Aging women and family wealth

Population aging in France in the nineteenth century concerned mainly women, as men's life spans increased only after World War I. The article assesses the impact of this gender-differentiated aging process on wealth distribution, using individual data on bequests collected for the period 1800-1939. Over time, more women died without assets. But those who owned assets were richer. As a result, women's aging contributed both to a more unequal wealth distribution and to narrowing the gender gap between asset owners.

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Field Value
Source ISSN: 0145-5532
Author Bourdieu, Jérôme, Suwa-Eisenmann, Akiko, Postel-Vinay, Gilles
Maintainer CCSD
Last Updated May 11, 2026, 02:03 (UTC)
Created May 11, 2026, 02:03 (UTC)
Identifier halshs-00824338
Language en
contributor Paris School of Economics (PSE) ; Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (UP1)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) ; Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)-École nationale des ponts et chaussées (ENPC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)
creator Bourdieu, Jérôme
date 2008-06-11T00:00:00
harvest_object_id 20d5d566-b5ff-4856-a248-be56c4285243
harvest_source_id 3374d638-d20b-4672-ba96-a23232d55657
harvest_source_title test moissonnage SELUNE
metadata_modified 2025-10-01T00:00:00
relation info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1215/01455532-2007-017
set_spec type:ART