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Relative costs of living, for richer and poorer, 1688–1914

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  • Vincent Geloso

    (King’s University College)

  • Peter Lindert

    (University of California-Davis)

Abstract

The kinds of goods that richer and poorer households consumed differed more strongly in the past than today. Movements in the relative prices of luxury goods versus staples caused the real inequality to oscillate in ways missed by the usual historiography of (nominal) inequality. On both sides of the North Atlantic and in Australia, real inequality rose substantially less in 1800–1914 than the literature on nominal inequality has revealed. The reasons for this relate to the relative decline of food prices, rural–urban price gaps, and the delayed rise of luxury service prices, especially after 1850. Throughout these centuries, the North Americans enjoyed lower living costs than their counterparts in England.

Suggested Citation

  • Vincent Geloso & Peter Lindert, 2020. "Relative costs of living, for richer and poorer, 1688–1914," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 14(3), pages 417-442, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:cliomt:v:14:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s11698-019-00197-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s11698-019-00197-8
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Real inequality; Price-index; Inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N16 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Latin America; Caribbean
    • N30 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General

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