Living Standards in Angola, 1760-1975

Helder Carvalhal and Nuno Palma

Lewis Lab Working Papers Series from Arthur Lewis Lab, The University of Manchester

Abstract: We investigate the well-being of urban workers in Angola under colonialism. Using a newly compiled dataset derived from archival and secondary sources, we construct welfare ratios for both skilled and unskilled workers in the cities of Luanda and Benguela spanning the years 1760 to 1975. Angolan workers experienced lower economic prosperity compared to their counterparts in other regions worldwide. Living standards declined throughout the 19th century, only to recover in the 20th century, particularly from the mid-1960s onward. These patterns can be attributed to variation in the presence of various labor market distortions over time.

Keywords: living standards; well-being; Angola; colonialism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N17 N37 N97 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-04
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=72377 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Living standards in Angola, 1760-1975 (2024)
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:man:allwps:0005

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Lewis Lab Working Papers Series from Arthur Lewis Lab, The University of Manchester Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jordi Caum-Julio ().