Wealth and shifting demand pressures on the price level in England after the Black Death

Anthony Edo and Jacques Melitz
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Anthony Edo: CEPII, Paris, France

Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, 2023, vol. 17, issue 1, 91-124

Abstract: The scale of the rise in personal wealth following the Black Death calls the life-cycle hypothesis of consumption into consideration. Based on price level evidence, this paper shows for the first time that the wealth effect of the Black Death on economic activity continued in England for generations, up to 1450. Indeed, in the absence of consideration of the wealth effect, other influences on the price level do not even appear in the econometric analysis. The shift in tastes toward higher quality goods, luxuries and imports stemming from the per capita windfall for the survivors in the mid-fourteenth century plays a substantial part in the analysis. So does England’s little influence on the relative prices of its imports relative to home goods. The separate effects of coinage, population, trade, wages and annual number of days worked for wages on the price level all also receive major attention and new results follow for adjustment in the labor market.

Keywords: Black; Death; ·; Fourteenth-century; England; ·; Price; level; ·; Great; Famine (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F33 J11 J46 N13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Wealth and shifting demand pressures on the price level in England after the Black Death (2023)
Working Paper: Wealth and Shifting Demand Pressures on the Price Level in England After the Black Death (2020)
Working Paper: Wealth and Shifting Demand Pressures on the Price Level in England after the Black Death (2020)
Working Paper: Wealth and Shifting Demand Pressures on the Price Level in England After the Black Death (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:afc:cliome:v:17:y:2023:i:1:p:91-124

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