Historical social tables: advantages, methodology, and problems

Philipp Erfurth, Maria Gomez Leon, Giacomo Gabbuti and Branko Milanovic

LEM Papers Series from Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy

Abstract: This paper provides a methodological contribution to the study of historical income inequality by examining the construction and use of social tables for the nineteenth century. In a period when modern household surveys were absent, social tables represent one of the only feasible approaches for providing distributional evidence for the entire population. At the same time, existing studies rely on a wide range of assumptions, classifications, and data treatments, which makes comparisons across countries and over time difficult. The paper reviews the main methodological challenges involved in constructing social tables, including class definitions, within-group inequality, units of analysis, and the external validation of income levels and subsistence benchmarks. Using simulations and historical examples, it shows how alternative methodological choices can generate substantial differences in inequality estimates. It finally proposes a set of guiding principles and template structures aimed at improving comparability, while still preserving the country-specific nature of historical evidence.

Keywords: inequality; social tables; 19th century; global inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-02-02
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2026/04

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