The Growth of Wages in Antebellum America: New Evidence
- 1 December 1987
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in The Journal of Economic History
- Vol. 47 (4) , 873-895
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022050700049858
Abstract
The records of the United States Army, which hired civilian workers in the nineteenth century, have produced a large sample of wage rates. New estimates of nominal daily wage rates from 1820 to 1856 are presented. There is no evidence of a long-term increase in the skill differential. The growth of real wages in the Northeast appears to have been slower and more erratic than previously thought. Regional trends in wages are consistent with other evidence on patterns of regional growth and internal migration.Keywords
This publication has 14 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Height and Weight of West Point Cadets: Dietary Change in Antebellum AmericaThe Journal of Economic History, 1987
- The Resolution of the Labor-Scarcity ParadoxThe Journal of Economic History, 1985
- A City in the RepublicPublished by Cambridge University Press (CUP) ,1984
- The Standard of Living During American Industrialization: Evidence from the Brandywine Region, 1800–1860The Journal of Economic History, 1982
- On the Alleged Antebellum Surge in Wage Differentials: A Critique of Williamson and LindertThe Journal of Economic History, 1982
- Regional differences in real wages: The United States, 1851–1880Explorations in Economic History, 1976
- Wage rates in the iron industry: A commentExplorations in Economic History, 1974
- Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure CompetitionJournal of Political Economy, 1974
- Further evidence on American wage differentials, 1800–1830Explorations in Economic History, 1972
- The Wages of Unskilled Labor in the United States 1850-1900Journal of Political Economy, 1905