Vieux et pauvres : le patrimoine des personnes âgées de 1820 à 1940

Starting with controversies on workers pensions at the beginning of the 19th century, many debates occurred on individuals' willingness to save for their old days. However it remains difficult to assess old people capacity to live their old age. We investigate the situation of old people before the introduction of pension schemes. Using probate records, we compute the rate of individuals who where able to live on their wealth, by themselves. We conclude that life-cycle savings were largely insufficient for French people to live on it. Above all, the situation of old people, after a continuous improve during the 19th century, get worse in the 1900's: large parts of the elderly population have no or only little means of survival. Moreover, access to retirement is also very limited, depending on gender or occupation.