Measuring British decline: Direct versus long-span income measures

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Loyola University Maryland; City University of New York (CUNY) System; Queens College NY (CUNY)
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• 发表日期: 2003
• 页码: 826-851
• 关键词: international comparisons; ECONOMIC-GROWTH; prices; PRODUCTIVITY; origins; HISTORY

摘要

We provide 16 purchasing-power-parity-adjusted estimates of U.K. and U.S. income per capita and output per worker between 1872 and 1990 based on new estimates of their price levels. Our income benchmarks depart from current estimates in four crucial respects. The United States, not the United Kingdom, led in income per capita in the 1870s. The United Kingdom kept pace with the United States through the late Victorian era. Most of the United Kingdom's relative decline occurred between 1905 and 1950. Finally, the post-1950 performance of the U.K. economy was stronger than is now estimated.