TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Bellani, Luna
AU  - Hager, Anselm
AU  - Maurer, Stephan Ernst
        TI  - The Civil War Reduced Slave Owners’ Economic Power but Increased Their Political Influence
        PY  - 2026/May/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18650
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp18650
        AB  - Did Southern elites’ economic losses from abolition translate into diminished political influence? Using novel census-linked data on state lawmakers across four slave-owning and two Northern states (1850–1880), we document a striking paradox: despite the massive wealth shock of emancipation, the political influence of former slave owners increased during Reconstruction and its aftermath. We show that former slave owners won office at similar rates as in the antebellum period and secured more committee assignments. Comparable patterns are not visible among wealthy legislators in Northern comparison states. This suggests that Southern elites responded to economic loss by tightening their grip on formal political institutions. Our findings point to formal political institutions as one channel through which defeated economic elites preserved influence during Reconstruction and its aftermath.
        KW  - wealth inequality
KW  - elites and development
KW  - US South
KW  - slavery
KW  - political power
KW  - reconstruction
        ER  -