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Wealth and Shifting Demand Pressures on the Price Level in England After the Black Death

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  • Anthony Edo
  • Jacques Melitz

Abstract

The scale of the rise in personal wealth following the Black Death calls the life-cycle hypothesis of consumption into consideration. This paper shows for the first time that the wealth effect of the Black Death on the price level continued in England for generations, up to 1450. Indeed, in absence of consideration of the wealth effect, other influences on the price level do not even appear in the econometric analysis. The separate roles of coinage, population, trade, wages and annual number of days worked for wages all also receive attention and new results follow for adjustment in the labor market.

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  • Anthony Edo & Jacques Melitz, 2020. "Wealth and Shifting Demand Pressures on the Price Level in England After the Black Death," Working Papers 2020-14, CEPII research center.
    • Handle: RePEc:cii:cepidt:2020-14
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    Cited by:

    1. 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.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Black Death; Fourteenth-century England; Price Level; Great Famine;
    All these 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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