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- Title
The structure of pay in nineteenth-century Britain.
- Authors
Jackson, R. V.
- Abstract
The article discusses the structure of pay in nineteenth-century Great Britain. Section I of the article shows that much of the measured rise in pay ratios during this period is due to the behavior of two of economist J.G. Williamson's new earnings series. It is argued, moreover, that these two series are seriously flawed and should be abandoned. Section II presents revised pay ratios based on the remaining series in Williamson's sample of occupations and briefly indicates some implications of these revised pay ratios for the analysis of factors affecting trends in the structure of pay in Britain, with emphasis on the period of apparent wage stretching after 1815. The detailed behaviour of the revised estimates shows the influence of technical change on the structure of pay to have been less direct than Williamson suggests. The principal effect of imbalanced technical progress envisaged by Williamson is a disproportionate rise in the demand for skills in manufacturing during early industrialization.
- Subjects
UNITED Kingdom; WAGES; WILLIAMSON, J. G.; ECONOMIC trends; WAGE payment systems; TECHNOLOGICAL progress
- Publication
Economic History Review, 1987, Vol 40, Issue 4, p561
- ISSN
0013-0117
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/2596393