Growth or stagnation in pre-industrial Britain? A revealed income growth approach

Christian Groth, Karl Gunnar Persson

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    Abstract

    The extent of growth in pre-industrial Europe in general and in Britain in particular has attracted intense scholarly focus. Growth or Malthusian stagnation? No consensus has evolved. Reconstructions of national income from 1300 and up to the Industrial Revolution come to opposing conclusions and so do econometric studies. Applying Engels’ law, we suggest a new approach in which income growth is revealed by changes in occupational structure. Data needed for this approach are less contested than the wage and output series used in the existing literature. We find that pre-industrial Britain exhibited secular rise in the standard of living.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages1-43
    Number of pages43
    Publication statusPublished - 28 Jan 2016
    SeriesUniversity of Warwick Working Paper Series
    Number264
    Volume2016

    Keywords

    • Faculty of Social Sciences
    • Malthusian stagnation
    • Engel’s law
    • Revealed income growth
    • Pre-industrial productivity growth
    • Structural change
    • E24
    • N13
    • O11
    • O41
    • O47

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