Baten, Joerg, Ma, Debin, Morgan, Stephen and Wang, Qing (2009) Evolution of living standards and human capital in China in 18-20th century: evidences from real wage and anthropometrics. Economic History Working Papers, 122/09. Department of Economic History, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.
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Abstract
This article mobilizes and integrates both existing and new time series data on real wages, physical heights and age-heaping to examine the long-term trend of living standards and human capital for China during the eighteenth to twentieth centuries. Our findings confirm the existence of a substantial gap in living standards between China and North-western Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They also reveal a sustained decline in living standards and human capital at least in South China from the mid-nineteenth century followed by a recovery in the early twentieth century. However, comparative examination of age-heaping data shows that the level of Chinese human capital was relatively high by world standard during this period. We make a preliminary exploration of the historical implication of our findings.
| Item Type: | Monograph (Working Paper) |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://www2.lse.ac.uk/economicHistory/workingPaper... |
| Additional Information: | © 2009 The authors |
| Library of Congress subject classification: | H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform D History General and Old World > DS Asia |
| Sets: | Departments > Economic History Collections > Economists Online |
| Rights: | http://www.lse.ac.uk/library/rights/LSERO.htm |
| Identification Number: | 122/09 |
| URL: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/27870/ |
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