Economic inequality in preindustrial Germany, ca. 1300–1850

Guido Alfani, Victoria Gierok and Felix Schaff

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This article provides an overview of wealth inequality in Germany during 1300–1850, introducing a novel database. We document four alternating phases of inequality decline and growth. The Black Death (1347–1352) led to inequality decline, until about 1450. Thereafter, inequality rose steadily. The Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) and the 1627–1629 plague triggered a second phase of inequality reduction. This distinguishes Germany from other European areas where inequality grew monotonically. Inequality growth resumed from about 1700, well before the Industrial Revolution. Our findings offer new material to current debates on the determinants of inequality change in western societies, past and present.

Keywords: European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC Grant agreement No. 283802; EINITE-Economic Inequality across Italy and Europe; 1300–1800; as well as under European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Program/ERC Grant agreement No. 725687; SMITE-Social Mobility and Inequality across Italy and Europe; 1300–180 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2022-03-18
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro and nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published in Journal of Economic History, 18, March, 2022, 82(1), pp. 87 - 125. ISSN: 0022-0507

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/113758/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Economic Inequality in Preindustrial Germany, ca. 1300–1850 (2022)
Working Paper: Economic Inequality in Preindustrial Germany, ca. 1300 – 1850 (2020)
Working Paper: Economic Inequality in Preindustrial Germany, ca. 1300 – 1850 (2020)
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:ehl:lserod:113758

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().