Real Wages in Early Economies: Evidence for Living Standards from 1800 BCE to 1300 CE

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Scheidel
Keyword(s):  
Living Standards ◽  
Real Wages

The Economic and Social Background to the Consumer Durables Revolution

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Scott
Keyword(s):  
Durable Goods ◽  
Consumer Credit ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Consumer Expenditure ◽  
Household Demand ◽  
Fertility Rates ◽  
Real Wages ◽  
Consumer Durables ◽  
Technological Improvements

By 1939 rising living standards provided access to an array of durable goods that many people regarded as necessities, but would have been beyond the dreams of their parents twenty-five years earlier. Rising real wages, falling fertility rates, and an expansion and liberalization of consumer credit, collectively made affordable goods that cost several weeks’, months’, or (in the case of housing) years’ income. This chapter examines these trends and then discusses their impacts on household demand for durable goods. For most durables, demand is shown to have risen substantially faster than incomes, producing a major rise in their share of total consumer expenditure. This was partly driven by technological improvements, though successful marketing (both of the goods and the consumer credit that made them affordable) also played a key role.

Understanding Rising Income Inequality and Stagnating Ordinary Living Standards in Germany

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard Bosch ◽  
Thorsten Kalina
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Household Income ◽  
Wage Bargaining ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Real Wages ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

This chapter describes how inequality and real incomes have evolved in Germany through the period from the 1980s, through reunification, up to the economic Crisis and its aftermath. It brings out how reunification was associated with a prolonged stagnation in real wages. It emphasizes how the distinctive German structures for wage bargaining were eroded over time, and the labour market and tax/transfer reforms of the late 1990s-early/mid-2000s led to increasing dualization in the labour market. The consequence was a marked increase in household income inequality, which went together with wage stagnation for much of the 1990s and subsequently. Coordination between government, employers, and unions still sufficed to avoid the impact the economic Crisis had on unemployment elsewhere, but the German social model has been altered fundamentally over the period

AGRICULTURAL WORKERS’ STANDARD OF LIVING DURING CENTRAL CHILE'S AGRARIAN EXPANSION, CF. 1870-1930

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Claudio Robles-Ortiz ◽  
Ignacio González-Correa ◽  
Nora Reyes Campos ◽  
Uziel González Aliaga
Keyword(s):  
Living Standards ◽  
Standard Of Living ◽  
Real Wages ◽  
Causal Factors ◽  
Central Chile ◽  
Rural Workers ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Urban Workers ◽  
Wage Labour ◽  
Agricultural Labourers

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to determine trends in the wages and living standards of male agricultural labourers in Central Chile during the agrarian expansion, c. 1870-1930. We found that nominal wages increased eightfold; this is relevant because wage labour became the main rural labour regime in this period. Nominal wages rose steadily from the early 1870s until 1910, and with significant fluctuations thereafter, before plummeting with the Great Depression. Real wages also increased, but only slightly. Furthermore, during certain short periods, agricultural labourers' real wages were similar to or higher than those of low-skilled urban workers. However, the persistent gap between agricultural and non-agricultural wages was one of the causal factors of the outmigration of rural workers.

scholarly journals Optimism or pessimism? A composite view on English living standards during the Industrial Revolution

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Gallardo-Albarrán ◽  
Herman de Jong
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Cumulative Effect ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Working Time ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Real Wages ◽  
Composite Measures ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Key Dimensions

Abstract This article examines the evolution of English living standards during the early phase of industrialization (1760–1850). We take a multi-dimensional perspective and apply an indicator that combines four key dimensions of well-being: material living standards, health, working time, and inequality. Contrary to other composite measures of well-being, our welfare metric draws on standard economic theory to aggregate its underlying components. We find decreasing welfare during the late eighteenth century due to rising working time and income inequality, despite improving health. After 1800, workers’ conditions improved when real wages started to rise, although the cumulative effect was not substantial by 1850.

Theoretical and Practical Implications of I.M.F. Conditionality in Zambia

1986 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neva Seidman Makgetla
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Terms Of Trade ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Real Wages ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Income Groups ◽  
Low Income Groups ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Practical Implications

Zambia has faced an economic crisis since 1975. Living standards for most of the population have deteriorated sharply, with falling real wages and a drop in G.D.P. per capita by about a quarter. At the same time, the gap between the high- and low-income groups has probably widened.Zambia's economic difficulties originated in international factors. In the two decades of independence, and unusually high degree of external dependency, inherited from the colonial era, continued to chatacterise the economy. Imported inputs accounted for at least one-third of all costs in mining and manufacturing, as may be seen from Table I. Meanwhile, the production of copper and relate minerals contributed a steady nine-tenths of export revenues. But in 1975, the terms of trade for copper plummeted by nearly 50 per cent, and merchandise imports promptly contracted by almost one-quarter, seriously affecting production. Since then the price of copper has stagnated.

Policy must look beyond pay to raise living standards

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Technological Progress ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Nominal Wage ◽  
Real Wages ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Job Opportunities ◽  
Advanced Economies ◽  
Manufactured Goods ◽  
Low Wages

Significance Elections have already given the public an opportunity to vent their anger about low wages and the scarcity of better job opportunities -- the former is prevalent among low-paid workers; the latter anxiety is wider. But concern is rising about a disconnect between jobs and pay. Impacts Pre-crisis nominal pay rises were in the 2-5% range in the advanced economies -- fuelling expectations of a pick-up in pay. US consumers could moderate their nominal wage demands, as lower inflation has eased the pressure on real wages. Competition and technological progress will continue to reduce the price of many manufactured goods and some services, helping households.

Wages and Welfare

Putinomics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Miller
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Market Economy ◽  
Wage Growth ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Real Wages ◽  
The Government ◽  
Almost All

As Russia’s firms got more productive, living standards shot up. For one thing, companies started offering far more variety. The consumer paradise that advocates of a market economy had promised long-suffering Russians finally arrived. At the same time, higher productivity meant higher wages. Real wages increased every year of Putin’s presidency until 2014, averaging 15% per year from 2000 to 2008. At the same time, higher tax collection let the government boost pension payouts, helping older Russians, almost all of whom relied on state pensions as their primary source of retirement income. Yet higher pensions did not augur the return of an extensive welfare state, as the government eliminated many benefits. At the same time, the government kept labor protections weak, and Russia’s labor market continues to be far more flexible than many other European countries. Encouraged by his liberal economic advisers, Putin has implemented economically orthodox welfare and labor market policies, earning solid marks from the IMF. The tremendous wage growth of the 2000s, however, meant that most Russians were happy to ignore weak social protections in exchange for an ever-expanding paycheck.

scholarly journals UNA DE CAL Y OTRA DE ARENA: BUILDING COMPARABLE REAL WAGES IN A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert C. Allen ◽  
Tommy E. Murphy ◽  
Eric B. Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Convincing Evidence ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Spanish America ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Real Wages ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Standards Of Living

ABSTRACTThis paper discusses some of the criticisms recently raised by Rafael Dobado-González about our work on real wages in the Americas in the long run. Although addressing a series of issues, Dobado mainly questions our use of the welfare ratio methodology to assess standards of living in colonial Spanish America. In this article we explain how, despite its limitations, this methodology provides a solid, transparent metric to compare economic development across space and time. In particular, welfare ratios present more economically relevant information on living standards than the commodity wages that Dobado prefers (Dobado González and García Montero 2014). We argue that Dobado fails to offer convincing evidence against our findings; hence, we stand by these results, which suggest that the divergence between North and Latin America began early in the colonial period.

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