Revolutionary Transition

Research Seminars: Mannheim Applied Seminar

Inheritance Change and Fertility Decline

France's demographic transition occurred a century before any other country's. We test Le Play's hypothesis that this demographic transition was triggered by the harmonization of inheritance practices after the French Revolution. After a series of laws implemented in 1793, the Loi de Nivôse, year II, imposed the equality principle, effectively abolishing impartible inheritance practices that excluded non-heirs from inheriting. In regions that moved from impartible to partible inheritance, we expect fertility to decline if parents face a quantity-quality tradeoff. In regions that removed the exclusion of women, we expect fertility to decline because of women's empowerment and delay in marriage ages. To test these hypotheses, we compile a harmonized map of inheritance practices before the French Revolution at a highly disaggregate level. To estimate the effect of these inheritance practices on fertility, we use genealogical data and exploit the 1793 harmonization in a difference-in-differences framework.

Venue

ZEW – Leibniz-Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung

People

Ass. Prof. Paula Gobbi PhD

Paula Gobbi // ECARES - Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Belgium

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ZEW – Leibniz-Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung

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L 7, 1, 68161 Mannheim
  • Room 1