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Life-cycle living standards of intact and disrupted English working families, 1260-1850

Author

Listed:
  • Horrell, Sara
  • Humphries, Jane
  • Weisdorf, Jacob
Abstract
We provide a framework for considering the living standards among intact and disrupted working-class families of various sizes in historical England. We estimate family incomes without resort to the usual male day wages and ahistorical assumptions about men’s labour inputs, instead using approximations of their annual earnings. We incorporate women and children’s wages and labour inputs and use a family life-cycle approach which accommodates consumption smoothing through saving. The analysis extends to families with often overlooked but historically common structures: widows with their children, deserted wives, and families which include husbands/fathers but ones unable or unwilling to work. Our framework suggests living standards varied considerably over time and by family structure and dependency ratio. Small and intact families enjoyed high and rising living standards after 1700. Large, broken, and disrupted families depended on child labour and poor relief up until 1830.

Suggested Citation

  • Horrell, Sara & Humphries, Jane & Weisdorf, Jacob, 2020. "Life-cycle living standards of intact and disrupted English working families, 1260-1850," Economic History Working Papers 106986, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:wpaper:106986
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/106986/
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    child labour; consumption soothing; costs-of-living; dependency ratio; life cycle; living standards; poor relief; prices; wages;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • N13 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General

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