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A Wicked War: War and the Wealth Inequality – Public Debt Nexus

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Abstract

As war is an eminently political event, the impact of wars on inequality can be seen as an expression of the politics in society. This paper engages with the ongoing literature relating warfare to wealth inequality dynamics in a pre industrial world. It employs an unbalanced panel of wills in a combined event study and instrument variables research designs to explore the wealth inequality dynamics in Mexico during the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. The findings suggest that weak public finances and financial crisis led to increasing wealth inequality through military expenditures and national debt. However, the formation of a regressive fiscal-military state and a levelling effect of warfare can coexist. Inequality depends on how war is financed and how destructive to capital and wealth the war is.

Suggested Citation

  • Castañeda Garza, Diego, 2022. "A Wicked War: War and the Wealth Inequality – Public Debt Nexus," Uppsala Papers in Economic History 2022/2, Uppsala University, Department of Economic History.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:uuehwp:2022_002
    DOI: doi.org/10.33063/upeh.vi2.85
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wealth Inequality; Mexican-American War; Public Debt; Fiscal Military State;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • 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

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