Full Citation

Title: Late marriage as a contributor to the industrial revolution in England

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2018

ISBN:

ISSN: 00130117

DOI: 10.1111/ehr.12651

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: Was the European marriage pattern an important contributor to England’s precociouseconomic development? This article examines this question by embedding thepossibility in a historically substantiated demographic-economic model, supportedby both cross-section and long time series evidence. Persistent high mortality andpowerful mortality shocks in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries lowered lifeexpectations. Subsequently increased life expectancy reduced the number of birthsnecessary to achieve a given family size. Fewer births were achieved by a higher age atfirst marriage of females. Later marriage not only constrained population growth butalso provided greater opportunities for female informal learning, especially through‘service’. In a period when the family was the principal institution for socializingfuture workers, such learning was a significant contributor to the intergenerationaltransmission and accumulation of human capital. This article shows how, over thecenturies, the gradual induced rise of human capital raised productivity and eventuallybrought about the industrial revolution. Without the contribution of late marriage tohuman capital accumulation broadly interpreted, real wages in England would nothave increased strongly in the early nineteenth century and would have been muchlower than actually achieved for several centuries.

Url: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/ehr.12651

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Authors: Foreman-Peck, James; Zhou, Peng

Periodical (Full): The Economic History Review

Issue: 4

Volume: 71

Pages: 1073-1099

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Family and Marriage

Countries: United States