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Testable implications of economic revolutions: An application to historic data on European wages

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  • Fry, J. M.
  • Masood, Omar

Abstract

Motivated by an on-going debate in economic history we develop a simple method to quantify the impact of economic revolutions upon a novel historical data set listing the wages of building craftsmen and labourers in Southeast Europe. Structural breaks are found in the data and signify the effects of economic revolutions. With a small number of localised exceptions economic revolutions, caused by technological and administrative progress, lead to a decrease in the long-term level of wage volatility and overall results suggest close analogies between biological and economic evolution. The Commercial Revolution (mid 16th-early 18th centuries) acts as an important pre-requisite for the later Industrial Revolution (mid 18th-19th centuries). The Price Revolution (15th-16th centuries) results in some short-term increases in wage volatility.

Suggested Citation

  • Fry, J. M. & Masood, Omar, 2011. "Testable implications of economic revolutions: An application to historic data on European wages," MPRA Paper 32812, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:32812
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Historical Economics; Economic Revolutions; Economic Evolution; European Wages;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N01 - Economic History - - General - - - Development of the Discipline: Historiographical; Sources and Methods
    • N00 - Economic History - - General - - - General
    • G00 - Financial Economics - - General - - - General

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