Economic inequality in preindustrial Germany, ca. 1300 - 1850

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Guido Alfani, Bocconi University; Felix Schaff, London School of Economics; Victoria Gierok, Oxford University

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
Deciles Localities_data.xlsx application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet 31.2 KB 07/01/2021 07:32:AM
Fig5_Regression-based aggregation.do text/plain 691 bytes 07/01/2021 07:32:AM
Inequality Germany_data.xlsx application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet 5.8 MB 07/01/2021 08:01:AM
README_Economic inequality in preindustrial Germany.pdf application/pdf 103 KB 07/01/2021 08:01:AM
Tab2_Gini confintervals bootstrap.do text/plain 3.3 KB 07/01/2021 07:32:AM
Tab3_Diff-in-diff 30yw.do text/plain 2.2 KB 07/01/2021 07:32:AM

Project Citation: 

Alfani, Guido, Schaff, Felix, and Gierok, Victoria. Economic inequality in preindustrial Germany, ca. 1300 - 1850. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-07-01. https://doi.org/10.3886/E144241V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary 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


Funding Sources:  View help for Funding Sources European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7) (283802); European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Program (725687)

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms wealth inequality; plague; poverty; economic history; war consequences; Black Death
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage Germany
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 1300 – 1800 (from circa 1300 until circa 1800)
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) administrative records data; aggregate data; census/enumeration data
Collection Notes:  View help for Collection Notes See the related article for details about the data provided as part of this package, as well as the README file enclosed


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V1 [2021-07-01]

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