Data and Code for "Economic inequality in preindustrial times: Europe and beyond"

Recent literature has reconstructed estimates of wealth and income inequality for a range of preindustrial, mostly European, societies covering Medieval and early modern times, occasionally reaching back to Antiquity and even prehistory. These estimates have radically improved our knowledge of distributive dynamics in the past. It now seems clear that in the period ca. 1300-1800, inequality of both income and wealth grew almost monotonically almost everywhere in Europe, with the exception of the century-long phase of inequality decline triggered by the Black Death of 1347-52. Regarding the causes of inequality growth, recent literature ruled out economic growth as the main one. Other possible factors include population growth (also as mediated by inheritance systems) and especially regressive fiscal institutions (also as connected to the unequal distribution of political power). The recently proposed theoretical framework of the Inequality Possibility Frontier (IPF) lends a better understanding of the implications of the reconstructed trends. This article concludes by showing how connecting preindustrial trends to modern ones changes our perception of long-term inequality altogether. <br><br><br><br><br>

近年已有多项研究针对涵盖中世纪至近代早期的一批前工业化社会（以欧洲为主）重构了财富与收入不平等的估算结果，部分研究甚至可追溯至古典时代乃至史前时期。这类估算成果极大地深化了我们对历史分配动态的认知。目前学界已达成明确共识：在约1300年至1800年间，欧洲几乎所有地区的收入与财富不平等均近乎单调递增，仅1347-1352年黑死病引发的长达百年的不平等衰退期为例外。关于不平等上升的成因，近年研究已排除了经济增长作为核心动因的可能。其余潜在影响因素包括人口增长（其效应亦受继承制度调节），尤其是累退性财政制度——这类制度亦与政治权力分配不均存在关联。新近提出的不平等可能性边界（Inequality Possibility Frontier, IPF）理论框架，能够更清晰地阐释上述重构趋势的内在意蕴。本文结语部分阐明，将前工业化时期的不平等趋势与现代趋势相结合，将彻底改变我们对长期不平等问题的整体认知。