Volume 25 - Article 15 | Pages 491-512

Demographic responses to short-term stress in a 19th century Tuscan population: The case of household out-migration

By Marco Breschi, Matteo Manfredini, Alessio Fornasin


Date received:	28 Feb 2011
Date published:	19 Aug 2011
Word count:	5827
Keywords:	emigration, household, Italy, sharecropping, short-term stress
DOI:	10.4054/DemRes.2011.25.15

Abstract

This paper deals with the relationship between household emigration and short-term crisis in a rural community of mid-19th century Tuscany. Based on a detailed reconstruction of individual and household life-histories, the paper shows the close relationship between household emigration and different kinds of short-term stresses, either economic, epidemiologic or within the household. Despite the different response by SES - with the poorest strata of the population much exposed to price changes and mortality crisis - the death of the household head appears as one of the most powerful factor of household emigration.

Author's Affiliation

Marco Breschi - University of Sassari, Italy [Email]
Matteo Manfredini - University of Parma, Italy [Email]
Alessio Fornasin - University of Udine, Italy [Email]