@article{ca23ff194ff040d6bd037d0f3948d84d,
title = "From Malthus to Ohlin: Trade, industrialisation and distribution since 1500",
abstract = "A recent endogenous growth literature has focused on the transition from a Malthusian world where real wages were linked to factor endowments, to one where modern growth has broken that link. In this paper we present evidence on another, related phenomenon: the dramatic reversal in distributional trends - from a steep secular fall to a steep secular rise in wage-land rent ratios - which occurred some time early in the 19th century. What explains this reversal? While it may seem logical to locate the causes in the Industrial Revolutionary forces emphasized by endogenous growth theorists, we provide evidence that something else mattered just as much: the opening up of the European economy to international trade.",
keywords = "Income distribution, Industrial revolution, Trade",
author = "O'Rourke, {Kevin H.} and Williamson, {Jeffrey G.}",
note = "Funding Information: We have been helped with the wage-rent data by Greg Clark as well as by the excellent research assistance of Darya Zhuck. In addition, the comments of Stephen Broadberry and Louis Cullen are gratefully acknowledged, as are those of participants at the Ohlin Conference (Stockholm, October 14–16, 1999), the Sound Conference (Copenhagen, March 1, 2002), ERWIT 2002 (Munich, June 14–17, 2002), the ISSC/HII Conference on {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}Past and Present: Long-term Perspectives on the World Today{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright} (Dublin, October 18, 2002), the NBER ITI Winter Institute (Palo Alto, December 7, 2002), the Minerva Center Conference on {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}From Stagnation to Growth{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright}(Rorschach, Switzerland, May 2–4, 2003); and seminar participants at ANU, Glasgow, Gotenborg, Harvard, Humboldt, Illinois, London School of Economics, Melbourne, New South Wales, Stockholm School of Economics, Western Australia, and the Economic and Social Research Institute, all of whom heard early and preliminary versions of this paper. O{\textquoteright}Rourke is an IRCHSS Government of Ireland Senior Fellow and acknowledges the generous funding of the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Williamson acknowledges financial support from the National Science Foundation SES-0001362. The usual disclaimer applies.",
year = "2005",
month = mar,
doi = "10.1007/s10887-005-1111-5",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "10",
pages = "5--34",
journal = "Journal of Economic Growth",
issn = "1381-4338",
publisher = "Springer New York",
number = "1",
}