Amish Economic Transformations: New Forms of Income and Wealth Distribution in a Traditionally “Flat” Community
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Date
2014-04
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ohio State University. Libraries
Abstract
The basic contours of the Amish economic transformation over the past few decades have been
well documented, including the demographic squeeze that pushed many Amish out of farming,
their embrace of cottage industries and, to a lesser extent, factory labor, and the social and
cultural dilemmas created by successful entrepreneurship. Yet the effects of increasing market
entanglement on the distribution of income and assets in Amish communities are still poorly
understood. In this exploratory study, we draw on publicly available data from the U.S. Census,
the Ohio Amish Directory, and records from real estate transactions to map out the distribution of
income and land wealth in one predominantly Amish-populated Census Tract in Holmes County,
OH. Our findings illustrate economic differentiation within the Amish community, as well as the
ways in which affiliation and church leadership are associated with land holdings. Our case
study raises important questions about growing economic inequalities that merit further
exploration.
Description
Keywords
Amish, economics, wealth, income, land, U.S. Census, inequality, Holmes County, OH
Citation
Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies v. 2, no. 1 (2014), p. 1-22.