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Comparing Income and Wealth Inequality in Pre-Industrial economies. Lessons from Spain in the 18th century

Author

Listed:
  • Esteban Nicolini

    (Economics Department, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)

  • Fernando Ramos Palencia

    (Department of Economics, Quantitative Methods and Economic History, Universidad Pablo de Olavide)

Abstract

Research on the history of inequality in pre-industrial economies has focused mainly on either wealth or income inequality. The most common problem with wealth inequality is the lack information about the bottom of the distribution while the main problem with income inequality is the lack of data to characterize the top of the distribution. Given that in general these approaches are based in different kinds of sources and methodologies, the results are not easy to compare and the links between the two distributions are difficult to establish. In this paper we use a unique data set for different regions of Spain circa 1750 and present results (the first for any pre-20th century economy) of inequality of both income and wealth for the same sample of households. Information of wealth comes from probate inventories while information of income comes from the Ensenada Cadastre. The main results of the paper are that poor households are not completely absent from our data set of inventories, that the position of a household in the distribution of income is closely associated to its position in the distribution of wealth and that an increase of a household’s wealth is associated to a less-than-proportional increase in the household’s income.

Suggested Citation

  • Esteban Nicolini & Fernando Ramos Palencia, 2016. "Comparing Income and Wealth Inequality in Pre-Industrial economies. Lessons from Spain in the 18th century," Working Papers 16.01, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics, Quantitative Methods and Economic History.
    • Handle: RePEc:pab:wphaei:16.01
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Alfani, Guido & Di Tullio, M & Fochesato, M, 2020. "The determinants of wealth inequality in the Republic of Venice (1400-1800)," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 483, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    3. Guido Alfani, 2017. "The rich in historical perspective: evidence for preindustrial Europe (ca. 1300–1800)," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 11(3), pages 321-348, September.
    4. Guido Alfani & Francesco Ammannati, 2014. "Economic inequality and poverty in the very long run: The case of the Florentine State," Working Papers 070, "Carlo F. Dondena" Centre for Research on Social Dynamics (DONDENA), Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi.
    5. Stefania Galli & Klas Rönnbäck, 2021. "Land distribution and inequality in a black settler colony: the case of Sierra Leone, 1792–1831," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 74(1), pages 115-137, February.
    6. Santiago-Caballero, Carlos, 2012. "Explaining wheat yields in eighteenth-century Spain," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH wp12-05, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
    7. Guido Alfani & Wouter Ryckbosch, 2015. "Was there a ‘Little Convergence’ in inequality? Italy and the Low Countries compared, ca. 1500-1800," Working Papers 557, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
    8. Jaime Reis, 2017. "Deviant behaviour? Inequality in Portugal 1565–1770," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 11(3), pages 297-319, September.
    9. Espín-Sánchez, José-Antonio & Gil-Guirado, Salvador & Giraldo-Paez, W. Daniel & Vickers, Chris, 2019. "Labor income inequality in pre-industrial Mediterranean Spain: The city of Murcia in the 18th century," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 1-1.
    10. Fernández, Eva & Santiago Caballero, Carlos, 2018. "Economic inequality in Madrid, 1500-1840," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH 27072, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    inequality; income; wealth; Spain; probate inventories; Ensenada Cadastre;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • N33 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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