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Aging Women and Family Wealth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Jérôme Bourdieu ,
Gilles Postel-Vinay  and
Akiko Suwa-Eisenmann
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Abstract

Population aging in France in the nineteenth century concerned mainly women, as men's life spans increased only after World War I. The article assesses the impact of this gender-differentiated aging process on wealth distribution, using individual data on bequests collected for the period 1800-1939. Over time, more women died without assets. But those who owned assets were richer. As a result, women's aging contributed both to a more unequal wealth distribution and to narrowing the gender gap between asset owners.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , Summer 2008 , pp. 143 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2008 

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