250 Years of Inequality, Economic Stress, and Demographic Behaviour in Southern Sweden

Tommy Bengtsson, Lund University
Luciana Quaranta, Lund University

This study examines how inequalities in incomes and wealth have created differences in opportunities and constrains for marriages, fertility, mortality, and migration in southern Sweden over the last 250 years. We use longitudinal data for five rural/semi-urban parishes and a town to examine the demographic responses to short-term economic stress. This means that we extend our previous analyses to include the 20th century and an urban area and synthesize our previous research on specific demographic outcomes. Defining socioeconomic status, we go beyond the traditional occupation based class schemes and use information on taxes and income. We confirm some longstanding generalizations about the escape from hunger and premature death but reveal also unexpected results. For example, we find that while the well-off group had several choices to meet economic stress, primarily financial, the poor instead timed their births and, if they lost their partner, remarried soon afterwards. Overall, we find that access to resources, and, to some degree, also assistance from the local community, was important for the different ways people in the past encompassed economic stress.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 222. Inequality, Economic Stress, and Demographic Behavior: Sub-Session 3. Integrated views