New Lessons from Historical Labor Markets: Using a unique Danish data source to answer key questions in economics
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Peter Sandholt Jensen, Linnaeus University; Paul Richard Sharp, University of Southern Denmark; Cristina Victoria Radu, University of Southern Denmark
Version: View help for Version V1
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Project Citation:
Jensen, Peter Sandholt, Sharp, Paul Richard, and Radu, Cristina Victoria. New Lessons from Historical Labor Markets: Using a unique Danish data source to answer key questions in economics. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-06-23. https://doi.org/10.3886/E143601V1
Project Description
Summary:
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Deposited in connection with an article published in the European Review of Economic History: To the Manor Born: A New Microlevel Wage Database for Eighteenth Century
Denmark
Abstract: We document and make available to the scholarly community a uniquely detailed database of 20,680 observations of wages for men, women and children, and 30,000 observations of prices from eighteenth century rural Denmark. To illustrate the usefulness of such data, we provide three applications. First, we construct nominal wages and deflate them using Allen’s constant consumer baskets. Real wages exhibit a fall with the introduction of serfdom, and other changes consistent with known historical events. Second, we consider skill premia, finding no secular trends between skill categories, but considerable variation both within and between categories over time, suggesting that estimates based on simple averages should be interpreted with caution. Lastly, we consider Denmark’s position in a “rural” Little Divergence debate by comparing with other European countries for which there are rural wages. The Danish rural economy was unsurprisingly relatively poor during this period, although there was considerable variation between regions.
Abstract: We document and make available to the scholarly community a uniquely detailed database of 20,680 observations of wages for men, women and children, and 30,000 observations of prices from eighteenth century rural Denmark. To illustrate the usefulness of such data, we provide three applications. First, we construct nominal wages and deflate them using Allen’s constant consumer baskets. Real wages exhibit a fall with the introduction of serfdom, and other changes consistent with known historical events. Second, we consider skill premia, finding no secular trends between skill categories, but considerable variation both within and between categories over time, suggesting that estimates based on simple averages should be interpreted with caution. Lastly, we consider Denmark’s position in a “rural” Little Divergence debate by comparing with other European countries for which there are rural wages. The Danish rural economy was unsurprisingly relatively poor during this period, although there was considerable variation between regions.
Funding Sources:
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Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF - 1327-00069)
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