Patterns and Determinants of Wealth Inequality in Late-Nineteenth-Century Ontario

Abstract

This article shows that late-nineteenth-century wealth inequality was associated with rising wealth levels supporting the existence of a Kuznets-type curve, but this curve is not unconditional.The tendency of wealth inequality to vary with age means that wealth inequality was also a function of the changing age composition of the population and may have been the result of portfolio allocation decisions across the life cycle. Canada's population “aged” during the late nineteenth century, with the proportion of population under age 20 dropping from 53% in 1871 to 43% by 1911. The general aging of the population could have increased inequality in both wealth and income. These results follow recent work by Jeffrey Williamson (1998), who argues that Kuznets curves are not unconditional. In other words, as the results of this article confirm, wealth inequality is the outcome of a complex economic process, not a single determinant cause.

Monetary policy and wealth inequality in South Africa: Evidence from tax administrative data

“…Given that, in our sample, the mean wealth (R57388.69) for males is larger than the mean wealth (R36500.95) for females, one may be tempted to stick to the positive gender effect. This is consistent with findings which show that females generally hold less wealth than males (Chang 2010;Di Matteo 2001;Killewald et al 2017;Yamokoski and Keister 2006), have lower savings (Conley and Ryvicker 2004), and invest in safer lower-yield assets (Chang 2010;Ruel and Hauser 2013). Therefore, the results imply that having more males in the population tends to increase wealth inequality.…”

Immigration, Occupation, and Inequality in Emergent Nineteenth-Century New England Cities

“…One group may arrive with more capital of all types (e.g., more education, higher-status occupations, or greater wealth), establish a community and retain that advantage, which may then advantage later arrivals of the same group. These time of arrival inequalities are furthered by the maturation of early arriving immigrant populations and the individual-level accumulation of resources associated with aging (Atack and Bateman, 1981; Di Matteo 1997; 2001). …”

“…There are many excellent studies of individual wealth accumulation and economic mobility of migrants during this period, including extant and emerging urban centers (e.g., Thernstrom 1973, Herscovici 1998, Ferrie 2005, Salisbury 2014, Conley and Galenson 1998, and DiMatteo 1997, and DiMatteo 2001) and analyses of broad scale immigrant assimilation (e.g. Abramitzky et al 2014).…”

“…Our objectives are to characterize evolving immigrant communities in the two towns over substantial growth and transition using the lens of contemporary migration theories to better assess the development of such groups over time. There are many excellent studies of individual wealth accumulation and economic mobility of migrants during this period, including extant and emerging urban centers (e.g., Conley and Galenson 1998; Di Matteo 1997, 2001; Ferrie 2005; Herscovici 1998; Salisbury 2014; Thernstrom 1973) and analyses of broad-scale immigrant assimilation (e.g., Abramitzky et al 2014). However, our focus on immigrant communities is not to track the fates of individual immigrants but that of emerging immigrant communities within the newly created urban centers.…”