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Old Questions, New Data, and Alternative Perspectives: Families' Living Standards in the Industrial Revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Sara Horrell  and
Jane Humphries
Sara Horrell
Affiliation:
Research Officer in the Department of Applied Economics
Jane Humphries
Affiliation:
Lecturer in the Faculty of Economics, Cambridge University, Cambridge, EnglandCB3 9DD.
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Abstract

We have used the household accounts of 1,350 husband-wife families to investigate trends in male earnings and family incomes. This evidence confirms the material progress suggested by trends in the real wage rates of adult males. But the budget data underscore occupational and regional distinctions, discontinuities in the growth process, and changes over time in the ability of other family members to offset the effects of the business cycle on men's earnings. Overall, family incomes grew less than male earnings.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 52 , Issue 4 , December 1992 , pp. 849 - 880
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1992

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