Standards of Living and the Life Cycle in Colonial Connecticut

Abstract

Requirements for a subsistence standard of living and for higher levels in the colonial period changed with marital status. A man's income, his personal wealth, his consumption goods, and for farmers their land, had to increase with marriage and as children multiplied, though the old man might end as he began, dependent on other members of the family. In order to judge the proportion of men at different levels of wealth, and to measure inequality, the historian must construct a series of tables using all available measures of wealth for each stage in the life cycle.

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

“…For a discussion of life-cycle saving motivation and behavior, see Shorrocks 1975a;King 1985;Modigliani 1988;Kotlikoff 1988;Kessler and Masson 1989;Hurd 1990;and Burbidge and Davies 1994. For examples of work using the life cycle in economic history, see Haines 1985;Sutch 1991;Main 1983;Jones 1980;and Kearl and Pope 1983. 11 Sources for the data set were (1) Public Archives of Ontario, Surrogate Court Wills, 1892, and (2) Public Archives of Canada, Census of Canada, 1891, Manuscripts.…”