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Trends in real wages in Denmark since the Late Middle Ages

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  • Kim Abildgren

Abstract

This article constructs long-span time series indices on wages in Denmark and explores the growth in living standards in the pre-industrial era. There were several persistent upward and downward trends in real annual earnings from 1500 to 1820, but no clear upward long-term trend. This finding seems hard to reconcile with Maddison's figure for the average annual growth in real GDP per capita in Denmark (0.17%) over the same period. This is the case, even if the growth rate in pre-industrial annual earnings is underestimated by 0.05%–0.06% per annum due to an increased number of working days.

Suggested Citation

  • Kim Abildgren, 2017. "Trends in real wages in Denmark since the Late Middle Ages," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(2), pages 67-78, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:vhimxx:v:50:y:2017:i:2:p:67-78
    DOI: 10.1080/01615440.2016.1237862
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Broadberry,Stephen & Campbell,Bruce M. S. & Klein,Alexander & Overton,Mark & van Leeuwen,Bas, 2015. "British Economic Growth, 1270–1870," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107070783, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Peter Sandholt Jensen & Cristina Victoria Radu & Paul Sharp, 2019. "A Microlevel Wage Dataset for Eighteenth Century Denmark," Working Papers 0159, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    2. Peter Sandholt Jensen & Cristina Victoria Radu & Paul Sharp, 2020. "Standards of Living and Skill Premia in Eighteenth Century Denmark: What can we learn from a large microlevel wage database?," Working Papers 0180, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    3. Peter Sandholt Jensen & Cristina Victoria Radu & Paul Sharp, 2022. "To the manor born: a new microlevel wage database for eighteenth-century Denmark [Trends in real wages in Denmark since the late Middle Ages]," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 26(2), pages 302-310.

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