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On the Economics of the Increases in the Value of Human Time over Time

In: Economic Growth and Resources

Author

Listed:
  • Theodore W. Schultz

    (University of Chicago)

Abstract

In Ricardo’s day ‘… English labourers’ weekly wages were often less than the price of half a bushel of good wheat’.1 By the time that Ricardo published his classic work (1817), the weekly wage of unskilled workers in the United States was equal to the price of two bushels of good wheat.2 In 1890, when Marshall’s Principles appeared, US unskilled workers could buy close to nine bushels of wheat with their weekly wage. In as much as my story pertains largely to changes since then, let me continue for the moment with wages and wheat in the United States. By 1970 the weekly compensation of manufacturing production workers was sufficient to buy 96 bushels of high-quality wheat.3,4 The economics of the decline by half between 1900 and 1970 in the deflated price of wheat is well known. But the economics of the rise in real wages for time spent at work by labour, which is vastly more important, is still in large part unsettled.

Suggested Citation

  • Theodore W. Schultz, 1980. "On the Economics of the Increases in the Value of Human Time over Time," International Economic Association Series, in: R. C. O. Matthews (ed.), Economic Growth and Resources, chapter 6, pages 107-129, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:intecp:978-1-349-04063-6_6
    DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-04063-6_6
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