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Little Divergence revisited: Polish living standards in a European perspective, 1500-1800

Malinowski, Mikołaj LU (2016) In European Review of Economic History 20(3). p.345-367
Abstract
I contribute to the debate on the timing of the Little Divergence within pre-industrial Europe. I add Polish real wages to the comparative framework by comparing them with the English and Italian series. I compile existing data for Poznań, Lublin, and the Polish agricultural sector. I add this information to the internationally available evidence for Cracow, Gdańsk, Warsaw, and Lviv. I demonstrate that the more processed grains, i.e., beer and bread, feature in a basket used to deflate wages, the greater the observed superiority of London over the Polish cities. I also show that Poland was characterised by the widest income gap between the urban and rural sectors. I account for income differences between sectors by weighting the income... (More)
I contribute to the debate on the timing of the Little Divergence within pre-industrial Europe. I add Polish real wages to the comparative framework by comparing them with the English and Italian series. I compile existing data for Poznań, Lublin, and the Polish agricultural sector. I add this information to the internationally available evidence for Cracow, Gdańsk, Warsaw, and Lviv. I demonstrate that the more processed grains, i.e., beer and bread, feature in a basket used to deflate wages, the greater the observed superiority of London over the Polish cities. I also show that Poland was characterised by the widest income gap between the urban and rural sectors. I account for income differences between sectors by weighting the income series by occupational structures. The evidence suggests that England was richer than Poland by 1500. The countries converged around 1600. Subsequently, Poland began to lag behind from the seventeenth century onwards. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
European Review of Economic History
volume
20
issue
3
pages
345 - 367
publisher
Oxford University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:84995801534
ISSN
1474-0044
DOI
10.1093/ereh/hew004
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
b1c576cd-2ca7-4841-af70-db0681f1ceb3
alternative location
http://ereh.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/06/20/ereh.hew004.full.pdf+html
date added to LUP
2016-09-06 16:10:43
date last changed
2022-04-16 19:13:33
@article{b1c576cd-2ca7-4841-af70-db0681f1ceb3,
  abstract     = {{I contribute to the debate on the timing of the Little Divergence within pre-industrial Europe. I add Polish real wages to the comparative framework by comparing them with the English and Italian series. I compile existing data for Poznań, Lublin, and the Polish agricultural sector. I add this information to the internationally available evidence for Cracow, Gdańsk, Warsaw, and Lviv. I demonstrate that the more processed grains, i.e., beer and bread, feature in a basket used to deflate wages, the greater the observed superiority of London over the Polish cities. I also show that Poland was characterised by the widest income gap between the urban and rural sectors. I account for income differences between sectors by weighting the income series by occupational structures. The evidence suggests that England was richer than Poland by 1500. The countries converged around 1600. Subsequently, Poland began to lag behind from the seventeenth century onwards.}},
  author       = {{Malinowski, Mikołaj}},
  issn         = {{1474-0044}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{345--367}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{European Review of Economic History}},
  title        = {{Little Divergence revisited: Polish living standards in a European perspective, 1500-1800}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ereh/hew004}},
  doi          = {{10.1093/ereh/hew004}},
  volume       = {{20}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}