The Spanish Flu and the Labour Market

Sergi Basco, Jordi Domenech and Joan Rosés

Chapter Chapter 4 in Pandemics, Economics and Inequality, 2022, pp 51-64 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Which are the effects of pandemics on real wages? In a Malthusian (pre-industrial) economy, one would expect that population debacles increase real wages since resources (land) per head grew. However, in modern economies, pandemics may reduce consumption, which may affect labour demand and, thus, put downward pressure on real wages. During the Spanish Flu, Spanish real wages declined. The contraction was sharper in occupations in non-essential goods industries and in more urbanized provinces. This wage behaviour points out that demand factors drove the response of the labour market to the pandemic shock.

Keywords: Malthusian economy; Inequality; Real wages; Labour demand (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-05668-0_4

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