Subject: Economics and Finance Book Title: Living Standards in the Past
Living Standards in the Past
New Perspectives on Well-Being in Asia and Europe
Allen, Robert C.
(Editor), Professor of Economic History, University of Oxford
Bengtsson, Tommy
(Editor), Professor of Demography and Economic History, Lund University
Dribe, Martin
(Editor), Associate Professor of Economic History, Lund University
Print publication date: 2005
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: July 2005
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-19-928068-1
doi:10.1093/0199280681.001.0001
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: July 2005
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-19-928068-1
doi:10.1093/0199280681.001.0001
Abstract:
The main concern of this book is to determine when the gap in living standards between the East and the West emerged. Why did Europe experience industrialization and modern economic growth before China, India, or Japan? This is one of the most fundamental questions in Economic history and one that has provoked intense debate. The established view, dating back to Adam Smith, is that the gap emerged long before the industrial revolution.How did the standard of living in Europe and Asia compare in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries? This book proposes an answer by considering evidence of three sorts. Firstly, economic, focusing on income, food production, wages and prices; secondly, demographic, comparing heights, life expectancy, and other demographic indicators; and thirdly, a combination of the economic and the demographic, investigating the demographic vulnerability to short-term economic stress.
Keywords: Adam Smith, demographic indicators, seventeenth century economics, eighteenth century economics, Eastern economics, Western economics, economic stress, demographic vulnerability, living standards
Keywords: Adam Smith, demographic indicators, seventeenth century economics, eighteenth century economics, Eastern economics, Western economics, economic stress, demographic vulnerability, living standards
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Standards of Living in Eighteenth-Century China: Regional Differences, Temporal Trends, and Incomplete Evidence
2. Farm Labour Productivity in Jiangnan, 1620–1850
3. Wages, Inequality, and Pre-Industrial Growth in Japan, 1727–1894
4. Agriculture, Labour, and the Standard of Living in Eighteenth-Century India
5. Real Wages in Europe and Asia: A First Look at the Long-Term Patterns
6. Sketching the Rise of Real Inequality in Early Modern Europe
7. What Happened to the Standard of Living Before the Industrial Revolution? New Evidence from the Western Part of the Netherlands
8. Economic Growth, Human Capital Formation and Consumption in Western Europe Before 1800
9. Health and Nutrition in the Pre-Industrial Era: Insights from a Millennium of Average Heights in Northern Europe
10. The Burden of Grandeur: Physical and Economic Well-Being of the Russian Population in the Eighteenth Century
11. Maternal Mortality as an Indicator of the Standard of Living in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Slavonia
12. The Standard of Living in Denmark in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries
13. Short-Term Demographic Changes in Relation to Economic Fluctuations: The Case of Tuscany During the Pre-Transitional Period
14. New Evidence on the Standard of Living in Sweden During the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: Long-Term Development of the Demographic Response to Short-Term Economic Stress
15. Individuals and Communities Facing Economic Stress: A Comparison of Two Rural Areas in Nineteenth-Century Belgium
16. Living Standards in Liaoning, 1749–1909: Evidence from Demographic Outcomes
17. Demographic Responses to Short-Term Economic Stress in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Rural Japan: Evidence from Two Northeastern Villages
Index
doi:10.1093/0199280681.001.0001
Citation Export