The study offers a descriptive analysis of individual wealth in the Ottoman Empire, employing a new dataset from inheritance records of 36 different provinces located in Anatolia. The main purpose is to contribute to the discussion on the relationship between wealth inequality and changing institutional structures, spanning from 1650 to 1918. The limitations of data entail restrictions to construct a quantitative research, and hence, the study provides an implicit analysis on this relationship. A new dataset on individual wealth, however, allow to present a descriptive analysis in a long-term perspective. Establishing information on individual wealth by socio-economic groups, the study estimates wealth inequality according to Gini coefficients. This estimates also include a comparative analysis among different groups, including four quartiles starting from the wealthiest 25 percent. Our findings underlie the importance of the role of institutional change over the wealth inequality. We suggest the wealth inequality is higher under the periods of decentralized institutions, particularly during the pre-industrial period. This trend has become better with series of political, economic and institutional reforms towards centralization during the second half of the nineteenth century.
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