UNREAL WAGES? REAL INCOME AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN ENGLAND, 1260-1850

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Humphries, Jane; Weisdorf, Jacob
• 署名单位: University of Oxford; University of Southern Denmark; Sapienza University Rome; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1093/ej/uez017
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 2867-2887
• 关键词: industrial-revolution; Great divergence; LABOR; EVOLUTION; prices; Europe

摘要

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.