中文摘要
更为均等的财富分配会产生怎样的长期经济效应？我们利用德国境内跨越政治、语言、地质和宗教边界的土地继承规则差异，考察土地分配不平等的后果。在德国的一些地区，继承的土地须由子女均等分享或分割，而在其他地区，土地则被规定为不可分割。采用地理断点回归设计，我们首先表明，土地均分地区的土地分配更为均等；其他潜在的增长驱动因素在边界处平滑变化，且土地均分地区在历史上并未表现出更高的发展水平。如今，土地均分地区的平均收入更高，创业活动更多，同时伴随着技能、收入和财富分布的右移。我们提供的证据与以下解释一致：在德国从农业经济向工业经济转型期间，更为均等的土地分配促成了更具创新性的工业兼业活动，而这些活动在长期内带来了更多的创业活动。
Abstract
Abstract What are the long-term economic effects of a more equal distribution of wealth? We investigate consequences of land inequality, exploiting variation in land inheritance rules that traverse political, linguistic, geological and religious borders in Germany. In some German areas, inherited land was to be shared or divided equally among children, while in others land was ruled to be indivisible. Using a geographic regression discontinuity design, we first show a more equal land distribution in areas with equal division; other potential drivers of growth are smooth at the boundary and equal division areas were not historically more developed. Today, equal division areas feature higher average incomes and more entrepreneurship which goes hand in hand with a right-shifted skill, income and wealth distribution. We show evidence consistent with the more even distribution of land leading to more innovative industrial by-employment during Germany’s transition from an agrarian to an industrial economy that, in the long run, led to more entrepreneurship.