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Understanding per-capita income growth in preindustrial Europe

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  • Nils-Petter Lagerlof

    (York University)

Abstract

Fouquet and Broadberry (Journal of Economic Perspectives 2015) have recently compiled detailed time-series data over per-capita incomes for several European countries from as early as 1300 up to 1800. The time series are all volatile and highly persistent; per-capita incomes move in decades-long cycles of expansions and contractions. The current paper examines a Malthusian model with realistic life-cycle structure, and stochastic and increasing rates of growth in agricultural productivity. This model can generate per-capita income dynamics that are qualitatively and quantitatively similar to the Fouquet-Broadberry data.

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  • Nils-Petter Lagerlof, 2016. "Understanding per-capita income growth in preindustrial Europe," 2016 Meeting Papers 667, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    • Handle: RePEc:red:sed016:667
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    Cited by:

    1. James Foreman-Peck & Peng Zhou, 2021. "Fertility versus productivity: a model of growth with evolutionary equilibria," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(3), pages 1073-1104, July.

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