The sleeping giant who left for America: Danish land inequality and emigration during the age of mass migration

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Nina Boberg-Fazlic, TU Dortmund University; Markus Lampe, Vienna University of Economics and Business; Paul Sharp, University of Southern Denmark

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
replication_sleepinggiant.dta	application/x-stata-dta	242.2 KB	03/07/2023 11:24:PM
tables.do	text/plain	11.6 KB	03/07/2023 11:25:PM

Project Citation:

Boberg-Fazlic, Nina, Lampe, Markus, and Sharp, Paul. The sleeping giant who left for America: Danish land inequality and emigration during the age of mass migration. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2023-03-09. https://doi.org/10.3886/E185981V1

Project Description

Summary:

What is the role of access to land for the decision to emigrate? We consider the case of Denmark between 1868 and 1908, when a large number of people left for America. We exploit the fact that the Danish agrarian reforms between 1784 and 1807 had differential impacts on the class of landless laborers around the country, and use detailed parish-level data – police protocols of emigrants; population censuses and land registers – to show that areas with a more unequal distribution of land witnessed greater emigration. We demonstrate a sizable effect: a one standard deviation increase in the Theil index implies an increase in emigration of 18 percent above the mean.

Funding Sources: Independent Research Fund Denmark (6109-00287B)

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Agrarian reform; Denmark; Emigration; Land inequality

Geographic Coverage: Denmark

Time Period(s): 1868 – 1908

Methodology

Data Source:

Commissionen for det statistiske Tabelværk i Danmark (1837). En tabellarisk Fremstilling af Hartkornet, samtidlige Eiendommes Banktaxation of Bygningers Brandassurancesum, samt Jord-Eiendommes Fordeling m.v. i Kongeriget Danmark. (Statistisk Tabelværk, 2). Bianco Luno & Schneider, Copenhagen.

Danish National Archives (1860). 1860 Census Denmark, (04/05/2020).

Danish National Archives (1870). 1870 Census Denmark.

Danish National Archives (1880). 1880 Census Denmark, (03/04/2020).

Danish National Archives (1890). 1890 Census Denmark, (10/06/2020).

Det Danske Udvandrerarkiv (2018). Københavns Politis Udvandrerprotokoller (hosted at Danish Demographic Database, delivery 12-02-2018).

Statistiske Bureau (1864). Tabeller over Hartkornets og Jordeiendommens Fordeling samt Belöbet af Gammelskat i hvert Sogn i Kongeriget Danmark den 1ste April 1860 (Statistisk Tabelværk, 3rd series, 4). Bianco Luno & Schneider, Copenhagen.

Statistiske Bureau (1880). Statistiske Meddelelser, Tredie Række, 4de Bind. Folkemængden i Kjøbstæderne og i Landsognene i Kongeriget Danmark efter Tællingen den 1. Februar 1880. Statens Statistiske Bureau, Copenhagen.

Statistiske Bureau (1906). Statistiske Meddelelser, Fjerde Række, En og Tyvende Bind,Første Hæfte. Folkemængden 1. Februar 1906 i Kongeriget Danmark. Statens Statistiske Bureau, Copenhagen.

Unit(s) of Observation: Parish

Geographic Unit: Parish

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V1 [2023-03-09]

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