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Thrifty Pensioners: Pensions and Savings in France at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2011

Jérôme Bourdieu ,
Lionel Kesztenbaum  and
Gilles Postel-Vinay
Jérôme Bourdieu*
Affiliation:
Research Fellow, PSE-INRA, 48 boulevard Jourdan, 75014 Paris, France. E-mail: Jerome.bourdieu@ens.fr.
Lionel Kesztenbaum*
Affiliation:
Research Fellow, INED – 133, Bd Davout, 75013 Paris, France. E-mail: lionel.kesztenbaum@ined.fr.
Gilles Postel-Vinay*
Affiliation:
Research Fellow, PSE-INRA, 48 boulevard Jourdan, 75014 Paris, France; and EHESS, 54 boulevard Raspail, 75006 Paris, France. E-mail: gpv@ens.fr.
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Abstract

Building on a large sample of elderly French individuals, we evaluate the resources that were available to the old. We find that a considerable percentage of the French population did not have sufficient assets to live off of when aged. We compare the savings behaviors of pensioners and non-pensioners at a time when only a small part of the labor force was entitled to a pension. We show that pensioners were better able to accumulate wealth than were non-pensioners, even when we take into account their occupation and inherited wealth.

“Oh! La misère des vieux sans pain, des vieux sans espoir, sans enfants, sans argent, sans rien autre chose que la mort devant eux, y pensons-nous? Y pensons-nous, aux vieux affamés des mansardes? Pensons-nous aux larmes de ces yeux ternes qui furent brillants, émus et joyeux, jadis?”1

Guy de Maupassant

Type
ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 71 , Issue 2 , 06 June 2011 , pp. 383 - 412
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2011

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