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Hunger in Hell’s Kitchen: real wages and deprivation in Spain’s early industrialisation - the Bilbao Estuary, 1914-35

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  • Stefan Houpt

    (Universidad Carlos III Madrid)

  • Juan Carlos Rojo Cagigal

    (Instituto Figuerola Madrid)

Abstract

"Did the late industrialization in Europe’s periphery improve life for its urban class? This paper examines family living conditions in northern Spain during late industrialization in the interwar period. We concentrate on the Basque region, one of the emerging industrial areas from the 1870s on. Historiography holds that in the medium-term urban development and industrialization increased real wages and overall standards of living. We contrast this empirically by examining the effects of income shocks on families using high frequency data from 1914 until 1936. These contrasts introduce nutritional adequacy of family diets as an additional way of measuring living conditions. Our results indicate that real income did not improve and that demographic and social deprivation variables were highly responsive to short term economic shocks. This response points to the fragility of urban breadwinner families even during later phases of industrialization; the urban penalty was by far not being compensated by the higher nominal wages received."

Suggested Citation

  • Stefan Houpt & Juan Carlos Rojo Cagigal, 2012. "Hunger in Hell’s Kitchen: real wages and deprivation in Spain’s early industrialisation - the Bilbao Estuary, 1914-35," Working Papers 12025, Economic History Society.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehs:wpaper:12025
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    standards of living; Spain; urbanization; industrialization; family; deprivation; mortality; real wages; interwar period;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N34 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: 1913-
    • N93 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History - - - Europe: Pre-1913

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