Downton Revisited: Income Shocks and Aristocratic Marriage Markets, 1840–1913

Mark Taylor

No 21884, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: We develop a transferable-utility model in which the collapse of arable estate income reshaped the aristocratic marriage market. The model predicts two cash-for-prestige substitution channels: a durable senior shift toward American brides, especially liquid new-money fortunes, and a transitory junior shift toward British commercial commoners, whose wealth scaled only weakly with rank. Analyzing 6,018 aristocratic marriages over 1840–1913, we combine trend-adjusted time-series evidence with cross-sectional exposure gradients in estate value and family size. American marriages rise as real wheat prices fall, especially among senior, larger-estate, and larger-family peers; new-money brides rise from 20% to 60% of classified American matches.

JEL-codes: C78 D13 J12 N33 Q11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-08
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP21884 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:21884

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP21884

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CEPR ().