TY  - JOUR
AU  - Rosenbloom,Joshua L.
AU  - Stutes,Gregory W.
TI  - Reexamining the Distribution of Wealth in 1870
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 11482
PY  - 2005
Y2  - July 2005
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11482
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11482.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Joshua Rosenbloom
Department of Economics
University of Kansas
Snow Hall 436
1460 Jayhawk Blvd
Lawrence, KS  66045-2113
Tel: 785/864-2839
Fax: 785/864-5270
E-Mail: jrosenbloom@ku.edu

Gregory W. Stutes
E-Mail: stutes@mnstate.edu
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 2005-07-11
AB  - This paper uses data on real and personal property ownership collected in the 1870 Federal Census to explore factors influencing individual wealth accumulation and the aggregate distribution of wealth in the United States near the middle of the nineteenth century.  Previous analyses of these data have relied on relatively small samples, or focused on population subgroups.  By using the much larger sample available in the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) we are able to disaggregate the data much more finely than has previously been possible allowing us to explore differences in inequality across space and between different population groups.  The data provide strong support for the hypothesis that American industrialization during the nineteenth century resulted in increasing inequality in the distribution of wealth.
ER  -