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An Investigation of the Female–Male Wage Gap During the Industrial Revolution in Britain
Author(s) -
Burnette Joyce
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
the economic history review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.014
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1468-0289
pISSN - 0013-0117
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0289.00054
Subject(s) - wage , economics , productivity , efficiency wage , labour economics , industrial revolution , demographic economics , political science , macroeconomics , law
During the industrial revolution women's wages were substantially lower than men’s. This article documents the wage gap and shows that in most cases it can be explained without reference to wage discrimination. First, the wage data we have overestimate the wage gap; correcting for biases due to measurement error reduces the size of the wage gap. Second, because differences in productivity were substantial, the corrected wage gap is consistent with these.