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Editor's choice Labor, wages, and living standards in Java, 1680–1914

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  • Pim De Zwart
  • Jan Luiten Van Zanden

Abstract

The development of living standards in Java has long been a subject of scholarly interest. A number of scholars have suggested that between 1600 and 1900 Southeast Asian living standards declined significantly. The present article contributes to these issues by calculating long-term real wages for Java between 1680 and 1914, following Allen's subsistence basket methodology. New data on wages and prices were collected from the Dutch East India Company (VOC) archives and connected to data on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The resultant long-term real wage developments show a slightly different picture of Javanese living standards than that which has emerged from the literature to date.

Suggested Citation

  • Pim De Zwart & Jan Luiten Van Zanden, 2015. "Editor's choice Labor, wages, and living standards in Java, 1680–1914," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 19(3), pages 215-234.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:ereveh:v:19:y:2015:i:3:p:215-234.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ereh/hev007
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Leigh, Andrew & van der Eng, Pierre, 2009. "Inequality in Indonesia: What can we learn from top incomes?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1-2), pages 209-212, February.
    2. Anthony Atkinson & Thomas Piketty, 2010. "Top Incomes : A Global Perspective," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-00754875, HAL.
    3. Van Zanden, Jan Luiten, 2004. "On the Efficiency of Markets for Agricultural Products: Rice Prices and Capital Markets in Java, 1823–1853," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 64(4), pages 1028-1055, December.
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    2. Ernesto López Losa & Santiago Piquero Zarauz, 2016. "Spanish real wages in the Northern-Western European mirror, 1500-1800. On the timings and magnitude of the Little Divergence in Europe," Documentos de Trabajo (DT-AEHE) 1607, Asociación Española de Historia Económica.
    3. Sullivan, Dylan & Hickel, Jason, 2023. "Capitalism and extreme poverty: a global analysis of real wages, human height, and mortality since the long 16th century," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 117731, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Leonardo Ridolfi, 2017. "Six centuries of real wages in France from Louis IX to Napoleon III: 1250-1860," LEM Papers Series 2017/14, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    5. Corinne Boter, 2020. "Living standards and the life cycle: reconstructing household income and consumption in the early twentieth‐century Netherlands," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 73(4), pages 1050-1073, November.

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