Economic History Flashcards
What is the Malthusian trap?
The idea that short term gains made from technological advances were lost through population growth.
What was the rate of technological advance before the 1800s?
Below 0.05% per year. 1/13 of the modern rate.
Why was pre-industrial England a world of constant downward mobility?
Given the static nature of the Malthusian economy, the superabundant children of the rich had to, on average, move down the social hierarchy in order to find work.
What led to the Industrial Revolution in England and not anywhere else?
Institutional stability and demography
Describe England’s demography from 1200 leading to the industrial revolution.
Slow growth of population between 1300 and 1760 and the fecundity of the rich and economically successful.
The Qing imperial lineage lasted from 1644 to?
1911
The law of diminishing returns states that?
if one of the inputs of production is fixed, an additional amount of a single factor of production will result in a decreasing marginal output of production.
What is marginal product
The increase in the value of output by adding one more worker.
What is David Ricardo’s the iron law of wages?
Real wages must always eventually return to subsistence level.
What is Engel’s law?
The poorer the family, the larger the share of its income is spent on food.
What is the year of the Black death in Europe and when did the population get restored?
Black death: 1347
Population restoration: 1550
What are the two effects of reducing fertility in the Malthusian era?
- Increase living standards
2. Increase life expectancy
What was England’s fertility rate in 1650?
27/1000 Less than half the biological maximum of 60/1000
What was the number of children that the average English woman gave birth to in 1650?
3.6
Birth rates around 1860 in East Asia were approximately?
35/1000
