Mats Olsson
Head of the Department of Economic History, Professor
Unequal poverty and equal industrialisation: Finnish wealth, 1750–1900
Author
Summary, in English
We present the first comprehensive, long-run estimates of Finnish wealth and its distribution from 1750 to 1900. Using wealth data from 17,279 probate inventories, we show that Finland was very unequal between 1750 and 1850; the top decile owned about 90% of total wealth. This means that Finland was more unequal than the much wealthier economies Britain, France and the US, which goes against the common assumption of richer economies being more unequal. Moreover, when industrialisation took off in Finland, inequality started a downward trajectory. High inequality 1750–1850 was bottom-driven, by a large share of the population owning nothing or close to nothing of value, while economic development after 1850 was pro-equal since the ownership of forests, since long in the hands of the peasantry, became more valuable with the development of forest-based industries. Our findings thus contradict commonplace assumptions that economic growth and industrialisation are associated with more inequality, as well as recent arguments that very few factors beyond catastrophes can decrease inequality. We instead argue for a more inductive and open approach to the determinants of long-run inequality.
Department/s
- Department of Economic History
Publishing year
2019
Language
English
Pages
229-248
Publication/Series
Scandinavian Economic History Review
Volume
67
Issue
3
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Routledge
Topic
- Economic History
Keywords
- Inequality
- Wealth
- Finland
- probate inventories
- Social structure
Status
Published
Project
- Wages, economic performance and inequality. Scandinavia in the ‘Little Divergence’ in Europe
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0358-5522