Inheritance Institutions and Landholding Inequality in Nineteenth-Century Germany: Evidence from Hesse-Cassel Villages and Towns

This paper considers the German principality of Hesse-Cassel in the 1850s, comparing inheritance institutions and landholding inequality for roughly a thousand mostly agricultural villages and towns. The principality lay between impartible northern Europe and the partible southwest. Inequality in la...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of economic history 2021-09, Vol.81 (3), p.909-942
Main Author: Wegge, Simone A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
19th century
Agriculture
Cities
Economic history
Economic inequality
Emigration
Inequality
Inheritance
Population
Rural areas
Towns
Traditions
Villages
Wealth
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Summary:This paper considers the German principality of Hesse-Cassel in the 1850s, comparing inheritance institutions and landholding inequality for roughly a thousand mostly agricultural villages and towns. The principality lay between impartible northern Europe and the partible southwest. Inequality in landholding size is measured, showing an average Gini of 0.615 and substantial variation across communities. Places with relatively larger populations and ones that practiced impartible inheritance had mostly higher wealth inequality. The main result is that inheritance norms played a role in causing higher landholding inequality. Higher emigration rates in the impartible communities helped to alleviate landholding inequality.
ISSN:0022-0507
1471-6372
DOI:10.1017/S0022050721000358