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Subjective well-being and inequality in Spain’s decline

Author

Listed:
  • Carlos Álvarez-Nogal

    (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Getafe, Madrid, Spain)

  • Leandro Prados de la Escosura

    (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Getafe, Madrid, Spain)

Abstract

The economic decline of Early Modern Spain ofers an opportunity to explore how it afected perceptions of welfare and inequality. We provide an answer based on the Bull of the Crusade, an inexpensive alms collected by the Hispanic Monarchy and massively purchased by a highly religious population that believed in its spiritual benefts. The purchase of the bull represented a public practice of religion that captured people’s religiosity and belief in the afterlife and had a positive impact on their spiritual well-being. We fnd that our measure of spiritual well-being—the ratio of (normalized) bulls sold to their recipients (the population aged 12 and above)—deteriorated in the late 1570s and 1580s and the 1640s but improved during the 1670s, while subjective inequality—the ratio between the number of bulls sold to those who deemed themselves afuent and those sold to common individuals—increased from 1600–1640 and fell in the 1580s and early 1590s and the 1670s. Hence, improving (deteriorating) subjective well-being was accompanied by declining (improving) subjective inequality through the seventeenth century.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlos Álvarez-Nogal & Leandro Prados de la Escosura, 2025. "Subjective well-being and inequality in Spain’s decline," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 19(1), pages 1-27, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:afc:cliome:v:19:y:2025:i:1:p:1-27
    DOI: 10.1007/s11698-024-00288-1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Carlos Álvarez-Nogal & Christophe Chamley, 2014. "Debt policy under constraints: Philip II, the Cortes, and Genoese bankers," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(1), pages 192-213, February.
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    3. Thomas T. Hills & Eugenio Proto & Daniel Sgroi & Chanuki Illushka Seresinhe, 2019. "Historical analysis of national subjective wellbeing using millions of digitized books," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 3(12), pages 1271-1275, December.
    4. Álvarez-Nogal, Carlos & Chamley, Christophe, 2016. "Philip Ii Against The Cortes And The Credit Freeze Of 1575-1577," Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 34(3), pages 351-382, December.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Subjective Well-being · Subjective Inequality · Spain · Decline;

    JEL classification:

    • H27 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Other Sources of Revenue
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • N33 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: Pre-1913

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