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Title: Up from Poverty? The 1832 Cherokee Land Lottery and the Long-run Distribution of Wealth

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2012

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Abstract: The state of Georgia allocated most of its land to the public through a system of lotteries. These episodes provide unusual opportunities to assess the long-term impact of shocks to wealth, as winning was uncorrelated with individual characteristics and the eligible population was drawn from a broad cross section of adult white males. Using wealth measured in the 1850 Census manuscripts, we follow up on a sample of men eligible to win in the 1832 Cherokee Land Lottery. We assess the impact of lottery winning on the distribution of wealth almost 20 years after the fact. Winners are on average richer (by an amount close to the median of 1850 wealth), but mainly due to a shifting of mass from the middle to the upper tail of the wealth distribution. The lower tail is largely unaffected. We present some possible mechanisms (fixed costs, interactions with ability, risk, and life-cycle consumption patterns) for this result.

Url: https://economics.yale.edu/sites/default/files/bleakley-121210.pdf

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Authors: Bleakley, Hoyt; Ferrie, Joseph

Publisher: Univ. of Chicago

Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS

Topics: Poverty and Welfare

Countries: United States