Patterns and Determinants of Wealth Inequality in Late-Nineteenth-Century Ontario

Evidence from Census-Linked Probate Data

Dados Bibliográficos

ID11204019
AutoresLivio Di Matteo (autor correspondente)
Ano2001
Volume25
Fascículo3
Páginas347-380
Data de publicação2001-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSocial Science History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0145-5532 • E-ISSN: 1527-8034
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0145553200012153
OpenAlexW2165683727
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas6
Referências citadas55

This article shows that late-nineteenth-century wealth inequality was associated with rising wealth levels supporting the existence of a Kuznets-type curve, but this curve is not unconditional.The tendency of wealth inequality to vary with age means that wealth inequality was also a function of the changing age composition of the population and may have been the result of portfolio allocation decisions across the life cycle. Canada's population “aged” during the late nineteenth century, with the proportion of population under age 20 dropping from 53% in 1871 to 43% by 1911. The general aging of the population could have increased inequality in both wealth and income. These results follow recent work by Jeffrey Williamson (1998), who argues that Kuznets curves are not unconditional. In other words, as the results of this article confirm, wealth inequality is the outcome of a complex economic process, not a single determinant cause

Demographic economics · Econometrics · Economic inequality · Economics · Inequality · Kuznets Curve · Population · Sociology · Demography · Economic Theory and Policy · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Mathematics