Pessimism Preserved: Real Wages in the British Industrial Revolution

Robert Carson Allen ()

No 314, Economics Series Working Papers from University of Oxford, Department of Economics

Abstract: The paper compares Feinstein`s and Clark`s consumer price and real wage indices for the British industrial revolution. The sources for their weights and component price series are evaluated. While some of Clark`s innovations are improvements, many of his changes degrade the price index. A new price index is developed using the best components of Clark`s and Feinstein`s. This index is much closer to Feinstein`s than to Clark`s. The implied growth in real wages is also close to Feinstein`s and contradicts Clark`s `optimistic` view of rising working class living standards during the industrial revolution.

Keywords: Real Wage; Consumer Price Index; Inequality; Industrial Revolution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D33 E25 N13 N33 O11 O15 O41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-lab and nep-mac
Date: 2007
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oxf:wpaper:314

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