The Mechanics of the Industrial Revolution

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Kelly, Morgan; Mokyr, Joel; Grada, Cormac
• 署名单位: University College Dublin; Northwestern University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/720890
• 发表日期: 2023
• 关键词: real wages; origins; britain; GROWTH; ECONOMY; france; GENDER; coal

摘要

Although there are many competing explanations for the Industrial Revolution, there has been no effort to evaluate them econometrically. This paper analyzes how the very different patterns of growth across the counties of England between the 1760s and 1830s can be explained by a wide range of potential variables. We find that industrialization occurred in areas that began with low wages but high mechanical skills, whereas other variables, such as literacy, banks, and proximity to coal, have little explanatory power. Against the view that living standards were stagnant during the Industrial Revolution, we find that real wages rose sharply in the industrializing north and declined in the previously prosperous south.