Intergenerational Wealth Transmission andInequality in Premodern Societies

摘要

The papers in this special section provide empirical supportfor a model of the role of intergenerational wealth transmis-sion in explaining variation in wealth inequality across pre-modern societies. Our results lead us to conclude that vari-ation in intergenerational transmission rates explain asubstantial portion of such inequality, as expected from ourmodel, but do so in conjunction with other factors, particularlythe types of wealth involved, the nature of the productionsystem, and the social institutions associated with those sys-tems. The commentators variously applaud our efforts, querythe importance of intergenerational transmission relative toother factors, and raise questions about our analytical meth-ods and the representativeness of our sample of societies. Herewe address the most important challenges raised in the com-ments and highlight much-needed future lines of research.