TY  - JOUR
AU  - O'Rourke,Kevin H.
AU  - Williamson,Jeffrey G.
TI  - From Malthus to Ohlin: Trade, Growth and Distribution Since 1500
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8955
PY  - 2002
Y2  - May 2002
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8955
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8955.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Kevin H. O'Rourke
All Souls College
Oxford University
Oxford OX1 4AL, UK
Tel: + 44 (0)1865 279 348
Fax: 353-1-6772503
E-Mail: kevin.orourke@all-souls.ox.ac.uk

Jeffrey G. Williamson
350 South Hamilton Street #1002
Madison, WI 53703
Tel: 608-441-0023
Fax: 608-204-0783
E-Mail: jwilliam@fas.harvard.edu
AB  - A recent endogenous growth literature has focused on the transition from a Malthusian world where real wages were linked to factor endowments, to one where modern growth has broken that link. In this paper we present evidence on another, related phenomenon: the dramatic reversal in distributional trends -- from a steep secular fall to a steep secular rise in wage-land rent ratios -- which occurred some time early in the 19th century. What explains this reversal? While it may seem logical to locate the causes in the Industrial Revolutionary forces emphasized by endogenous growth theorists, we provide evidence that something else mattered just as much: the opening up of the European economy to international trade.
ER  -