ILRLE 3440 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Thomas Robert Malthus
8 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
8 March 2018
ECON 3300 - Lecture 12!
!
Q: Why do wages differ between professions and locations!
!
Compensating wage differentials !
Risk involved!•
Cost of acquiring skills!•
Amount of responsibility!•
Probability of success!•
These are the natural causes!
!
Then there are unnatural causes from government intervention!
An example of such a cause was the Statute of Artifices which included the apprenticeship •
laws!
!
Poor Laws (1598-1948)!
Every parish in England and Wales has to tax itself to maintain its own poor!•
At this time there were 15000 parishes!•
By the mid-1600s people are concerned that the welfare system would not work!•
Some were concerned that people would move around to get better relief!•
!
Settlement Laws (1662)!
People were only allowed to get relief from the parish of settlement!•
Parishes are allowed to remove those who migrate into the parish who they think will be a cost •
to them now or in the future!
Some were welcomed if labour was needed!◦
Smith saw this as an obstruction to the free movement of labour !•
This caused differences in agricultural wages across parishes!•
!
Smith was against government intervention AND against private manufacturers banding together
to limit competition and raise prices unnaturally !
!
Thomas Malthus (1766-1834)!
!
Essay on population (1798)!
Perfectibility of society is hampered by population growth!•
Food is necessary for the existence of mankind!1.
Sex is necessary!2.
The power of population is greater than the power of the earth to produce food!3.
Population, if left unchecked, will grow fast than food production !•
!
Malthus argues that population grows at a geometric rate where as food grows at an arithmetic !
He uses the American colonies to prove this phenomenon!•
Checks on populations can either raise the death rate (positive) or lower the birth rates •
(preventive)!
Wars and disease are positive!◦
Delay of marriage is preventive !◦
Malthus argues that the positive checks are more prominent among the poor!•
The Poor Laws were meant to block the positive checks but by guaranteeing a minimum ◦
Document Summary
Q: why do wages di er between professions and locations. Then there are unnatural causes from government intervention. An example of such a cause was the statute of arti ces which included the apprenticeship laws. Every parish in england and wales has to tax itself to maintain its own poor. By the mid-1600s people are concerned that the welfare system would not work. Some were concerned that people would move around to get better relief. People were only allowed to get relief from the parish of settlement. Parishes are allowed to remove those who migrate into the parish who they think will be a cost to them now or in the future. Smith saw this as an obstruction to the free movement of labour. This caused di erences in agricultural wages across parishes. Smith was against government intervention and against private manufacturers banding together to limit competition and raise prices unnaturally. Perfectibility of society is hampered by population growth.
