The Intergenerational Effects of a Large Wealth Shock: White Southerners after the Civil War

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ager, Philipp; Boustan, Leah; Eriksson, Katherine
• 署名单位: University of Mannheim; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR); Princeton University; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of California System; University of California Davis
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20191422
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 3767-3794
• 关键词: UNITED-STATES; reconstruction; agriculture; EMANCIPATION; institutions; persistence; mobility; origins; slavery; census

摘要

The nullification of slave wealth after the US Civil War (1861-1865) was one of the largest episodes of wealth compression in history. We document that White Southern households that owned more slaves in 1860 lost substantially more wealth by 1870, relative to Southern households that had been equally wealthy before the war. Yet, their sons almost entirely recovered from this wealth shock by 1900, and their grandsons completely converged by 1940. Marriage networks and connections to other elite families may have aided in recovery, whereas transmission of entrepreneurship and skills appear less cen-tral.