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Real wages once more: a response to Judy Stephenson
Author(s) -
Allen Robert C.
Publication year - 2019
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/ehr.12663
Subject(s) - greenwich , earnings , wage , economics , rest (music) , labour economics , industrial revolution , sociology , political science , law , finance , medicine , environmental science , cardiology , soil science
This article examines Judy Stephenson's claim that institutional wage series such as those of Greenwich Hospital overstate the earnings of building workers by 20 to 30 per cent, and it is argued here that the conclusion is unpersuasive. Whatever adjustments to existing wage series are necessary in view of her new evidence would have no significant implications for real wages in England compared to the rest of the world. Consequently, Stephenson's findings do not call into question the high wage explanation for the industrial revolution.