Wealth in the Netherlands
Growing wealth inequality is a major socio-economic challenge, and recently the OECD pledged for an inheritance tax. Nonetheless, lack of empirical evidence impedes policy-relevant research in many countries. The Netherlands stands out by its absence in relevant international studies, despite its particularly rich and unexplored historical sources. Death duties records (Memories van Successie) and their summary ledgers (Tafel V-bis) are outstanding sources detailing the wealth of every deceased person, above a tax threshold, in the Netherlands. These inheritance records provide the complete breakdown of the decedents' wealth composition, including the asset type (i.e. real estate, securities, cash) as well as the name and value of each individual asset. This set contains a number of these records from the 19th century.
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