IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehs/wpaper/13037.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Pre-revolution living standards: Russia, 1888-1917

Author

Listed:
  • Ekaterina Khaustova

    (Russian State Social University)

Abstract

"After 1917 Russia underwent extraordinary transformations. Its capitalist based economy was reshaped to centrally-planned economic system. Recent studies rest upon the shared assumption that the effect of adverse social, geographical, political or historical conditions persisted over that time, keeping pre- revolution Russian economy behind and stimulating workers to fight. Many samples of previous research drawn by economists of Soviet era, which were reflected on the results. However was it really so bad? Our reconstruction of Russian living standards scrutinizes real wages structure distribution per capita, income levels divided between the two main cities (Moscow and St.Petersburg) and groups of workers. We adopt Robert C. Allen subsistence basket methodology. This study has shown the that the annual wages earned by male adult workers sufficed to sustain a household at subsistence level for the entire pre- revolution period, with the exception of the years 1916-1917. International comparisons with some developed European cities have shown that the picture of Russian labour-class living standards is much wider and needs historical and economical revision."

Suggested Citation

  • Ekaterina Khaustova, 2013. "Pre-revolution living standards: Russia, 1888-1917," Working Papers 13037, Economic History Society.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehs:wpaper:13037
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ehs.org.uk/dotAsset/62d8a367-8beb-4dd0-b21f-d98b425c6ef3.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Natalia Drozdova & Irina Kormilitsyna, 2011. "Government economic policy and the formation of investment climate: the experience of Russia in the late 19th – early 20th centuries," Working Papers 11023, Economic History Society.
    2. Steven Nafziger & Tracy Dennison, 2007. "Micro-Perspectives on 19th-century Russian Living Standards," Department of Economics Working Papers 2007-07, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    3. Gregory, Paul & Sailors, Joel W., 1976. "Russian Monetary Policy and Industrialization, 1861-1913," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(4), pages 836-851, December.
    4. Allen,Robert C., 2009. "The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521868273, September.
    5. Allen, Robert C., 2001. "The Great Divergence in European Wages and Prices from the Middle Ages to the First World War," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 411-447, October.
    6. Kahan, Arcadius, 1967. "Government Policies and the Industrialization of Russia," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(4), pages 460-477, December.
    7. Gerschenkron, Alexander, 1947. "The Rate of Industrial Growth in Russia Since 1885," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(S1), pages 144-174, January.
    8. Drozdova, Natalia P. & Kormilitsyna, Irina G., 2010. "Government Economic Policy and the Formation of the Investment Climate: The Experience of Russia in the Late Nineteenth - Early Twentieth Centuries," Working Papers 847, Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg State University.
    9. Metzer, Jacob, 1974. "Railroad Development and Market Integration: The Case of Tsarist Russia," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 34(3), pages 529-550, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson, 2015. "The Rise and Decline of General Laws of Capitalism," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 29(1), pages 3-28, Winter.
    2. Boško Mijatović & Branko Milanović, 2021. "The real urban wage in an agricultural economy without landless farmers: Serbia, 1862–1910," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 74(2), pages 424-448, May.
    3. Ewout Frankema & Marlous van Waijenburg, 2011. "African Real Wages in Asian Perspective, 1880-1940," Working Papers 0002, Utrecht University, Centre for Global Economic History.
    4. Palma, Nuno, 2018. "Money and modernization in early modern England," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(3), pages 231-261, December.
    5. Stephen Broadberry & Bruce Campbell & Alexander Klein & Mark Overton, 2010. "British economic growth, 1300-1850: some preliminary estimates," Working Papers 10009, Economic History Society.
    6. Cédric Chambru & Paul Maneuvrier‐Hervieu, 2023. "The evolution of wages in early modern Normandy (1600–1850)," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 76(3), pages 917-940, August.
    7. 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.
    8. Edwyna Harris & Sumner La Croix, 2019. "Prices, Wages, and Welfare in Early Colonial South Australia, 1836-1850," Monash Economics Working Papers 07-19, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    9. Broadberry, Stephen & Ghosal, Sayantan & Proto, Eugenio, 2017. "Anonymity, efficiency wages and technological progress," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 379-394.
    10. Broadberry, Stephen & Ghosal, Sayantan & Proto, Eugenio, 2011. "Is Anonymity the Missing Link Between Commercial and Industrial Revolution?," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 974, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    11. Jane Humphries & Jacob Weisdorf, 2019. "Unreal Wages? Real Income and Economic Growth in England, 1260–1850," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(623), pages 2867-2887.
    12. Nuno Palma & André C. Silva, 2024. "Spending A Windfall," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 65(1), pages 283-313, February.
    13. Robert C. Allen, 2015. "The high wage economy and the industrial revolution: a restatement," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 68(1), pages 1-22, February.
    14. Meissner, Christopher M., 2014. "Growth from Globalization? A View from the Very Long Run," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 8, pages 1033-1069, Elsevier.
    15. James Roumasset, 2020. "Clubs, Coase, and the role of government," Philippine Review of Economics, University of the Philippines School of Economics and Philippine Economic Society, vol. 57(1), pages 1-17, June.
    16. Andrés Calderón-Fernández & Héctor García-Montero & Enrique Llopis-Agelán, 2017. "New research guidelines for living standards, consumer baskets, and prices in Madrid and Mexico," Working Papers 097, "Carlo F. Dondena" Centre for Research on Social Dynamics (DONDENA), Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi.
    17. Ken Tabata, 2013. "The Expansion of the Commercial Sector and the Child Quantity-Quality Transition in a Malthusian World," Discussion Paper Series 105, School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University, revised May 2013.
    18. Robert C. Allen, 2015. "The high wage economy and the industrial revolution: a restatement," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 68(1), pages 1-22, February.
    19. Mark Koyama, 2009. "The Price of Time and Labour Supply: From the Black Death to the Industrious Revolution," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _078, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    20. Frankema, Ewout & Waijenburg, Marlous Van, 2012. "Structural Impediments to African Growth? New Evidence from Real Wages in British Africa, 1880–1965," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 72(4), pages 895-926, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Russian revolution; living standards; labour wages; food price; welfare levels.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N00 - Economic History - - General - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehs:wpaper:13037. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chair Public Engagement Committe (currently David Higgins - Newcastle) (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ehsukea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.