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Risk, Asset Markets and Inequality: Evidence from Medieval England

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  • Cliff T. Bekar
  • Clyde Reed

Abstract

Between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries English peasants faced large income shocks relative to mean incomes. Innovations in property rights over land induced peasants to respond by trading small parcels of land as part of their risk coping strategy. The same period witnessed a dramatic increase in inequality in the distribution of peasant landholdings. We argue that these events are related. When agents are able to trade their productive assets to manage risk, wealth dynamics become unstable and generate increasing inequality over time. We analyze the effects of these dynamics in the context of medieval English land markets and peasant landholdings.

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  • Cliff T. Bekar & Clyde Reed, 2009. "Risk, Asset Markets and Inequality: Evidence from Medieval England," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _079, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:oxf:esohwp:_079
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    Cited by:

    1. Paul David & S. Ryan Johansson & Andrea Pozzi, 2010. "The Demography of an Early Mortality Transition: Life Expectancy, Survival and Mortality Rates for Britain's Royals, 1500-1799," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _083, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    2. Paul A. David & S. Ryan Johansson & Andrea Pozzi, 2010. "The Demography of an Early Mortality Transition: Life Expectancy, Survival and Mortality Rates for Britain's Royals, 1500-1799," Oxford University Economic and Social History Series _083, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.

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