Jeanne Cilliers
Researcher
Legacies of Loss : The intergenerational outcomes of slaveholder compensation in the British Cape Colony
Author
Summary, in English
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.
Department/s
- Department of Economic History
Publishing year
2019
Language
English
Publication/Series
Lund Papers in Economic History. Development Economics
Issue
2019:197
Full text
Document type
Working paper
Topic
- Economic History
Keywords
- intergenerational health
- intergenerational persistence
- wealth shock
- lifespan
- longevity
- slave emancipation
- Cape Colony
Status
Published
Project
- The Cape of the Good Hope Panel: Long-term studies of growth, inequality and labour coercion in the global south