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Malthusian checks in pre-industrial Sweden and Finland: a comparative analysis of the demographic regimes

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  • Miikka Voutilainen

Abstract

In this article, the existence of the Malthusian preventive and positive checks in pre-industrial Sweden and Finland are studied using demographic and economic data from circa 1750-1860. By applying time series analysis, we are able to identify strong preventive and positive checks for Sweden. The preventive check is considered to work both directly through births and indirectly through marriages. Although the Finnish data also indicate the existence of the preventive check, the positive check is only detected with differenced data. Our findings contradict the initial hypothesis that, due to poverty, Finland would display a higher sensitivity of mortality to living standards than Sweden. Instead, the finding of a pronounced marriage-driven preventive check in Finland casts new light on the macro-level determinants of the check mechanisms and on their connectivity to wider societal conditions.

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  • Miikka Voutilainen, 2015. "Malthusian checks in pre-industrial Sweden and Finland: a comparative analysis of the demographic regimes," Scandinavian Economic History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 63(3), pages 235-259, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:sehrxx:v:63:y:2015:i:3:p:235-259
    DOI: 10.1080/03585522.2015.1081854
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    1. Tommy Bengtsson & Cameron Campbell & James Z. Lee, 2004. "Life Under Pressure: Mortality and Living Standards in Europe and Asia, 1700-1900," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262025515, December.
    2. Nicolini, Esteban, 2006. "Was malthus right? a var analysis of economic and demographic interactions in pre-industrial England," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH wh060601, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
    3. Maddison, Angus, 2007. "Contours of the World Economy 1-2030 AD: Essays in Macro-Economic History," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199227204, Decembrie.
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    5. Nicolini, Esteban A., 2007. "Was Malthus right? A VAR analysis of economic and demographic interactions in pre-industrial England," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(1), pages 99-121, April.
    6. Tommy E. Murphy, 2010. "Persistence of Malthus or Persistence in Malthus? Mortality, Income, and Marriage in the French Fertility Decline of the Long Nineteenth Century?," Working Papers 363, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Madsen, Jakob B. & Robertson, Peter E. & Ye, Longfeng, 2019. "Malthus was right: Explaining a millennium of stagnation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 51-68.
    3. Miikka Voutilainen & Jouni Helske & Harri Högmander, 2020. "A Bayesian Reconstruction of a Historical Population in Finland, 1647–1850," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(3), pages 1171-1192, June.

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