Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/247052 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
EHES Working Papers in Economic History No. 121
Publisher: 
European Historical Economics Society (EHES), s.l.
Abstract: 
Historical estimates of workers' earnings suffer from the fundamental problem that annual incomes are inferred from day wages without knowing the length of the working year. This uncertainty raises doubts about core growth theories that rely on existing income estimates to explain the origins of the wealth of nations. We circumvent the problem by building an income series of workers employed on annual rather than casual contracts. Our data suggests that existing annual income estimates based on day wages are badly off target, because they overestimate the medieval working year but underestimate the working year during the industrial revolution. Our revised annual income estimates indicate that modern economic growth began almost two centuries earlier than commonly thought and was driven by an 'Industrious Revolution'.
Subjects: 
England
Industrial Revolution
Industrious Revolution
Labour Supply
Living standards
Malthusian Model
Modern Economic Growth
Real Wages
JEL: 
J3
J4
J5
J6
J7
J8
N33
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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