"A Testament to Revolution - New Data on Wealth at Death and Wealth Elasticity Estimates for France, 1791-1870"

Abstract :
Recent research has shown that elites are remarkably resilient when faced with ’critical junctures’, such as institutional and social changes and political upheaval (Alesina, 2020 ; Ager et al., 2021 ; Galli et al., 2024). The research presented by Noah Sutter will use a newly digitised dataset to study a period with several such critical junctures : The late 18th and 19th centuries in France. This period not only includes the immediate aftermath of the paradigmatic case of a political revolution, but also the revolutions of 1830 and 1848, as well as crucial reforms, such as the abolition of traditional inheritance customs and their replacement with equal partition of inheritance under the Code Napoléon.

In joint work, Aurelius Noble and Noah Sutter are digitising estate tax registers covering millions of French citizens who died in France between 1791 and 1870. These so-called Tables des Successions et Absences list individual-level "mobile" wealth at death and, unusual for the period, offer near universal coverage. The seminar will include an introduction to the dataset, as well as some preliminary results on intergenerational persistence.