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Wealth and shifting demand pressures on the price level in England after the Black Death

Author

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  • Anthony Edo

    (CEPII, Paris, France)

  • Jacques Melitz

    (CREST, CEPII, Paris, France ; Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK)

Abstract

The scale of the rise in personal wealth following the Black Death calls the life-cycle hypothesis of consumption into consideration. Based on price level evidence, this paper shows for the first time that the wealth effect of the Black Death on economic activity continued in England for generations, up to 1450. Indeed, in the absence of consideration of the wealth effect, other influences on the price level do not even appear in the econometric analysis. The shift in tastes toward higher quality goods, luxuries and imports stemming from the per capita windfall for the survivors in the mid-fourteenth century plays a substantial part in the analysis. So does England’s little influence on the relative prices of its imports relative to home goods. The separate effects of coinage, population, trade, wages and annual number of days worked for wages on the price level all also receive major attention and new results follow for adjustment in the labor market.

Suggested Citation

  • Anthony Edo & Jacques Melitz, 2023. "Wealth and shifting demand pressures on the price level in England after the Black Death," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 17(1), pages 91-124, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:afc:cliome:v:17:y:2023:i:1:p:91-124
    DOI: 10.1007/s11698-022-00244-x
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    Cited by:

    1. Guillaume Morel & Magali Jaoul-Grammare, 2026. "A Cliometric Reappraisal of the Impacts of Plague Outbreaks on Pre-Industrial France," Working Papers of BETA 2026-06, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    2. Anthony Edo & Jacques Melitz, 2024. "The Controversy over European Inflation in 1500–1700: Precious Metals or Population? The English Evidence," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 659-685, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    JEL classification:

    • N13 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • F33 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Monetary Arrangements and Institutions
    • J46 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Informal Labor Market

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