Joseph Enguehard

New data paper out!

📢 Applications are now open for our Summer School in Empirical Research Methods!

Join us from 30 June to 2 July at @cergic.bsky.social (ENS de Lyon, France).

📅 Application deadline: 1 March 2026

📩 Applications & inquiries: econ.summer.school@ens-lyon.fr

There is growing interest in HPE about social conflict in the run-up to the French Revolution.

In a new article at Data & Corpus, I describe the Jean Nicolas Database, a database of 8,516 rebellions in France (1661-1789)

👉Article: doi.org/10.46298/dc....
👉Database: doi.org/10.7910/DVN/...

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Thank you @elisamougin.bsky.social !

When Raising Revenue Threatens Legitimacy: Lessons from the French Salt Tax | Joseph Enguehard JMP blog post

And a blog post version! www.enguehard.tf/project/jmp-...

Here's my updated JMP. www.enguehard.tf/uploads/rese...

bsky.app/profile/engu...

I am on the econ job market AY 2025-26!

My JMP on tax enforcement and conflict speaks to political economy, public finance, and economic history. Thread below.

You can also visit my website: www.enguehard.tf

@ndjohnson.bsky.social @alexislitvine.bsky.social @christianvedel.bsky.social @juliuskoschnick.bsky.social @hillaryvipond.bsky.social @noahsutter.bsky.social @gabluhm.bsky.social @gproffit.bsky.social

Arnaud's presentation in Lund

On a different note, we had another set of amazing papers in the Political Economy of the French Revolution session, which I was pleased to chair with @pmaneuvre.bsky.social

Guillaume's presentation in Lund

What a pleasure to chair a fantastic session on advanced methods at the WEHC in Lund with @cedricchambru.bsky.social — and to learn about fancy work in NLP, census linking, and more!

@jadeponsard.bsky.social and myself are organising a workshop in applied #econhist at @cergic.bsky.social at the end of the month!

Great line-up on wide range of topics!

If you are in or around Lyon, feel free to contact me for attending ;)

@enguehard.bsky.social (ENS de Lyon) opens the panel with “The Political Costs of Taxation”. The research shows how strict salt tax in 18th-century France led to tensions between taxpayers and the state, highlighting how enforcement shaped political stability.

🚨 New CERGIC Working Paper No. 0005 🚨
“The Political Costs of Taxation”

By @enguehard.bsky.social, @evadavoine.bsky.social & Igor Kolesnikov

Explore more: hal.science/CERGIC-WP/ha...

A special mention to @cedricchambru.bsky.social for connecting us and initially collecting the conflict data, and to @victorgayeco.bsky.social for collaborating on establishing the precise location of the salt tax internal border—forthcoming companion paper!

@cergic.bsky.social

Our preliminary draft can be downloaded here: shorturl.at/c4pyw

We particularly thank @guoxu.bsky.social @ftrebbi.bsky.social Davide Cantoni, Jonathan Weigel, Reed Walker, Ernesto Dal Bó, Mathieu Couttenier, and Jean-Pascal Bassino for their inputs and guidance.

Yellow vests

Beyond this historical context, our findings resonate with current issues: raising taxes can lead to political backlash in states with weak fiscal capacity and legitimacy—sometimes even in established fiscal states, as evidenced by the recent French Yellow Vest protests.

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Government revenue would have decreased by 13%. Since this tax reform was not implemented, we infer that enduring the conflicts was less costly for the French state than eliminating them. We thus interpret this result as an upper bound on the political cost of taxation.

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Jacques Necker

What would have been the impact on government revenue if the price of salt in the high-tax region had been reduced to the highest conflict-free price? We use a methodology from a top finance official of the time, Jacques Necker, to derive a counterfactual revenue.

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Diff-in-disc estimates by tax border segment

We find that the effect of tax enforcement on conflict increases with salt price differences at the border. This relationship allows us to determine the highest price differential that does not trigger conflict.

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Grievances against taxation by tax and tax region

These conflicts persisted until the French Revolution, when the salt tax was finally repealed. In 1789, it was also by far the most contested tax in popular grievances—especially in the high-tax region.

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Dynamic difference-in-discontinuities estimates

The reform led to a 20-fold increase in salt smuggling conflicts in the high-tax region: not just direct confrontations between smugglers and tax agents, but the local population also standing with the smugglers against state repression!

🧵6/11

Using a difference-in-discontinuities design, we compare the number of conflicts related to salt smuggling on both sides of the fiscal border before and after the tax enforcement reform. We find that conflicts increased significantly more in the high-tax region.

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Amid heightened military competition and the need for additional revenue, the French state sought to crack down on salt smuggling around 1740 by establishing special courts to prosecute smugglers.

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Map of the salt tax regions

The French state relied heavily on the salt tax (gabelle), which caused salt prices to vary dramatically across regions. This disparity led to widespread illicit salt smuggling from lower-tax regions to the high-tax central region.

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We consider the fascinating setting of early modern France: a low-capacity state attempting to raise revenues, despite significant heterogeneity in the tax system, rooted in historical provincial privileges.

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🚨New working paper🚨

“The Political Costs of Taxation”

with @evadavoine.bsky.social & Igor Kolesnikov

When a state has low capacity and legitimacy, attempts to enforce unfair taxation can fuel social conflict!

Some key findings:
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Our recent WP explores the political consequences of enforcing the salt tax in early modern #France 🇫🇷

The authors examine how stricter enforcement of this tax, which varied across regions, led to conflicts between taxpayers and the state.

Read here: taxobservatory.eu/publication/...

We're glad to announce that applications are now open for the very first "Lyon Summer School in Empirical Research Methods" at @ensdelyon.bsky.social !

More information below: