Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ph5wq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T13:08:14.337Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Marriage, Bargaining, and Intrahousehold Resource Allocation: Excess Female Mortality among Adults during Early German Development, 1740–1860

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Stephan Klasen
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Munich, Schackstrasse 4, 80539 Munich, Germany. klasen@lrz.uni-muenchen.de.

Abstract

This article investigates sex-specific mortality rates in eighteenth- and nineteenthcentury rural Germany to determine whether there was any gender bias in the allocation of household resources. Family reconstitution data from 60 villages provide evidence of considerable excess female mortality among married adults. The empirical findings are consistent with a bargaining approach to understanding intrahousehold resource allocation and suggest that women's survival disadvantage is related to their positions in the remarriage market, the perceived value of their work, as well as differences in altruism. Agricultural change appears to be one factor responsible for the emergence of this disadvantage.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abel, Wilhelm. Agrarkrisen und Agrarkonjunklur. Hamburg: Verlag Paul Parley, 1978.Google Scholar
Abel, Wilhelm. Geschichte der Deutschen Landwirtschaft. Stuttgart: Verlag Eugen Ulmer, 1979.Google Scholar
Ahmad, Asiv and Morduch, Jonathan. “Identifying Sex Bias in the Intra-Household Resource Distribution in Bangladesh”. Harvard University: Mimeo, 1993.Google Scholar
Agarwal, Bina. “Women and Technological Change in Agriculture: The Asian and African Experience”. In Technology and Rural Women, edited by Ahmed, Iftikhar, 67114. London: Allen and Unwin, 1985Google Scholar
Allen, Robert. Enclosure and the Yeoman. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Basu, Alaka M.Culture, the Status of Women, and Demographic Behavior. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Becker, Gary S.A Treatise on the Family. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Behrman, Jere. “Intrahousehold Allocation of Nutrients in Rural India: Are Boys Favored? Do Parents Exhibit Inequality Aversion?”. Oxford Economic Papers 40 (1988): 3254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blasius, Dirk. Ehescheidung in Deutschland. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1987.Google Scholar
Boserup, Esther. Women's Role in Economic Development. New York: Academic Press, 1970.Google Scholar
Brūgelmann, Jan. Der Blick des Arztes auf die Krankheit im Alltag 1779–1850. Berlin: Inauguraldissertation, 1982.Google Scholar
Chen, Lincoln et al. “Sex Bias in the Family Allocation of Food and Health Care in Rural Bangladesh”. Population and Development Review 7 (1981): 5570.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coale, Ansley. “Excess Female Mortality and the Balance of the Sexes”. Population and Development Review 17 (1991): 517–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coale, Ansley, Demeny, Paul, and Vaughan, Barbara. Regional Model Life Tables and Stable Populations. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Das, Gupta, Monica, . “Selective Discrimination against Female Children in Rural Punjab, India”. Population and Development Review 13 (1987): 77100.Google Scholar
Deaton, Angus. “Looking for Boy-Girl Discrimination in Household Expenditure Data”. World Bank Economic Review 3 (1989): 115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van, Dülmen, Richard, . Kultur und Alltag in der Frü hen Neuzeit. Munich: C. H. Beck, 1990.Google Scholar
Elsas, Moritz. Umriβ einer Geschichte der Lühne und Preise in Deutschland. Leiden: A. W. Sijthoff's Vitgeversmaatschappij, 1935.Google Scholar
Graf, Finckenstein H.. Die Entwicklung der Landwirtschaft in Preussen und Deutschland. Berlin: Mimeo, 1951.Google Scholar
Foibre, Nancy. “Rotten Kids, Bad Daddies, and Public Policy”. Paper presented at the IFPRI-World Bank Conference, 12–14 02 1992. Washington, DC, 1992.Google Scholar
Gerhard, F.Löhne im Vor-und Frühindustriellen Deutschland. Göttingen: Otto Schwartz, 1984.Google Scholar
Gerhard, F.Preise im Vor-und Frühindustriellen Deutschland. Göttingen: Otto Schwartz, 1990.Google Scholar
Graunt, John. Natural and Political Observations Made upon the Bills of Mortality. London, 1961.Google Scholar
Hagen, William H. “The Junkers' Faithless Servants: Peasant Insubordination and the Breakdown of Serfdom in Brandenburg-Prussia, 1763–1811”. In The German Peasantry, edited by Evans, Richard and Lee, W.R, 71101. London: Croom Helm, 1986.Google Scholar
Henning, F. H.Landwirtschafl und Ländliche Gesellschaft in Deutschland. Paderborn: Schöningh, 1979.Google Scholar
Humphries, Jane. “Enclosures, Common Rights, and Women”. this JOURNAL 50, No. 1 (1990): 1742.Google Scholar
Humphries, Jane. “Bread and a Pennyworth of Treacle: Excess Female Mortality in England in the 1840s”. Cambridge Journal of Economics 15 (1991): 451473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Imhof, Arthur E.Die übersterblichkeit Verheirateter Frauen im Fruchtbaren Alter”. Zeitschrift für Bevölkerungswissenschaft 5 (1979): 487510.Google Scholar
Imhof, Arthur E.Unterschiedliche Säuglingssterblichkeit in Deutschland, 18. bis 20. JahrhundertWarum?Zeitschrift für Bevölkerungswissenschaft 7 (1981): 343–82.Google Scholar
Imhof, Arthur E.Die Gewonnenen Jahre. München: Beck, 1981.Google Scholar
Imhof, Arthur E. “Remarriage in Rural Populations and in Urban Middle and Upper Strata in Germany from the Sixteenth to the Twenteenth Century”. In Marriage and Remarriage in Populations of the Past, edited by Dupaquier, J. et al. , 335–46. New York: Academic Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Imhof, Arthur E.Lebenserwartungen in Deutschland vom 17. bis 19. Jahrhundert. Weinheim: VCH Verlagsanstalt, 1990.Google Scholar
Johansson, Sheila R. “Deferred Infanticide: Excess Female Mortality in Childhood”. In Infanticide, edited by Hausfater, Glenn and Hrdy, Sarah B., 463–86. New York: Aladin, 1984.Google Scholar
Johansson, Sheila R.Welfare, Mortality, and Gender. Continuity and Change in the Explanation of Male/Female Mortality Differentials over 3 Centuries”. Continuity and Change 6 (1991): 135177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, Robert. The Irish: Emigration, Marriage, and Fertility. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klasen, Stephan. “Gender Inequality and Development Strategies: Lessons from the Past and Policy Issues for the Future”. World Employment Programme Research Working Paper No.41. Geneva: ILO, 1993.Google Scholar
Klasen, Stephan “Family Composition, Gender Preference, and Parental ‘Investment’: Excess Female Mortality Among Infants and Children During Early German Development”. Harvard University, Mimeo, 1994.Google Scholar
Klasen, StephanMissing Women' Reconsidered”. World Development 22 (1994): 1061–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klasen, StephanNutrition, Health, and Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa: Is there a Gender Bias?Journal of Development Studies 32, No. 6 (1996): 913–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knodel, John. “Ortssippenbücher als Quelle für die Historische Demographie”. Geschichte und Gesellschaft 1 (1975): 288324.Google Scholar
Knodel, John. Demographic Behavior in the Past. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, W. R.Population Growth, Economic Development, and Social Change in Bavaria 1750–1850. New York: Arno Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Loudon, Irvine. Death in Childbirth. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lunn, Peter G. “Nutrition, Immunity, and Infection”. In The Decline of Mortality in Europe, edited by Schofield, Roger et al. , 131–45. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manser, Marilyn, and Brown, Murray. “Marriage and Household Decision-Making: A Bargaining Analysis”. International Economic Review 21 (1980): 3144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marschalck, Peter. BevölkerungsgeschichteDeutschlands im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1984.Google Scholar
McCrate, Elaine. “Trade, Merger, and Employment: Economic Theory on Marriage”. Review of Radical Political Economy 19 (1987): 7389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McElroy, Marjorie B.The Empirical Content of Nash-Bargained Household Behavior”. Journal of Human Resources 25 (1990): 559–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McElroy, Marjorie B.The Policy Implications of Family Bargaining and Marriage Markets. Paper presented at the IFPRJ-World Bank Conference 12–14 02 1992. Washington, DC, 1992.Google Scholar
McElroy, Marjorie B., and Homey, Mary J.. “Nash-Bargained Household Decisions: Toward a Generalization of the Theory of Demand”. International Economic Review 22 (1981): 333-49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNay, Kirsty, Humphries, Jane, and Klasen, Stephan. “Death and Gender in Victorian England and Wales”. University of Cambridge Department of Applied Economics Working Paper No. 9801. University of Cambridge, 1997.Google Scholar
Metzler, Franz. Versuch einer medizinischen Topographie der Stadt Sigmaringen. Freiburg: Verlag Herder, 1822.Google Scholar
Mooser, Josef. Ländliche Klassengesellschaft1770–1848. Gö;ttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1984.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nash, J.The Bargaining Problem”. Econometrica 18 (1950): 155–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicholas, Stephen and Oxley, Deborah. “The Living Standards of Women during the Industrial Revolution, 1795–1820”. Economic History Review 46 (1993): 723–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oberschelp, Reinhard. Niedersachsen 1760–1820. Hildesheim: Verlag August Lax, 1982.Google Scholar
Ogilvie, Sheilagh. Women's Work and Economic Development: A German Industrial Countryside, 1580–1740. Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Preston, Samuel H.Mortality Patterns in National Populations. New York: Academic Press, 1976.Google Scholar
Prinzig, Friedrich. “Die Kindersterblichkeit in Stadt und Land”. Jahrbücher für National?ökonomie und Statistik 75 (1900): 593645.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reichsamt, für Statistik. Statistik des Deutschen Reiches. Neue Folge, Band 44. Berlin, 1894.Google Scholar
Sabean, David. Property, Production, and Family in Neckarhausen, 1700–1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Samuelson, Paul A.Social Indifference Curves”. Quarterly Journal of Economics 70 (1956): 122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Segalen, Martiné. “Mentalité Populaire et Remarriage en Europe Occidentale”. In Marriage and Remarriage in Populations of the Past, edited by Dupaquier, J., et al. , 6780. New York: Academic Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Rehrer, Schofield R. D., Bideau, A., Eds. The Decline of Mortality in Europe (New York: Clarendon Press), 1991.Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya K.Women's Survival as a Development Problem”. Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 43 (1989): 1429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, Amartya K.. “Gender and Cooperative Conflicts”. In Persistent Inequalities, edited by Tinker, Irene, 123149. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Shorter, Edward. A History of Women's Bodies. New York: Basic Books, 1991.Google Scholar
Slicher van Bath, B. H.The Agrarian History of Western Europe. London: Edward Arnold, 1963.Google Scholar
Smith, Ken R., and Zick, Cathleen D.. “Linked Lives, Dependent Demise? Survival Analysis of Husbands and Wives”. Demography 31 (1994): 113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Snell, Keith. “Agricultural Seasonal Unemployment, the Standard of Living and Women's Work in the South and East 1690–1860”. Economic History Review 34 (1981): 407–37.Google Scholar
Statistisches, Bundesamt. Bevölkerung und Wirtschaft 1872–1972. Stuttgart: Kohihammer, 1972.Google Scholar
Süβmilch, Johann Peter. Die Göttliche Ordnung in den Vernderungen des Menschlichen Geschlechts. Berlin: J.C. Spener, 1765.Google Scholar
Tabutin, Dominique. “La Surmortalitéfeminine en Europe avant 1940”. Population 33 (1978): 121–48.Google Scholar
Tew, M.Safer Childbirth? A Critical History of Maternity Care. London, Chapman and Hall, 1990.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, Duncan. “Intra-Household Resource Allocation”. Journal of Human Resources 25 (1990): 634664.Google Scholar
UNICEF. The State of the World's Children. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.Google Scholar
United Nations Population Division. Demographic Yearbook. New York: United Nations, 1992.Google Scholar
United Nations. Unabridged Model Life Tables. New York: United Nations, 1982.Google Scholar
Vallin, Jacques. “Mortality in Europe from 1720–1914: Long-term Trends and Changes by Age and Sex”. In The Decline of Mortality in Europe, edited by Schofield, , et al. , 3867. New York: Clarendon Press, 1991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waidron, Ingrid. “The Role of Genetic and Biological Factors In Sex Differences in Mortality”. In Sex Diffierentials in Mortality, edited by Alan, D. Lopez and Lado, T. Ruzicka, 141–64. Canberra: Australian National University, 1983.Google Scholar
Waidron, Ingrid. “What do we Know about Causes of Sex Differences in Mortality? A Review of the Literature”. Population Bulletin of the United Nations 18 (1985): 5976.Google Scholar
Ware, Helen. Women, Demography, and Development Canberra: Australian National University, 1981.Google Scholar
Wrigley, E. A., Davies, R. S., Oeppen, J. E., and Schofield, R. S.. English Population History from Family Reconslitutions: 1580–1837. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zentralarchiv für Empirische Sozialforschung. Village Genealogies as Deposited by Arthur Imhof. Köln: Zentralarchiv, 1990.Google Scholar