Economic inequality in Germany, 1500-1800 Ulrich Pfister University of Münster, Germany This is a section of Disuguaglianza economica nelle società preindustriali: cause ed effetti / Economic inequality in pre-industrial societies: causes and effect(DOI: 10.36253/978-88-5518-053-5) by Giampiero Nigro Firenze University Press Firenze 2020 https://doi.org/10.36253/978-88-5518-053-5.20

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The chapter reviews existing evidence regarding four aspects of economic inequality: relative factor rents, which relate to the factorial distribution of income and also underlie the so-called Williamson index (y/wus), which is correlated with the Gini index of household income; real inequality in terms of opposite movements of the price of consumer baskets consumed by different strata of society; the inequality of pay according to gender and skill, as well as between town and countryside; and wealth inequality, particularly with respect to the access to land. The main result is that, with given technology and agrarian institutions, there is a positive correlation between population and inequality.

 economic inequality economic history germany pre-industrial age

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