This paper examines the evolution of wealth distribution in France during the urbanization process of the nineteenth century, based on a comprehensive dataset of individual inheritances. It presents a spatial decomposition between rural and urban areas, distinguishing Paris from other cities. We...

This paper aims to show how the Tra-patrimoine database can be useful to better understand the building, transmission between generations and repartition of the patrimony in France during the last two centuries. We first make a presentation of the sources and, after a discussion on their...

Two opposing views of industrialization are commonly expressed. The first emphasizes capitalism’s coercion of workers into furnishing more effort than they had long been accustomed to when they themselves decided the rhythm and timing of work. In this optic, factory discipline is an essential...

Building on a large sample of elderly French individuals, we evaluate the resources that were available to the old. We find that a considerable percentage of the French population did not have sufficient assets to live off of when aged. We compare the savings behaviors of pensioners and...

The TRA project is a unique research approach based on the nationwide collection of historical individual-level data on the personal, occupational and economic situation of people having married or died between the early nineteenth century and the mid-twentieth century. Coinciding with the...

This paper examines the evolution of wealth distribution in France during the urbanization process of the nineteenth century, based on a comprehensive dataset of individual inheritances. It presents a spatial decomposition between rural and urban areas, distinguishing Paris from the rest of...

[eng] The Welfare State is generally thought to transfer resources from young and future generations to old ones. This opinion, however, is based on a narrow view of the transfer system that focuses on pensions and elderly-care programs. Our paper shows that taking downward educational transfers...