ECON 334 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Black Death
Document Summary
Why the hump shape: the black death. Bubonic plague killed 1/3 of the population of england: the increase in death rates lowered life expectancy, but increased living standards (in the form of wages, the high living stanfards caused birth rates to increase. As the population became resistant to bubonic plague, death rates decreased. How did english wages compare to those of ancient economies: ancient wages consistent with malthusian interpretation. Lessons: large variation in the incomes of malthusian economies, these variations were determined solely by birth and eath rates, not by technology, england in 1800 was much more technically, hsbheaw. Other measures of living standards: data on income for most countires are only available from the 20th century onwards. Some from 19th century onwards: data on wages scant too, and sometimes unreliable. Only for england do we have unbrocken series since 1200: we need other indicators of living standards.
