American Prices and Urban Inequality Since 1820

Jeffrey G. Williamson

The Journal of Economic History, 1976, vol. 36, issue 2, 303-333

Abstract: This article examines the forces that appear to have driven long-term trends in American urban inequality. The changing structure of consumer goods' prices is shown to have played a significant—but not dominant—role in every phase of increasing and decreasing nominal inequality from 1820 to 1929. The revealed symmetry in movement between the urban price and income structure suggests that a successful macro-distribution model must explain both historical phenomena. Finally, the article concludes that technological imbalance was a crucial element in shaping peacetime patterns of income distribution.

Date: 1976
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:jechis:v:36:y:1976:i:02:p:303-333_08

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