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Long-Term Effects of Equal Sharing: Evidence from Inheritance Rules for Land

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  • Bartels, Charlotte
  • Jäger, Simon
  • Obergruber, Natalie

Abstract

What are the long-term economic effects of a more equal distribution of wealth? We investigate consequences of land inequality, exploiting variation in land inheritance rules that traverse political, linguistic, geological, and religious borders in Germany. In some German areas, inherited land was to be shared or divided equally among children, while in others land was ruled to be indivisible. Using a geographic regression discontinuity design, we first show a more equal land distribution in areas with equal division; other potential drivers of growth are smooth at the boundary and equal division areas were not historically more developed. Today, equal division areas feature higher average incomes and more entrepreneurship which goes in hand with a right-shifted skill, income, and wealth distribution. We show evidence consistent with the more even distribution of land leading to more innovative industrial by-employment during Germany’s transition from an agrarian to an industrial economy that, in the long-run, led to more entrepreneurship.

Suggested Citation

  • Bartels, Charlotte & Jäger, Simon & Obergruber, Natalie, 2024. "Long-Term Effects of Equal Sharing: Evidence from Inheritance Rules for Land," CEPR Discussion Papers 18838, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:18838
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    2. Abajian, Alexander C. & Xu, Cong & Yu, Shuo, 2025. "A comment on "Long-Term Effects of Equal Sharing: Evidence from Inheritance Rules for Land"," I4R Discussion Paper Series 269, The Institute for Replication (I4R).
    3. Paul Berbée & Sebastian Till Braun & Richard Franke, 2025. "Reversing fortunes of German regions, 1926–2019: Boon and bane of early industrialization?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 307-337, June.
    4. Felix S. F. Schaff, 2025. "The unequal spirit of the Protestant Reformation: particularism and wealth distribution in early modern Germany," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 417-460, September.
    5. Süß, Karolin, 2023. "Long-term effects of historical inheritance customs on household formation and gender disparities," Ruhr Economic Papers 1038, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    6. Adrian Haws & David R. Just & Joseph Price, 2025. "Who (actually) gets the farm? Intergenerational farm succession in the United States," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 107(1), pages 3-26, January.
    7. Gay, Victor & Gobbi, Paula E. & Goñi, Marc, 2024. "The Customary Atlas of Ancien Régime France," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    8. David R. Agrawal & Ronald B. Davies & Sara LaLumia & Nadine Riedel & Kimberley Scharf, 2021. "A snapshot of public finance research from immediately prior to the pandemic: IIPF 2020," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 28(5), pages 1276-1297, October.
    9. Schaff, Felix, 2020. "When ‘the state made war’, what happened to economic inequality? Evidence from preindustrial Germany (c.1400-1800)," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 107046, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Huning, Thilo R. & Wahl, Fabian, 2021. "The fetters of inheritance? Equal partition and regional economic development," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    11. Guillaume Blanc & Romain Wacziarg, 2025. "Malthusian Migrations," NBER Working Papers 33542, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Hauser,Christina Sarah, 2024. "Tackling Gender Discriminatory Inheritance Law Privately : Lessons from a Survey Expe riment in Tunisia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10693, The World Bank.
    13. Alfani, Guido & Gierok, Victoria & Schaff, Felix, 2025. "Poverty in Germany from the Black Death until the Beginning of Industrialization," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    14. Boberg-Fazlić, Nina & Lampe, Markus & Martinelli Lasheras, Pablo & Sharp, Paul, 2022. "Winners and losers from agrarian reform: Evidence from Danish land inequality 1682–1895," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    15. Schaff, Felix, 2020. "When ‘the state made war’, what happened to economic inequality? Evidence from preindustrial Germany (c.1400-1800)," Economic History Working Papers 107046, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    16. Hiroshi Kumanomido & Yutaro Takayasu, 2025. "Elite Persistence in Family: The Role of Adoption in Prewar Japan," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 537, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    17. Klaus W. Deininger & Thea Hilhorst & Zevenbergen,Jaap & Nkurunziza,Emmanuel, 2025. "Capitalizing on Digital Transformation to Enhance the Effectiveness of Property Institutions : Conceptual Background and Evidence from 85 Countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 11100, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D3 - Microeconomics - - Distribution
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • O4 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity

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