most basic institutional forms, the family, and a series of demographic, educational, social, and economic indicators across regions in Europe. Using Emmanuel Todd’s classification of medieval European family systems, we identify potential links between family types and regional disparities in household size, educational attainment, social capital, labor participation, sectoral structure, wealth, and inequality. The results indicate that medieval family structures seem to have influenced European regional disparities in virtually every indicator considered. That these links remain, despite the influence of the modern state and population migration, suggests that either such structures are extremely resilient or else they have in the past been internalized within other social and economic institutions as they developed.

Keywords: institutions; family types; education; social capital; labor force (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 O18 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-10-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec, nep-geo, nep-hrm, nep-lab and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (35)

Published in Economic Geography 85(1), January 2009: 23-47

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Related works:
Journal Article: Family Types and the Persistence of Regional Disparities in Europe (2009)
Working Paper: Family Types and the Persistence of Regional Disparities in Europe (2008)
Working Paper: Family types and the persistence of regional disparities in Europe (2008)
Working Paper: Family Types and the Persistence of Regional Disparities in Europe (2007)
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