Guido Alfani is Professor of Economic History at Bocconi University where he is also a Fellow of Dondena Centre and of IGIER. He is an Affiliated Scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality (New York) and at the Stone Center on Wealth Inequality and Social Mobility (Chicago), a Research Associate at the CAGE Research Centre (Warwick) and a Research Fellow of CEPR. He serves on the editorial boards of the European Review of Economic History and of Genus. An economic and social