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Inequality in Pre-Industrial Urban Bohemia: The City of Budweis

Author

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  • Daniel Kolar

    (Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic)

Abstract

Motivated by the lack of previous research on historical inequality in Central Europe, this paper constructs wealth inequality statistics for a larger town in South Bohemia, Budweis. The data sources are rare detailed local tax censuses from 1416 and 1523 and a national tax register from 1654 as reported in the literature, further adjusted for lowest social groups and processed to create social tables. If the underlying data are accurate, the wealth inequality Gini coefficient in 1416 was between 0.739 and 0.777. The estimated wealth share of the top 1% evolved from 22.6% in 1416 to 9.6% in 1654, values significantly lower than in the pre-industrial UK or France, as well as in the contemporary Czech Republic.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Kolar, 2021. "Inequality in Pre-Industrial Urban Bohemia: The City of Budweis," Working Papers IES 2021/18, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, revised Jun 2021.
    • Handle: RePEc:fau:wpaper:wp2021_18
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    File URL: https://ies.fsv.cuni.cz/en/veda-vyzkum/working-papers/6440
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    historical inequality; social tables; Gini coefficient; wealth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N33 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N43 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N93 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

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