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Accounting for breakout in Britain: The Industrial Revolution through a Malthusian lens

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Listed author(s):
  • Alexander Tepper
  • Karol Jan Borowiecki

Abstract

This paper develops a simple dynamic model to examine the breakout from a Malthusian economy to a modern growth regime. It identifies several factors that determine the fastest rate at which the population can grow without engendering declining living standards; this is termed maximum sustainable population growth. We then apply the framework to Britain and find a dramatic increase in sustainable population growth at the time of the Industrial Revolution, well before the beginning of modern levels of income growth. The main contributions to the British breakout were technological improvements and structural change away from agricultural production, while coal, capital, and trade played a minor role.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of New York in its series Staff Reports with number 639.

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Date of creation: 2013
Handle: RePEc:fip:fednsr:639
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Keywords: Population aging ; Demography ; Industrial capacity ; Industrial productivity ; Industrial organization (Economic theory) ; Economic history ; Great Britain;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • N13 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: Pre-1913
  • N33 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: Pre-1913
  • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
  • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models
  • O52 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Europe

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