Occupational structure in Ireland in the nineteenth century: data sources and avenues of exploration

Jason Begley, Frank Geary and Tom Stark

Cambridge Journal of Economics, 2020, vol. 44, issue 1, 207-228

Abstract: This paper considers structural change in post-Famine Ireland through an examination of changes in the allocation of the labour force across three broad production sectors: primary, secondary and tertiary. To do so, it makes extensive use of the Irish Census of Population from 1821 to 1911 as a source of occupational information. While there are a number of concerns with these returns, outlined and explored here, the Irish census remains the most complete source of information available on male and female labour force activity and occupations in Ireland during this period. The outcome of this exercise is a picture of Irish primary, secondary and tertiary sector employment during the latter half of the nineteenth century that is consistent with that of an economy undergoing a development transition: modernising albeit slowly. While Ireland was the poorest region of the UK economy, it was one of the richer European economies in terms of GDP per head and undergoing a development transition similar to a number of European economies during this period.

Keywords: Economic growth; Structural change; Labour force; Occupations; Census of Population (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/cje/bez031 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:cambje:v:44:y:2020:i:1:p:207-228.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Cambridge Journal of Economics is currently edited by Jacqui Lagrue

More articles in Cambridge Journal of Economics from Cambridge Political Economy Society Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().