Working Papers
1. Surnames and Social Mobility
Using surnames
to track generations, this project shows that true
rates of social mobility are much slower than
conventionally estimated. Further they are
not any higher now than in the pre-industrial era,
and they vary surprisingly litte across
societies. Social mobility rates are as slow
in egalitarian Sweden as they are in inegalitarian
Chile. There is little sign that social
policy can do much to increase the rate of
regression to the mean of elites and underclasses.
SEE
PAGE FOR "The Son Also Rises"
Other Working
Papers
Malthus
to Modernity: Wealth, Status and Fertility in England,
1500-1879 (with Neil
Cummins)
(forthcoming Journal of Population Economics, 2014).
“The
Industrial Revolution” in Handbook of
Economic Growth, Volume 2 (eds. Philippe Aghion
and Steven Durlauf),
forthcoming, 2014.
Geography
is not Destiny. Geography, Institutions and
Literacy in England, 1837-1863. (with
Rowena Gray)
The Consumer
Revolution: Turning Point in Human History, or
Statistical Artifact? (2010)
The Macroeconomic Aggregates
for England, 1209-2008
(2010) Research in Economic
History
Genetically Capitalist? The Malthusian Era, Institutions and the Formation of Modern Preferences (2007)
The Industrial Revolution in Theory and in History (2003)
The Secret History of the Industrial
Revolution (Oct 2001 – replaces “The Meaning of
the Industrial Revolution”)
”Microbes and Markets: Was the Black
Death an Economic Revolution?" (2001)
Markets and Economic Growth? The Grain
Market of Medieval England. (2001)
The Agricultural Revolution and the
Industrial Revolution, England 1500-1912 (June,
2002)
Is There Profit in Reforming the Poor?
The English Poor Law, 1830-1842 (with Marianne
Page, Dec 2000)
Selective
Pressure and Economic History: Economics in the
Very Long Run (with Alan McGinley, May,
1989)
Published Papers
1381
and the Malthus Delusion (2013)
Explorations in Economic History
The
Surprising Wealth of Pre-Industrial England
(2012) (with Joseph Cummins,
Brock Smith) Journal of Economic History.
“A Review of Avner Greif’s, Institutions, and the Path to the Modern Economy.” Journal of Economic Literature, September 2007.
“Coal and the Industrial Revolution, 1700-1869” (with David Jacks) European Review of Economic History, 11(1) (April, 2007): 39-72.
“The Long March of History: Farm Wages, Population and Economic Growth, England 1209-1869” Economic History Review, 60(1) (February, 2007): 97-136.
“What made Britannia great? How much of the rise of Britain to world dominance by 1850 does the Industrial Revolution explain” In Tim Hatton, Kevin O’Rourke, and Alan Taylor (eds.), Comparative Economic History: Essays in honor of Jeffrey Williamson, pp. 33-57. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2007.
“Survival of the Richest. The Malthusian Mechanism in Pre-Industrial England” (with Gillian Hamilton) Journal of Economic History, 66(3) (September, 2006): 707-36.
“The Condition of the Working-Class in England, 1209-2004” Journal of Political Economy, 113(6) (December, 2005): 1307-1340.
“Human Capital, Fertility and the Industrial Revolution” Journal of the European Economic Association, 3 (2-3) (2005): 505-515.
“The Efficiency Gains from Site Value Taxes: The Tithe Commutation Act of 1836” Explorations in Economic History, 42(2), (2005):282-309 (with Eric Jamelske).
“The Price History of English Agriculture, 1209-1914” Research in Economic History, 22, (2004): 41-124.
“Technology in the Great Divergence” in Michael Bordo, Alan Taylor and Jeffrey Williamson (eds.), Globalization in Historical Perspective. Chicago: University of Chicago Press for the NBER, 2003 (with Robert Feenstra).
“One Polity, Many Countries: Economic Growth in India, 1873-2000” in Dani Rodrik (ed.), Frontiers of Economic Growth. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003 (with Susan Wolcott).
“Farmland Rental Values and Agrarian
History: England and Wales, 1500-1912” European
Review of Economic History, 6(3)
(December 2002): 281-309.
“Shelter from the Storm: Housing and the Industrial Revolution, 1550-1912” Journal of Economic History, 62(2) (June 2002).
“Farm Wages and Living Standards in the Industrial Revolution: England, 1670-1870” Economic History Review, 54 (3), (August, 2001): 477-505.
“The Enclosure of English Common Lands, 1475-1839” Journal of Economic History, 61(4) (December 2001): 1009-1036. (with Anthony Clark)
“Debt, Deficits, and Crowding Out: England, 1727-1840” European Review of Economic History, 5(3) (December 2001): 403-436.
“Why Nations Fail: Managerial Decisions and Performance in Indian Cotton Textiles, 1890-1938” (with Susan Wolcott). Journal of Economic History, 59(2) (1999): 397-423.
“Too Much Revolution: Agriculture and the Industrial Revolution, 1700-1860” in Joel Mokyr (ed.), The British Industrial Revolution: An Economic Assessment, 206-240. 2nd Edition (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1999)
“Commons Sense: Common Property Rights, Efficiency, and Institutional Change”, Journal of Economic History, 58(1) (March, 1998), 73-102.
“Land Hunger: Land as a Commodity and as a Status Good in England, 1500-1910”, Explorations in Economic History, 35(1) (Jan., 1998), 59-82.
“Work in Progress. The Industrious Revolution?” Journal of Economic History. 58(3) (September, 1998), 830-843. (with Ysbrand van der Werf).
“The Charity Commissioners as a Source in English Economic History” Research in Economic History, 18 (1998), 1-52.
“A Precocious Infant: The Grain Market in England 1207-1770” in G. Federico, J. Ljundberg, K. G. Persson, and L. Schon (eds.), Integration of Commodity Markets in History, (1998).
“The Political Foundations of Modern Economic Growth: England, 1540-1800,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 26 (Spring, 1996), 563-588. Reprinted in Robert I. Rotberg (ed.), Social Mobility and Modernization: A Journal of Interdisciplinary History Reader. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2000.
“A British Food Puzzle”, Economic History Review, 68 (May, 1995), 215-237. (With Michael Huberman and Peter Lindert).
“Factory Discipline”, Journal of Economic History, 54 (March, 1994), 128-163.
“Agriculture and the Industrial Revolution, 1700-1850”, in Joel Mokyr (ed.), The British Industrial Revolution: An Economic Assessment (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1993), 227-266.
“Economic Growth in Theory and History: A Review Essay”, Theory and Society (1993), 871-886.
“The Economics of Exhaustion, the Postan Thesis, and the Agricultural Revolution”, Journal of Economic History, 52 (March, 1992), 61-84.
“Labour Productivity in English Agriculture, 1300-1860”, in B.M.S. Campbell and Mark Overton, Agricultural Productivity in the European Past. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1991, 211-235.
“Yields per Acre in English Agriculture 1266-1860: Evidence from Payments to Labour," Economic History Review, (August 1991), 445-460.
“The Cost of Capital and Medieval Agricultural Technique”, Explorations in Economic History, 25 (July, 1988), 265-294.
“Productivity Growth Without Technical Change in European Agriculture Before 1850," Journal of Economic History, 47 (June 1987), 419-432.
“Why Isn't the Whole World Developed? Lessons from the Cotton Mills," Journal of Economic History, 47 (March 1987), 141-173.
“Authority and Efficiency: The Labor Market and the Managerial Revolution of the Late Nineteenth Century" Journal of Economic History, 44 (December 1984), 1069-83.
Shorter Papers/Other
“Industrial Revolution” forthcoming in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, new edition edited by Lawrence Blume and Steven Durlauf (2008).
“The Malthusian Economy” forthcoming in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, new edition edited by Lawrence Blume and Steven Durlauf (2008).
“Agricultural Labor”, in Joel Mokyr (ed.) Oxford Encylopedia of Economic History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), Vol. 1, 21-26.
“Agricultural Productivity, Prices and Wages”, in Joel Mokyr (ed.) Oxford Encylopedia of Economic History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), Vol 1, 92-96.
“Farm Management”, in Joel Mokyr (ed.) Oxford Encylopedia of Economic History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), Vol. 2, 276-278.
“Agricultural Wages”, in Joel Mokyr (ed.) Oxford Encylopedia of Economic History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), Vol. 1, 59-65.
“Farm Capital”, in Joel Mokyr (ed.) Oxford Encylopedia of Economic History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), Vol. 2, 272-275.
“In Defense of Commons Sense: Reply to Chapman” Journal of Economic History, 59(2) (June, 1999): 451-55.
“Comments on Dye, Huck, and Sicsic”, Journal of Economic History, 53 (June, 1993): 408-410.
“Labor Productivity and Farm Size in English Agriculture Before Mechanization: A Note," Explorations in Economic History, 28 (April, 1991), 248-257.
“The Long-Term Decline in Real Interest Rates: Comment," Journal of Economic Perspectives, (Winter, 1991), 213-215.
“Enclosure, Land Improvement and the Price of Capital. Reply to Jones," Explorations in Economic History, 27 (April 1990), 356-362.
“Productivity Growth without Technical Change in European Agriculture. Reply to Komlos," Journal of Economic History, 49 (Dec, 1989), 979-991.
“Why Isn't the Whole World Developed? Reply to Hanson," Journal of Economic History, 49 (Sept, 1989), 707-714.
“Economic Growth without Accumulation or Technical Change: Agriculture Before Mechanization," in G. Feiwel (ed.), Joan Robinson and Modern Economic Theory (New York University Press, 1989), 791-820.
“Would Better Management Have Developed the World? Reply to Wilkins," Journal of Economic History, 48 (March 1988), 143-148.
“Economists in Search of Culture: the Unspeakable in Search of the Uneatable?" Historical Methods, 21 (Fall, 1988), 161-4.
“British Labor in Britain’s Decline”, Dissertation Summary, Journal of Economic History, 46 (June, 1986), 498-500.
