How Extractive Was Russian Serfdom? Income Inequality in Moscow Province in the Early Nineteenth Century

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Korchmina, Elena; Malinowski, Mikolaj
• 署名单位: University of Bologna; University of Groningen
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050725101071
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: european marriage pattern; economic-inequality; PROPERTY; medieval; MARKETS; slavery; wages

摘要

We measure pre- and post-tax income inequality in Moscow Province in 1811. We collect new data on incomes for 7,399 asset-holding households, including all registered aristocrats and merchants. We estimate the average incomes of 21 additional social groups using financial records from government and private businesses. Combining this data, we construct a social table and measure top-tier income concentration, Gini coefficient, and the Extraction Ratio. Our findings reveal that serfdom resulted in high inequality and extraction levels as well as low social mobility despite of low levels of enforcement by the state. We compare our results with those for 1904 and find that, in spite of emancipation, inequality remained high during the nineteenth century. Those findings are emblematic of deep historical roots and the persistence of high inequality levels in Russia.