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Antoine Paccoud @douccap.bsky.social · 05/11/2024

New open access paper with Sonia Schifano (Bocconi) in the Journal of Economic History: The Distribution of Land in Luxembourg (1766–1872): Family-Level Wealth Persistence in the Midst of Institutional Change tinyurl.com/yz8k76ay

The paper analyzes family-level wealth inequality and social mobility in Dudelange (Luxembourg) over five generations between 1766 and 1872, a period that saw the end of feudal social relations. While the integration of Luxembourg into the French revolutionary regime produced a reduction in the Gini coefficient for the ownership of land, the social mobility analysis reveals a relative stability of family positions within the land-wealth distribution throughout the period. This shows that family-level transmission mechanisms limit social mobility and strongly advantage those with ancestors owning property wealth, even when there are significant changes in the organization of property relations.