IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/ereveh/v23y2019i1p50-71..html

Irish GDP between the Famine and the First World War: estimates based on a dynamic factor model

Author

Listed:
  • Fredrik N G Andersson
  • Jason Lennard

Abstract

A major issue in Irish economic history is the lack of national accounts before the interwar period. This paper constructs new annual estimates of real GDP between 1842 and 1913 based on a novel two-stage econometric approach. Our results show that while living standards approximately tripled in this period, development was uneven with contractions in economic activity not only during the Great Famine but also between the late 1890s and the First World War. As a proof of concept, we also apply our methodology to Swedish data. The resulting estimates closely match existing historical national accounts.

Suggested Citation

  • Fredrik N G Andersson & Jason Lennard, 2019. "Irish GDP between the Famine and the First World War: estimates based on a dynamic factor model," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 23(1), pages 50-71.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:ereveh:v:23:y:2019:i:1:p:50-71.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ereh/hey003
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Seán Kenny & Jason Lennard & Kevin Hjortshøj O'Rourke, 2023. "An annual index of Irish industrial production, 1800–1913," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 76(1), pages 283-304, February.
    2. Alan de Bromhead & Ronan C. Lyons & Johann Ohler, 2025. "Build Better Health: Evidence from Ireland on Housing Quality and Mortality," Working Papers 0286, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    3. Seán Kenny & Jason Lennard & Kevin Hjortshøj O’Rourke, 2020. "An annual index of Irish industrial production, 1800-1921," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _185, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    4. Adomas Klimantas & Aras Zirgulis, 2020. "A new estimate of Lithuanian GDP for 1937: How does interwar Lithuania compare?," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 14(2), pages 227-281, May.
    5. Jansson, Walter, 2018. "Stock markets, banks and economic growth in the UK, 1850–1913," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(3), pages 263-296, December.
    6. Jerven, Morten, 2019. "African Economic Growth 1900-50: Historical National Accounts for British Colonial Africa," African Economic History Working Paper 50/2019, African Economic History Network.
    7. Matthias Blum & Christopher L. Colvin & Eoin McLaughlin, 2026. "Scarring and Selection in the Great Irish Famine," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 79(1), pages 189-220, February.
    8. Luke Mcgrath & Stephen Hynes & John Mchale, 2022. "Reassessing Ireland’s economic development through the lens of sustainable development [Sustainability and the measurement of wealth]," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 26(3), pages 399-422.
    9. Solomos Solomou & Ryland Thomas, 2019. "Feinstein Fulfilled: Updated Estimates of UK GDP 1841-1920," Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) Technical Reports ESCOE-TR-04, Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE).
    10. Hargaden, Enda Patrick, 2022. "Who donates to revolutionaries? Evidence from post-1916 Ireland," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    11. Kenny, Seán & Lennard, Jason & O'Rourke, Kevin Hjortshøj, 2020. "An annual index of Irish industrial production, 1800-1921," Economic History Working Papers 107427, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C38 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Classification Methdos; Cluster Analysis; Principal Components; Factor Analysis
    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • N13 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: Pre-1913

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:ereveh:v:23:y:2019:i:1:p:50-71.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/ereh .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.