Income inequality and famine mortality: Evidence from the Finnish famine of the 1860s
Autor: | Miikka Voutilainen |
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Rok vydání: | 2021 |
Předmět: |
kuolleisuus
Economics and Econometrics History inequality Inequality poverty media_common.quotation_subject 060104 history väestöhistoria Economic inequality 0502 economics and business Economics 0601 history and archaeology nälänhätä 050207 economics Finland köyhyys media_common 2. Zero hunger Poverty 05 social sciences 1. No poverty taloushistoria 06 humanities and the arts eriarvoisuus 8. Economic growth suuret nälkävuodet Famine famines Demographic economics nineteenth century |
Zdroj: | The Economic History Review. 75:503-529 |
ISSN: | 1468-0289 0013-0117 |
Popis: | This article examines whether economic inequality intensified the adverse effects of harvest, price, and income shocks during a famine. Using a parish-level longitudinal dataset from the Finnish famine of the 1860s, it shows that a substantial proportion of the excess mortality experienced during the famine resulted from a decline in agricultural production, a decline in incomes, and a surge in food prices. The findings indicate that the adverse effects of food output fluctuations were intensified by increasing income inequality and decreasing average income, while the market-transmitted shocks were weakened by a contraction of disposable income. The results are corroborated with multiple alternative estimation techniques, including the introduction of spatial spill-overs. The results show that even a pre-industrial famine affecting an impoverished society was meaningfully defined by the distribution of incomes. peerReviewed |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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