Widows in Venice

rent analysis

Research Question : What is the economical situation of widows in Venice in 1740 ?

Widows in the catastici are always either tenants or owners of a place. About 10% of widows own or rent multiple properties. We will focus on analyzing the rent of properties rented by widow and the rent of properties owned by widows.

Rent in Venice [1]

The scale of Venice

When looking the entire city of Venice, we find a very small 103 properties in which widows are involved, from a total of 30k. This is about 0.3% of the properties of the catastici. We could expect this number to be closer to 15%. We are identifying the widows with keywords (consorte and vedova), so it is possible that some widows are mentioned with their name only, making them indistinguishable from unmarried women. Also, we are ignoring cases where we have no rent information. Nevertheless, if we assume that our sample is representative of the widows in Venice, we clearly see that when renting, widows pay about 40 lirae less than median rent per property and when owning a place, they earn about 40 lirae more than median rent per property. Those difference represent a 30% difference to median rent.

A possible explanation for widows renting at lower price would be that they get discounts due to their social status. But, their rent with money (whereas sometimes people pay with other goods) and there is no mention to a widow not paying and living out of someone's charity, which is the case for other people in Venice. Also, this type of positive discrimination towards widows wouldn't explain why widows own properties that are rented at a higher price.

Median Rent and Population in Venice

Median Rent	Widow Owners Median Rent Difference	Widow Tenants Median Rent Difference	Properties	Widow Owned Properties	Widow Rented Properties
124.0	+ 37.2	- 37.2	29999	48	55

Districts of Venice [2]

The scale of the districts

If the price difference is not explained by positive discrimination, it means that widows that own properties own above average properties and widow tenants rent below average properties. But this asked further questions: Are those properties located in specific cheap or expensive neighborhoods ? Where are widows renting ? Where do hey own properties ? And are we sure that what we observe at the macro level of the city still holds at more micro levels ?

If we zoom in to the scale of districts, we realize that the proportion of widow owners and tenant from the Ghetto is very high compare to other districts. This is a clear hint that widows

Proportions of properties involving tenants

District	Widow owners	Widow tenants	Combined
San Marco	0.09%	0.07%	0.16%
Castello	0.24%	0.14%	0.38%
Cannaregio	0.10%	0.33%	0.43%
San Polo	0.10%	0.10%	0.20%
Santa Croce	0.15%	0.31%	0.46%
Dorsoduro	0.07%	0.08%	0.15%
Ghetto	2.08%	0.94%	3.02%

Despite the high variations in rent between districts, the pattern of owners owning more than median rent and tenants renting at lower prices holds in almost every district.

Median Rent in the districts

Sestiere	Median Rent	Widow Owners Median Rent Difference	Widow Tenants Median Rent Difference	Properties	Widow Owned Properties	Widow Rented Properties Size
San Marco	210.8	+ 37.2	0.0	5697	5	4
Castello	124.0	+ 99.2	- 43.4	5774	14	8
Cannaregio	124.0	+ 55.8	- 6.2	6016	6	20
San Polo	142.6	+ 24.8	- 43.4	2930	3	3
Santa Croce	111.6	- 12.4	- 37.2	3218	5	10
Dorsoduro	86.8	+ 40.3	- 24.8	5835	4	5
Ghetto Novossimo	124.0	+ 24.8	- 62.0	529	11	5

The scale of the parishes

To say, more about each district, it is useful to look into each of them separately. For each district, we can identify the parishes in the district in which widows are involved. Parishes are most of the time very geographical, but people don't always belong to the parish closest to where they live. In the following plots, parishes are represented by a line encircling all of it's members. Sometimes, non members happen to fall inside the parishe's shape despite not belonging to it. To be able to visualize this case, properties not belonging to the widows parishes are shown with a smaller diameter.

Rent in San Marco [3]

San Marco

Parishes of San Marco

Parish	Median Rent	Widow Owners Rent Median Difference	Widow Tenants Rent Median Difference	Properties	Widow Owned Properties	Widow Rented Properties Size
San Bortolomio	223.2	+ 24.8	-	503	2	0
San Luca	161.2	-	-49.6	503	0	1
San Paternian	186.0	-	+ 124.0	178	0	1
San Salvador	272.8	5.2	-	521	1	0
Sant'Angelo	186.0	-62.0	-	506	1	0
Santa Maria Zobenigo	183.4	+ 126.6	+ 529.6	256	1	2

Rent in Castello [4]

Castello

Parishes of Castello

Parish	Median Rent	Widow Owners Rent Median Difference	Widow Tenants Rent Median Difference	Properties	Widow Owned Properties	Widow Rented Properties Size
San Giovanni in Bragora	124.0	+ 84.3	-52.7	399	2	4
San Martin	86.8	+ 49.6	-6.2	563	3	2
San Pietro di Castello	99.2	+ 86.8	+ 142.6	1495	2	1
Santa Maria Formosa	186.0	+ 62.0	+ 434.0	747	7	1

Rent in Cannaregio [5]

Cannaregio

Parishes of Cannaregio

Parish	Median Rent	Widow Owners Rent Median Difference	Widow Tenants Rent Median Difference	Properties	Widow Owned Properties	Widow Rented Properties
San Cancian	124.0	-	-62.0	629	0	1
San Felice	186.0	-	+ 434.0	351	0	1
San Geremia	99.2	+ 148.8	-49.6	1082	1	1
San Giovanni Grisostomo	186.0	-86.8	-	187	1	0
San Lunardo	148.8	-	-74.4	117	0	3
San Marcilian	124.0	-	+ 136.4	589	0	2
San Marcuola	117.8	-	+ 83.7	1432	0	6
Santa Fosca	124.0	+ 620.0	+ 347.2	163	1	1
Santa Maria Maddalena	124.0	-	-37.2	119	0	1
Santa Maria Nova	198.4	-	-99.2	183	0	2
Santa Sofia	136.4	-	0.0	546	0	1
Santi Apostoli	161.2	-49.6	-99.2	618	3	1

Rent in San Polo [6]

San Polo

Parishes of San Polo

Parish	Median Rent	Widow Owners Rent Median Difference	Widow Tenants Rent Median Difference	Properties	Widow Owned Properties	Widow Rented Properties
San Mattio	136.4	+ 31.0	-37.2	319	2	1
San Polo	161.2	-117.8	-	353	1	0
San Toma	136.4	-	+ 24.8	272	0	2

Rent in Santa Croce [7]

Santa Croce

Parishes of Santa Croce

Parish	Median Rent	Widow Owners Rent Median Difference	Widow Tenants Rent Median Difference	Properties	Widow Owned Properties	Widow Rented Properties
San Cassiano	186.0	-124.0	-	546	1	0
San Giacomo dall'Orio	99.2	-	-55.8	657	0	1
San Simeon Apostolo	99.2	-	-62.0	198	0	1
San Simeon Profeta	93.0	-	0.0	447	0	1
Santa Croce	111.6	-	-58.9	739	0	2
Santa Maria Mater Domini	124.0	+ 3.1	-31.0	152	4	5

Rent in Dorsoduro [8]

Dorsoduro

Parishes of Dorsoduro

Parish	Median Rent	Widow Owners Rent Median Difference	Widow Tenants Rent Median Difference	Properties	Widow Owned Properties	Widow Rented Properties
San Raffael	74.4	-	-43.4	772	0	3
San Barnaba	124.0	+ 93.0	-	904	1	0
San Basegio	74.4	-37.2	-	359	2	0
San Gregorio	86.8	-	-24.8	487	0	1
San Pantalon	111.6	-	+ 446.4	639	0	1
Santa Margherita	99.2	+ 148.8	-	483	1	0

Rent in the Ghetto [9]

The Ghetto

Parishes of the Ghetto

Parish	Median Rent	Widow Owners Rent Median Difference	Widow Tenants Rent Median Difference	Properties	Widow Owned Properties	Widow Rented Properties
Ghetto Nuovissimo	148.8	-	+ 68.2	46	0	1
Ghetto Nuovo	124.0	+ 105.4	-55.8	207	5	2
Ghetto Vecchio	124.0	-6.2	-80.6	276	6	2