The Violent Origins of Finnish Equality

A prominent hypothesis suggests that violent uprisings against the ruling elites have played an important role in shaping the distribution of power and prosperity. This paper employs newly-collected historical data from Finland to evaluate this hypothesis. We document that the country had extreme levels of inequality in terms of income and land distribution until a violent uprising in 1918. We find that the high inequality partly originated from the famine of 1866-1868 which increased the concentration of land and power to large landowners. We further show that regions with more exposure to the famine had worse labor market outcomes and more coercion by the early 1900s. Using unique micro-data on all the casualties of the Finnish Civil War, we demonstrate that the famine contributed to insurgency participation through these factors. Although unsuccessful in replacing the government, the insurgency led to significant policy changes, including radical land redistribution and a full extension of the franchise. A more drastic shift towards equality occurred in locations that were more affected by the famine and that had higher levels of pre-conflict inequality and more insurgents. Our findings highlight the importance of conflict and institutional change as determinants of modern-day outcomes