Catch-up and static equilibrium: A critique of the convergence model

Ljungberg, Jonas

doi:10.1080/03585522.1996.10414635

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Industrialization was not only taking place in urban areas, however. In fact, industry was predominantly located in rural areas, often in close proximity to the distribution of natural resources (see, eg., Svennilson, Lundberg & Bagge, 1935;Heckscher, 1941;Ljungberg, 1996). There was consequently relatively high within-location labor mobility between the agricultural and industrial sector (Svennilson, Lundberg & Bagge, 1935).…”

Section: Historical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the sources of this development remain disputed among economists and economic historians (eg. Wicksell, 1882;Sandberg, 1979;O'Rourke & Williamson, 1995;Ljungberg, 1996), it is well established that Swedish real wages went from being below the Western European average in the 1860s to the level of their British counterparts by 1914. Less attention has been paid to the remarkable speed of technological advancements.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mass Migration and Technological Change

Andersson¹,

Karadja²,

Prawitz³

2020

Preprint

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This paper studies the effect of emigration on technological change in sending locations after one of the largest migration events in human history, the mass migration from Europe to the United States in the 19th century. To establish causality, we adopt an instrumental variable strategy that combines local growing-season frost shocks with proximity to emigration ports. We document two sets of results. First, using novel data on technological patents, we find that emigration led to an increase in innovative activity in sending municipalities. Moreover, the increase in innovation is coupled with an increased adoption of new technologies in both the agricultural and industrial sectors. Second, in terms of local economic development, we find that emigration led to higher unskilled wages in agriculture, a shift towards employment in the nascent industrial sector, a larger presence of incorporated firms, as well as higher tax revenues.

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Section: Historical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mass Migration and Technological Change

Andersson¹,

Karadja²,

Prawitz³

2020

Preprint

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“…3 Scandinavia's outstanding achievement was therefore subject to further elaboration in O'Rourke and Williamson (1995a, b) and the rest of the periphery was dealt with in O'Rourke and Williamson (1997). 4 Ljungberg (1996) contains the only critical discussion of O'Rourke and Williamson's two articles (1995a, b) which addressed explicitly Scandinavia's role in the globalisation tale. He made the point that without the Scandinavian countries in the sample convergence slips away.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Fallacious convergence? Williamson’s real wage comparisons under scrutiny

Prado

2009

Cliometrica

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The idea of manifest real-wage convergence for unskilled workers in the latter half of the nineteenth century stems from an article from 1995 by Jeffrey G. Williamson. That article presented real wage comparisons of unskilled urban workers for seventeen countries. Sweden, along with the rest of Scandinavia, is found to be an influential case in accounting for much of the alleged factor price convergence taking place. This paper takes a closer look at all the three steps that have to be taken in order to establish real wage comparisons, focusing on Sweden in relation to the US and the UK. The most important findings are twofold. First, that the US–Sweden wage gap is considerably smaller for manufacturing than for building workers, and second, that the rate at which Sweden’s real wages approached the American and the British has been grossly overestimated. Swedish real wages did grow rapidly, but not as rapidly as Williamson’s comparison will have us to believe, because his real wage series does not constitute a representative account of the Swedish unskilled real wage experience. It is argued that, as we suffer from a serious paucity of data for narrow and comparable samples of late nineteenth century unskilled workers, resorting to more encompassing wage measures is a more viable option. That also implies a questioning of the American unskilled wage series, which makes considerably slower progress than the wage series for manufacturing workers.Convergence, Real wages, Wage benchmark, Purchasing power parity, Catching up, International comparisons

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The Production of Impoverished but Sophisticated Emigrants: Emigration, Human Capital, and Economic Growth in Sweden

Westberg

2019

Palgrave Studies in Economic History

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Catch-up and static equilibrium: A critique of the convergence model

Cited by 6 publications

References 1 publication

Mass Migration and Technological Change

Mass Migration and Technological Change

Fallacious convergence? Williamson’s real wage comparisons under scrutiny

The Production of Impoverished but Sophisticated Emigrants: Emigration, Human Capital, and Economic Growth in Sweden

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