Land Inequality and Demographic Outcomes

The Relationship between Access to Land and the Demographic System in 19th-century Rural Tuscany

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9814419
AutoresMatteo Manfredini (0000-0001-7377-5921, Sustainability Institute, autor de correspondencia), A Fornasin (0000-0002-1923-0581, University of Udine), Marco Breschi (0000-0001-9025-2487, University of Sassari)
Año2025
Volumen97
Páginas101668
Fecha de publicación2025-07-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaExplorations in Economic History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0014-4983 • E-ISSN: 1090-2457
EditorialElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.eeh.2025.101668
OpenAlexW4408079472
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas25

Landed vs landless: a poor interpretative framework of demographic patterns • Land access is associated with specific demographic mechanisms • Control over marriage and selective migration as regulators of household size • Higher vulnerability and sensitiveness of day laborers to short-term stress In pre-industrial rural Italy, the disparities among smallholders, sharecroppers, and day laborers were starkly defined by their unequal access to land, which significantly influenced their living standards, family structures, and socioeconomic conditions. This paper uses nominative data from 1819 to 1859 to first explore how the different peasant categories adjusted their demographic behaviors according to their tie to the land, and then how they were possibly modified when short-term stressors, such as price increase and/or epidemics, altered the existing equilibrium. The results reveal that the groups with access to land where less vulnerable and less susceptible to economic crises compared to day laborers, who relied entirely on the market for essential food supplies. During periods of high prices, day laborers experienced a rapid decline in their economic situation, leading to increased mortality, migration, and postponement of marriages. However, access to land was also associated with a demographic pattern aimed at both controlling household consumption and maximizing the male labor force. This included strict control over marriages, increased fertility, and selective mobility, all of which could intensify during crises and periods of rising prices. These findings underscore the inadequacy of the simplistic classification of landed versus landless groups, emphasizing the necessity for a more sophisticated understanding of households based on their relationship and connections with the land

Demographic change · Demographic economics · Developed country · Economic geography · Economics · Geography · Historical demography · Inequality · Population · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Demography · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Rural development and sustainability