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Unreal wages? Real income and economic growth in England, 1260-1850

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  • Humphries, Jane
  • Weisdorf, Jacob

Abstract

Estimates of historical workers' annual incomes suffer from the fundamental problem that they are inferred from day wage rates without knowing how many days of work day-labourers undertook per year. We circumvent the problem by building an income series based on the payments made to workers employed by the year rather than by the day. Our data suggest that earlier annual income estimates based on day wages overestimate medieval labour incomes but underestimate labour incomes during the Industrial Revolution. Our revised estimates indicate that modern economic growth began more than two centuries earlier than commonly thought and was driven by an 'Industrious Revolution'. They also suggest that the current global downturn in labour's share is not exceptional but fits within the range of historical fluctuations.

Suggested Citation

  • Humphries, Jane & Weisdorf, Jacob, 2019. "Unreal wages? Real income and economic growth in England, 1260-1850," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 90328, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:90328
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    England; industrial revolution; real wages; industrious revolution; labour supply; living standards; malthusian model; modern economic growth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • J4 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets
    • J5 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers
    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination
    • J8 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards

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