Working Paper: NBER ID: w27968
Authors: Brandon Dupont; Joshua L. Rosenbloom
Abstract: We offer new evidence on the regional dynamics of wealth holding in the United States over the Civil War decade based on a hand-linked random sample of wealth holders drawn from the 1860 census. Despite the wealth shock caused by emancipation, we find that patterns of wealth mobility were broadly similar for northern and southern residents in 1860. Looking at the determinants of individual wealth holding in 1870, we find that the elasticity with respect to 1860 wealth was quite low in both regions—consistent with high levels of wealth mobility.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: N11; N31; N91
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| wealth in 1860 (N91) | wealth in 1870 (N93) |
| Civil War and emancipation (N41) | wealth mobility in the south (J62) |
| wealth in 1860 (N91) | wealth persistence (D14) |
| emancipation (J47) | wealth persistence in the south (D14) |
| Civil War (H56) | wealth accumulation (E21) |
| regional differences (R11) | impact on wealth mobility (J62) |