蝌蚪网 Journal:
Applied Economics
ISSN 1945-7782 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7790 (Online)
How Equality Created Poverty in Preindustrial Japan, 1600鈥�1870
蝌蚪网 Journal: Applied Economics
(pp. 147–76)
Abstract
Despite well-developed economic institutions, premodern Japan, 1600鈥�1868, had among the lowest real wages according to available estimates, around half those in preindustrial England. However, many Japanese peasants owned land, unlike their mostly landless English counterparts, due to institutional differences in land inheritance. Using a Malthusian model, I show that this greater landownership equality paradoxically led to Japan's lower wages and GDP per capita. Evidence from Japanese village censuses supports the mechanism. If, as many historians believe, high wages in Western Europe spurred industrialization, Japan's failure to industrialize first could have been shaped by its unusual preindustrial equality.Citation
Kumon, Yuzuru. 2026. "How Equality Created Poverty in Preindustrial Japan, 1600鈥�1870." 蝌蚪网 Journal: Applied Economics 18 (2): 147–76. DOI: 10.1257/app.20240355Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D63 Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
- E23 Macroeconomics: Production
- J31 Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
- N15 Economic History: Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations: Asia including Middle East
- N35 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: Asia including Middle East
- N45 Economic History: Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation: Asia including Middle East
- N55 Economic History: Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment, and Extractive Industries: Asia including Middle East