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Relative costs of living, for richer and poorer, 1688–1914

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  • Vincent Geloso

    (King’s University College)

  • Peter Lindert

    (University of California-Davis)

Abstract

The kinds of goods that richer and poorer households consumed differed more strongly in the past than today. Movements in the relative prices of luxury goods versus staples caused the real inequality to oscillate in ways missed by the usual historiography of (nominal) inequality. On both sides of the North Atlantic and in Australia, real inequality rose substantially less in 1800–1914 than the literature on nominal inequality has revealed. The reasons for this relate to the relative decline of food prices, rural–urban price gaps, and the delayed rise of luxury service prices, especially after 1850. Throughout these centuries, the North Americans enjoyed lower living costs than their counterparts in England.

Suggested Citation

  • Vincent Geloso & Peter Lindert, 2020. "Relative costs of living, for richer and poorer, 1688–1914," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 14(3), pages 417-442, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:cliomt:v:14:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s11698-019-00197-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s11698-019-00197-8
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    2. Kufenko, Vadim & Khaustova, Ekaterina & Geloso, Vincent, 2022. "Escape underway: Malthusian pressures in late imperial Moscow," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    3. Cheng, Cheng & Wang, Xiaobing, 2021. "Transportation cost reducing technological change and wages inequalities," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 600-611.
    4. Ian Gazeley & Rose Holmes & Andrew Newell & Kevin Reynolds & Hector Gutierrez Rufrancos, 2023. "Escaping from hunger before WW1: the nutritional transition and living standards in Western Europe and USA in the late nineteenth century," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 17(3), pages 533-565, September.
    5. Giovanni Federico & Alessandro Nuvolari & Michelangelo Vasta, 2023. "Inequality in Pre‐Industrial Europe (1260–1850): New Evidence From the Labor Share," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 69(2), pages 347-375, June.
    6. Vincent Geloso, 2024. "Does the conquest explain Quebec’s historical poverty? The economic consequences of 1760," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 18(3), pages 905-938, September.
    7. Rosolino A. Candela & Vincent J. Geloso, 2021. "Trade or raid: Acadian settlers and native Americans before 1755," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 188(3), pages 549-575, September.
    8. Geloso, Vincent & Kufenko, Vadim & Arsenault-Morin, Alex P., 2023. "The lesser shades of labor coercion: The impact of seigneurial tenure in nineteenth-century Quebec," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).

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    Keywords

    Real inequality; Price-index; Inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N16 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Latin America; Caribbean
    • N30 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General

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