REEXAMINING THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN 1870

Joshua Rosenbloom () and Gregory Stutes

No 200501, WORKING PAPERS SERIES IN THEORETICAL AND APPLIED ECONOMICS from University of Kansas, Department of Economics

Abstract: We use data from the IPUMS sample of the 1870 US Population Census to analyze the distribution of real and personal property wealth. Wealth was relatively more equally distributed near the beginning of U.S. industrialization than it would be 50 years later. Disaggregating the data by demographic groups and spatially we find evidence consistent with Kuznets¡¯ conjecture that urbanization and industrialization were associated with rising inequality in the nineteenth century. But we also find that inequality was high in the South, even though it remained in 1870 highly rural and agricultural. Finally we find evidence that increasing literacy may have helped to reduce inequality.

Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2005-01, Revised 2005-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: Reexamining the Distribution of Wealth in 1870 (2005)
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