Inequality in Pre‐Industrial Europe (1260–1850): New Evidence From the Labor Share
估算了1250–1850年英、法、荷、西、葡五国的劳动份额，发现其波动复杂，且提取率与GDP呈负相关，为理解前工业时代不平等与增长的关系提供了新证据。
The dynamics of economic inequality and its relationship with economic growth in the preindustrial world is increasingly attracting the attention of both economists and economic historians. In this paper, we tackle this theme by introducing new estimates of the labor share in five major European countries (England, France, Holland, Spain, and Portugal) for the period 1250–1850. Our estimates are constructed using an innovative method based on the conversion of real wages in 2011 PPP $. Overall, we find a complex pattern of evolution of the labor share with major fluctuations. Furthermore, using the inequality possibility frontier (IPF) framework, our results suggest that preindustrial Europe was characterized by a negative relationship between the extraction ratio and GDP.