This paper uses a new pre-1940 Third World data base documenting real wages and relative factor prices to explore their determinants. There are three possibilities: external price shocks, factor endowment changes, and technological change. While the paper lays out an explicit econometric agenda...

By 1914, there were very big economic gaps between the European industrial core and countries around the Mediterranean Basin. When did the gaps appear? Can they be explained by lags in the diffusion of the industrial revolution after 1770, or did the gaps appear much earlier? What about the...

By 1914, there were huge economic gaps between the Southern Cone plus Cuba and the rest of Latin America. When did the gaps appear? In an effort to suggest a new research agenda for the region, this essay uses a new data base on real wages and relative factor prices for seven major Latin...

Arguably the most important development in recent decades in US factor markets is the decline in the relative wage of the unskilled. By contrast, in Europe it is undoubtedly the rise and persistence of unemployment. Technology has been identified as a key reason for the rising US wage...

We consider trade between a flexible wage America and a rigid real wage Europe. In a benchmark case, a move from autarky to free trade doubles the European unemployment rate, while it raises the American unskilled wage to the high European level.

By 1914, there were very big economic gaps between the European industrial core and countries around Asia, from Japan to what we now call Pakistan. When did the gaps appear? Can they be explained by lags in the diffusion of the industrial revolution after 1780, or did the gaps appear much...