6533b7d2fe1ef96bd125e00a
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Population Growth and Manufacturing Real Wages in 18th Century England: A Spatial Perspective
Kristian BehrensKristian Behrenssubject
Labour economicseducation.field_of_studyPopulation modelEconomies of agglomerationUrbanizationPopulationPerspective (graphical)EconomicsPopulation growthEconomic systemeducationIndustrial RevolutionReal wagesdescription
We develop a two-region population growth model of economic geography and show that a process of urbanization has a substantial impact on the evolution of manufacturing real wages. Whereas real wages decline as the population increases when the spatial structure of the economy is fixed, they actually rise in the long-run when factors are mobile. Agglomeration may hence be seen as a rational response to declining real wages and provides a new explanation of why manufacturing real wages did not decline prior to the Industrial Revolution in England, despite a historically unprecedented population growth.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004-01-01 | SSRN Electronic Journal |