Wed May 12 15:51:45 EDT 1999
EHS Abstract Submission
(c) 1999 EH.Net
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Name: Maristella Botticini
Email: maristel at bu.edu
Institution: Boston University
Co-author:
Title: Love and Demographic Shocks: The Black Death, Social Norms, and
the Florentine Marriage Market, 1260-1430
Internet Address of abstracted work:
By mail: Department of Economics
Boston University
270 Bay State Road
Boston, MA 02215 USA
Language: English
Abstract:
Using unpublished notarial records, this paper documents the spectacular
rise in the size of dowries in Florence from 1260 to 1430, and offers an
argument to explain the dramatic increase in dowry values especially after
the Black Death of 1348. It will be shown that neither the post-plague
price inflation nor changes in the sex ratio or variations in household
size can explain the continuous rise in dowries that parents provided for
their daughters. Meanwhile, this paper argues that the social norms that
governed the Florentine marriage market influenced intergenerational
transfers and parents' bequest behavior, which in turn had an effect on
the size of the dowries that parents gave to their daughters. The same
argument can explain why the size of dowries did not increase at all in the
countryside of Florence after the Black Death. This paper also investigates
the impact of inter vivos transfers from parents to daughters on Florentine
economic development across two centuries.
Bibliography: Botticini, Maristella. "Love and Demographic Shocks: The
Black Death, Social Norms, and the Florentine Marriage Market, 1260-1430."
Working paper, January 1999.
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Subject: P
Geographical Area: 4
Country/Region: FLORENCE
Time Period: 3