iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Als je ooit wilde weten hoe je van Kendrick Lamar bij Hollands zeventiende eeuw terechtkomt, dan komt dit profiel van mij in NRC misschien goed van pas. Zaterdag in de krant, nu al online. Veel dank @vanderkris.bsky.social, voor het leuke gesprek!

nrc.nl

Tijdens de welvaartsexplosie van de 17de eeuw kochten steeds meer mensen een lapje grond

Economische groei leidt tot ongelijkheid, is de heersende gedachte. Hoe zat dat in de 17de eeuw, toen Nederland een lange periode van bloei meemaakte?

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Dank Mathijs, wat leuk, ik had hem zelf nog niet eens gezien!

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Reposted by Bram Hilkens

Erik Bengtsson @bengtssonz.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Thread about our new @wid.world working paper with @jakobmolinder.bsky.social and Svante Prado on income inequality and structural transformation in Sweden, 1870–1970! Link to paper: wid.world/document/inc... Thread 1/

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Leuk je hier tegen te komen, Floris!

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

There is also some cool stuff on the democratization of culture, which I think has great effect on the mismatch between perceived and measured political economy outcomes.

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

This was a super entertaining keynote. Elites don’t like to see themselves as elites—they perform normality. Elites are unhappy with their influence, which begs the question whether this influence has indeed waned relative to the past and what they feel entitled to.

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

There is a lot of material in the thesis on landownership and use, demographics, the propertyless and poverty, land values for different soil types and determinants of those values. There is also considerable reflection on the implications for the history of inequality. You can check it out here.

pure.eur.nl

Living off the land? Land inequality in early modern central Holland 1543-1708

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

This had a strong social dimension: rural commoners increased their landholding at the cost of urban elites while the economy expanded. After the 'GA', elites encroached upon rural land again, as smallholding households' position was severely weakened after agricultural prices fell in the 1650s.

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

With economic growth, the bottom of the distribution expanded, while in times of stagnation, inequality rose through concentration of land at the top. Inequality growth during the 'GA' was thus the result of new households acquiring small plots, while wealthy owners increased their land after.

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

In the thesis, I argue that inequality in both landownership and land use increased both over the Dutch 'Golden Age' and in the period of economic stagnation that followed. The mechanisms by which it did so differed, however.

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Last Friday, I defended my thesis on land inequality in early modern Holland. I much enjoyed our discussion on urban elites, rural wealth portfolios, and our broader contemporary understanding of inequality as a social issue--if that doesn't make one feel like a doctor, I don't know what will!

Me, my paranymphs Timo Houtekamer and Alessandra Schimmel all dressed in tailcoat posing on the stair at the Erasmusgebouw with the committee, my supervisors Daniel Curtis, Paul van de Laar and Angelique Janssens, and the beadle. I am holding a cylinder with my diploma very proudly.

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Reposted by Bram Hilkens

Arie van Steensel @arievansteensel.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Hier is @bramhilkens.bsky.social zelf nog in actie tijdens de EHS conferentie, met een presentatie over stad-plattelandrelaties en ongelijkheid in vroegmodern Holland.

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Very much looking forward to the #EHS100 at the LSE this weekend! Now let’s hope I finish my presentation in time.

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Deze week mag ik mijn zegje doen bij Historici Vertellen—lees mee!

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Great paper by Anton on male incomes over the lifecycle in 19thC Stockholm. Chances of being poor at old age were much higher for manual laborers than for their non-manual counterparts!

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

Excellent work by Marcus, super interesting for historians working on wealth, consumption, and living standards!

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

It contains six diverse contributions, on topics varying from urban-rural flight during plague outbreaks in 18thC Transylvania to effects on purchasing power in 14thC Flanders to urban recovery in the aftermath of cholera epidemics in 19thC Prussia. Check it out if you're interested!

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

Our special issue of the History of the Family is out! Recent literature has stressed the various long-term impacts (or lack thereof) of epidemics in history. While new work on this is still welcome, we suggest that the direct costs associated with epidemics deserve additional scholarly attention.

tandfonline.com

The History of the Family

Household Family and the Community Response to the Direct Costs of Epidemics. Volume 30, Issue 3 of The History of the Family

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Can’t wait to see you and Jakob rocking one of those covers

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

Super interesting paper by @oana-sorsk-id.bsky.social on urban-rural flight, population turnover, and wealth-holding after two eighteenth-century plague outbreaks in Transylvania! Part of our special issue on the direct costs of epidemic mortality, which should be out very soon.

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

This paper is part of a special issue, edited by Daniel Curtis, Bram van Besouw, and myself. More interesting stuff coming up soon, stay tuned! (12/12)

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

In short, the 1655-6 plague epidemic in Hazerswoude was unable to redistribute property more equally; but it was also unable to do so more unequally. Inheritance and (re-)marriage played a major role in balancing the distribution, even if the market did respond to the increased land supply. (11/12)

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Therefore, marginal returns likely played a role in the decision to take to the market. It was not always lucrative to expand a small peat farm, but it was almost always beneficial to expand a large cattle farm. These differences are not straightforwardly captured by inequality figures. (10/12)

Marginal returns to land per soil type. Most soil types saw declining marginal returns which stabilized at larger plot sizes, while returns to grassland ('weiland') declined less steeply and actually increased at larger sizes.

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

There was no discernible lasting effect on land prices. Prices had already declined by over 20 percent before the epidemic struck, and this trend continued in the succeeding years. Cheap land could have drawn households to the market, but it also made land less valuable. (9/12)

Land price index with 95% confidence intervals in Hazerswoude between 1651-1660. Base land prices declined by over 50 percent in a timespan of ten years.

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

The market was not left untouched, though. Average annual market turnover increased from 2.0 to 2.4 percent due to increased activity of small to middling owners. It is argued that by bestowing land on previously propertyless households, the epidemic increased both land supply and demand. (8/12)

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Of total post-epidemic turnover, almost three quarters was achieved outside of the market, compared to half of total turnover in the preceding years. Distributional changes were thus mostly informed by non-market institutions, like (re-)marriage and inheritance, more than the market. (7/12)

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Instead, the distribution 'balanced' itself by boosting the holdings of middling owners, which on average more than doubled after the epidemic. Not all of this was due to accumulation of established owners; over 70 percent of total turnover post-epidemic was due to entry of new owners. (6/12)

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

The number of landowners increased by 13.9 percent, the largest increases of which can be seen at the bottom. Simultaneously, the number of large landowners increased. With these changes, the distribution should have become more unequal on aggregate, but it did not. (5/12)

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

I find that in a comparable case, the 1655-6 plague epidemic in Hazerswoude (a peat village in Holland), aggregate land distribution as measured by the Gini coefficient indeed remained stable around 0.55. The distribution, however, did change considerably. (4/12)

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

It has been argued that elites learned from the BD. They skewed institutions to prevent property from leaving the family and entering the market. This phenomenon, however, is relatively sparsely understood, as it heavily relies on a single case study in Italy (Alfani 2010). (3/12)

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

The literature suggests that the Black Death (1347-52) narrowed economic disparities by destroying human lives while leaving capital intact, lowering the cost of capital while increasing wages. The plague waves of the seventeenth century, however, were seemingly unable to do so. (2/12)

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Happy to share that my article on the redistributive effects of epidemic mortality is now published in The History of the Family! It adds to the literature on preindustrial inequality by investigating redistribution of land in the wake of the 1655-6 plague epidemic in Hazerswoude, Holland. (1/12)

tandfonline.com

Mortality, morcellation, and the market: the impact of epidemic disease mortality on land distribution in a seventeenth-century-Holland village

The current article aims to explain the distributional consequences of epidemic mortality by assessing the relationship between post-epidemic land redistribution and land market exchange for one vi...

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

Congrats Marcus, very happy for you!

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Stef’s is the first paper out for our upcoming special issue on the short-term economic effects of epidemics—stay tuned!

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Great to see this paper published!

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Ultimately, they find no tendency towards accumulation or greater disparities in landholding, as was found for other European regions in the early modern period. Instead, changing landholding requirements across the life cycle prevented aggregate land concentration.

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Bram Hilkens @bramhilkens.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

They find that in the decidedly non-commercialized village of Oudenbosch, land distribution was remarkably stable in the face of a very high turnover, arguing that actors utilized the land market for optimizing returns to scale. This included selling land in the face of labour shortage.

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