Income inequality and famine mortality: Evidence from the Finnish famine of the 1860s

Abstract

This article examines whether economic inequality intensified the adverse effects of harvest, price, and income shocks during a famine. Using a parish-level longitudinal dataset from the Finnish famine of the 1860s, it shows that a substantial proportion of the excess mortality experienced during the famine resulted from a decline in agricultural production, a decline in incomes, and a surge in food prices. The findings indicate that the adverse effects of food output fluctuations were intensified by increasing income inequality and decreasing average income, while the market-transmitted shocks were weakened by a contraction of disposable income. The results are corroborated with multiple alternative estimation techniques, including the introduction of spatial spill-overs. The results show that even a pre-industrial famine affecting an impoverished society was meaningfully defined by the distribution of incomes.

Famines in medieval and early modern Europe—Connecting climate and society

“…Nevertheless, a geographically extensive famine occurred in much of Europe in 1740-1741 (Post, 1985;Rössner, 2011), and a last geographically large-scale early modern famine devastated parts of central and northern Europe in 1770-1773(Br azdil et al, 2001Collet, 2019). Geographically more restricted, but severe, famines occurred in some parts of Europe for much longer (Ó Gr ada, 1995(Ó Gr ada, , 2000Newby, 2023;Voutilainen, 2016;Wheatcroft, 2017).…”

“…Nevertheless, improvements at one level could increase the vulnerability (through extreme poverty) of certain groups at another level, for example during the “agricultural revolution” of the 18th century (Collet, 2019; Desai, 1991). Historical scholarship has therefore tended to analyze pre‐famine institutional stability, socio‐economic conditions, (in)action of the ruling classes, and relief measures to understand the development and severity of different famines (Tilly, 1983; van Onacker, 2019; Vanhaute, 2011; Voutilainen, 2016; Walter, 2019).…”

Review of periodical literature for 2022: (v) 1850–1945

“…The authors argue that the effect is mostly explained by an increase in the share of income held by the rich to the detriment of the other strata of the population. While Galletta and Giommoni study the effect of systemic shocks on income inequality, Voutilainen examines whether economic inequality intensified the adverse effects of harvest, price, and income shocks during a famine. Using a unique parish‐level longitudinal and multivariate spatial panel data from the Finnish famine of the 1860s, empirical investigations indicate that while increasing income inequality and decreasing average income exacerbated the adverse effects of food output fluctuations, the same conditions weakened the market‐mediated shocks.…”