Preprints, Working Papers, ... (Working Paper) Year : 2023

Revolutionary Transition: Inheritance Change and Fertility Decline

Abstract

We test Le Play's (1875) hypothesis that the French Revolution contributed to France's early fertility decline by imposing equal partition of inheritance among all children, including women. We combine new data on local inheritance rules before the Revolution and individual-level demographic data from historical sources and crowdsourced genealogies. Difference-in-differences and regression-discontinuity estimates show that the inheritance reforms enacted during the Revolution reduced completed fertility by 0.5 children. A key mechanism was the desire to avoid land fragmentation across generations. These reforms closed the fertility gap between regions with different historical inheritance rules and crucially contributed to France's demographic transition.
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DOI

Cites 10.7910/DVN/HYE2O9 Customs in Ancien Régime France, https://doi.org/10.7910/dvn/hye2o9

DOI

Cites 10.7910/DVN/T8UXHK Bailliages in 1789 France, https://doi.org/10.7910/dvn/t8uxhk

Dates and versions

hal-04285818 , version 1 (14-11-2023)
hal-04285818 , version 2 (05-12-2024)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04285818 , version 2

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Victor Gay, Paula Gobbi, Marc Goñi. Revolutionary Transition: Inheritance Change and Fertility Decline. 2024. ⟨hal-04285818v2⟩
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