Journal of Political Economy Vol. 134 No. 6 2026

Revolutionary Transition: Inheritance Change and Fertility Decline

Victor Gay¹; Paula E. Gobbi²; Marc Goñi³

¹ Toulouse School of Economics, University of Toulouse Capitole · ² European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics, Université Libre de Bruxelles, and Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) · ³ University of Bergen and CEPR

Abstract

We test Le Play's (1875) hypothesis that the French Revolution contributed to France's early fertility decline by imposing equal partition of inheritance among all children, including women. We combine new data on local inheritance rules before the Revolution and individual-level demographic data from historical sources and crowdsourced genealogies. Difference-in-differences and regression-discontinuity estimates show that the inheritance reforms enacted during the Revolution reduced completed fertility by 0.5 children. A key mechanism was the desire to avoid land fragmentation across generations. These reforms closed the fertility gap between regions with different historical inheritance rules and crucially contributed to France's demographic transition.

DOI

10.1086/739821

Volume

134

Issue

6

Pages

1666-1713

Language

en

Sources

openalex crossref