Legacies of Loss : The intergenerational outcomes of slaveholder compensation in the British Cape Colony
(2019) In Lund Papers in Economic History. Development Economics- Abstract
- Can wealth shocks have intergenerational health consequences? We use the partial compensation slaveholders received after the 1834 slave emancipation in the British Cape Colony to measure the intergenerational effects of a wealth loss on longevity. Because the share of partial compensation received was uncorrelated to wealth, we can interpret the results as having a causal influence. We find that a greater loss of slave wealth shortened the lifespans of the generation of slaveholders that experienced the shock and those of their children, but not those of their grandchildren. We speculate on the mechanisms for this intergenerational persistence.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/cca71867-de66-4ca1-b757-3e2e052884c1
- author
- Martins, Igor LU ; Cilliers, Jeanne LU and Fourie, Johan
- organization
- publishing date
- 2019
- type
- Working paper/Preprint
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- intergenerational health, intergenerational persistence, wealth shock, lifespan, longevity, slave emancipation, Cape Colony
- in
- Lund Papers in Economic History. Development Economics
- issue
- 2019:197
- pages
- 56 pages
- project
- The Cape of the Good Hope Panel: Long-term studies of growth, inequality and labour coercion in the global south
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- cca71867-de66-4ca1-b757-3e2e052884c1
- date added to LUP
- 2019-03-11 10:54:02
- date last changed
- 2022-11-08 12:25:31
@misc{cca71867-de66-4ca1-b757-3e2e052884c1, abstract = {{Can wealth shocks have intergenerational health consequences? We use the partial compensation slaveholders received after the 1834 slave emancipation in the British Cape Colony to measure the intergenerational effects of a wealth loss on longevity. Because the share of partial compensation received was uncorrelated to wealth, we can interpret the results as having a causal influence. We find that a greater loss of slave wealth shortened the lifespans of the generation of slaveholders that experienced the shock and those of their children, but not those of their grandchildren. We speculate on the mechanisms for this intergenerational persistence.}}, author = {{Martins, Igor and Cilliers, Jeanne and Fourie, Johan}}, keywords = {{intergenerational health; intergenerational persistence; wealth shock; lifespan; longevity; slave emancipation; Cape Colony}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Working Paper}}, number = {{2019:197}}, series = {{Lund Papers in Economic History. Development Economics}}, title = {{Legacies of Loss : The intergenerational outcomes of slaveholder compensation in the British Cape Colony}}, url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/61357218/LUPEH_197.pdf}}, year = {{2019}}, }