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Decline and Stagnation in the Arab World: Preliminary Real Wage Evidence Comparing Algeria, Egypt, Syria and Tunisia, 1847–1913

Research in Economic History

ISBN: 978-1-78441-782-6, eISBN: 978-1-78441-781-9

Publication date: 22 April 2015

Abstract

This paper constructs real wage series for nineteenth-century Algeria and Tunisia, and compares them with existing Egyptian and Syrian series. Archival sources are used for price and nominal wage data. Following Allen (2001), nominal wages are deflated with a consumer price index. The series are tested for robustness. Real wages were initially dispersed, but converged to similar levels by the end of the period. There is no evidence of a broad-based improvement in living standards over the period, with real wage series declining in Algeria, and stagnating in Egypt, Tunisia and Syria. The findings paint a less optimistic picture of living standards compared to other measures like GDP per capita and compared to some of the historical literature. Data for the Maghreb are scarce, and more work will need to be done on finding more wage and price observations.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

I should like to thank Isabel Chiavassa at the Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer in Aix-en-Provence, Julia Clancy-Smith and David Prochaska for help with sources, and Jessica Magri, Susan Wolcott and two anonymous referees for comments on an early draft. All errors are mine.

Citation

Caruana-Galizia, P. (2015), "Decline and Stagnation in the Arab World: Preliminary Real Wage Evidence Comparing Algeria, Egypt, Syria and Tunisia, 1847–1913", Research in Economic History (Research in Economic History, Vol. 31), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 1-40. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0363-326820150000031001

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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