Urban Political Structure and Inequality: Political Economy Lessons from Early Modern German Cities
研究了近代早期德国城市中，封闭的政治制度如何加剧财富不平等，并通过诺德林根市的个人层面数据分析，发现政治精英利用公职自肥是主要机制，三十年战争作为外生冲击进一步证实了这一因果效应。
What was the impact of urban political structure on preindustrial wealth inequality? I document that more closed political institutions were associated with higher inequality in a panel of early-modern German cities. To investigate the mechanisms behind that macro-relationship, I construct a unique individual-level panel dataset on personal wealth and political office-holding in the city-state of Nördlingen (1579–1700). I employ a difference-in-differences setting to show that political elites enriched themselves substantially, increasing inequality. To address endogeneity concerns, I exploit the Thirty-Years’ War as a shock to elites’ potential for enrichment from public office. Officials manipulated this crisis to enrich themselves further.