Rural Retirement Arrangements in Seventeenth- To Nineteenth-Century Austria: a Cross-Community Analysis

The peasant retirement arrangement known in Austria as Ausgedinge, is established by the transfer of a farm holding to an heir in exchange for the lifelong provision of shelter, food and other services to the retirees. Since the retirement of the old peasant is closely linked to the marriage of the successor, this arrangement leads to a specific stem-family household in which the head-of- household position rests with the younger generation. The article compares the frequency of retirement arrangements across a wide range of Austrian villages and small towns, controlling for age distribution as well as the various structural and cultural characteristics of these units. The data used are census-type parish registers (soul books) from the early seventeenth to the late nineteenth century. Households with retirement arrangements are found to be rare; only a small pro portion of the elderly were formally retired. The increase of retirement ar rangements during the nineteenth century cannot be attributed to changes in age distribution but rather, to increasing wealth in specific agricultural areas. Moreover, the data suggest that in case of the death of a spouse, retirement was increasingly preferred over remarriage.