Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/247141 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
EHES Working Paper No. 211
Publisher: 
European Historical Economics Society (EHES), s.l.
Abstract: 
We study the dynamics of income inequality, capital concentration, and voting outcomes before 1914. Based on new panel data for Prussian counties and districts we re-evaluate the key economic debate between Marxists and their critics before 1914. We show that the increase in inequality was strongly correlated with a rising capital share, as predicted by Marxists at the time. In contrast, rising capital concentration was not associated with increasing income inequality. Relying on new sector×county data, we show that increasing strike activity worked as an offsetting factor. Similarly, the socialists did not directly benefit from rising inequality at the polls, but from the activity of trade unions. Overall, we find evidence for a rise in the bargaining power of workers, which limited the increase in inequality before 1914.
Subjects: 
Income Inequality
Concentration
Top Incomes
Capital Share
Germany
JEL: 
D31
D63
J31
N30
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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