scholarly journals Unreal Wages? Real Income and Economic Growth in England, 1260–1850

2019 ◽  
Vol 129 (623) ◽  
pp. 2867-2887 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Humphries ◽  
Jacob Weisdorf
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Fundamental Problem ◽  
Real Income ◽  
Annual Income ◽  
Knowing How ◽  
Wage Rates ◽  
Modern Economic Growth ◽  
Modern Economic

Abstract Estimates of historical workers’ annual incomes suffer from the fundamental problem that they are inferred from day wage rates without knowing how many days of work day-labourers undertook per year. We circumvent the problem by building an income series based on the payments made to workers employed by the year rather than by the day. Our data suggest that earlier annual income estimates based on day wages overestimate medieval labour incomes but underestimate labour incomes during the Industrial Revolution. Our revised estimates indicate that modern economic growth began more than two centuries earlier than commonly thought and was driven by an ‘Industrious Revolution’. They also suggest that the current global downturn in labour's share is not exceptional but fits within the range of historical fluctuations.

Economic Growth and Human Development since 1820

2018 ◽  
pp. 22-54
Author(s):  
Şevket Pamuk
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Physical Capital ◽  
Modern Economic Growth ◽  
Education Levels ◽  
Modern Economic ◽  
Proximate Causes ◽  
The One

This chapter examines the trends in economic growth and human development in Turkey during the last two centuries. Economists have learned a great deal about modern economic growth since the end of World War II. The large and growing literature has emphasized that increases in productivity, achieved through technological progress on the one hand, and increases in per capita physical capital and education levels, on the other, were the most important factors contributing to economic growth. In addition, the labor force is much better educated than in 1820. In short, technological change and higher rates of investment in both physical and human capital are seen today as the leading proximate causes of economic growth since the Industrial Revolution.

Notes on Shipping and Trade in Japan and the Ryukyus

1964 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sydney Crawcour
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
European History ◽  
Modern Economic Growth ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Economic

The fact that England, the home of the Industrial Revolution and modern economic growth, was also a leading shipping and trading nation, at one time prompted the notion that flourishing overseas trade and modern economic growth are somehow related. There are, of course, plenty of examples in European history of once flourishing trading nations which failed to industrialize. Spain, Portugal, the Hanseatic ports, and the Italian trading cities never became centres of industry. Moreover, such comparatively industrialized areas as Czechoslovakia and Prussia were not leading trading centres.

scholarly journals Urbanisation and the Onset of Modern Economic Growth

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liam Brunt ◽  
Cecilia García-Peñalosa
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Productivity Growth ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
City Size ◽  
Rural Workers ◽  
Modern Economic Growth ◽  
Modern Economic

Abstract A large literature characterizes urbanisation as resulting from productivity growth attracting rural workers to cities. Incorporating economic geography elements into a growth model, we suggest that causation runs the other way: when rural workers move to cities, the resulting urbanisation produces technological change and productivity growth. Urban density leads to knowledge exchange and innovation, thus creating a positive feedback loop between city size and productivity that initiates sustained economic growth. This model is consistent with the fact that urbanisation rates in Western Europe, most notably England, reached unprecedented levels by the mid-18th century, the eve of the Industrial Revolution.

THE TWO REVOLUTIONS, LANDED ELITES, AND EDUCATION DURING THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 1478-1511
Author(s):  
Duarte N. Leite ◽  
Óscar Afonso ◽  
Sandra T. Silva
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Demographic Transition ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Education Reforms ◽  
Modern Economic Growth ◽  
Modern Economic ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Passionate Debate

Understanding the causes of the Industrial Revolution, namely the process of transition from a Malthusian equilibrium to modern economic growth, has been the subject of passionate debate. This paper contributes to insights into the process of industrialization and the demographic transition that followed. We present a model that proposes a mechanism behind the claim that landed elites had strong incentives to block education reforms. By applying the theory of interest groups to landownership, landowners could delay education. However, they could not prevent its introduction indefinitely since gains for the landed elites derived from education would at some moment surpass the costs associated with them. We also sustain that improvements in agricultural productivity prior to the Industrial Revolution may have induced a positive impact on the landowners’ decision to educate the population, which led to an earlier introduction of education reforms. The conclusions fit the patterns of the late boom of industrialization and demographic transition and help explain why some countries (e.g., Britain and The Netherlands) had accelerated education reforms and a faster process of industrialization than most continental countries. A theoretical model is presented, and numerical simulations are exhibited to illustrate our claims.

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