Full Citation
Title: Reexamining the Distribution of Wealth in 1870
Citation Type: Working Paper
Publication Year: 2005
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Abstract: We use data from the IPUMS sample of the 1870 US Population Census to analyze the distribution of real and personal property wealth. Wealth was relatively more equally distributed near the beginning of U.S. industrialization than it would be 50 years later. Disaggregating the data by demographic groups and spatially we find evidence consistent with Kuznets' conjecture that urbanization and industrialization were associated with rising inequality in the nineteenth century. But we also find that inequality was high in the South, even though it remained in 1870 highly rural and agricultural. Finally we find evidence that increasing literacy may have helped to reduce inequality.
Url: http://www2.ku.edu/~kuwpaper/2005Papers/200501Rosenbloom.pdf
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Authors: Rosenbloom, Joshua L; Stutes, Gregory W
Series Title: Working Paper Series in Theoretical and Applied Economics
Publication Number: 200501
Institution: University of Kansas
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Publisher Location: Lawrence, KS
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Other
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