Real Wages and Relative Factor Prices in the Third World 1820-1940: Asia.

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 earlier? What about the first great globalization boom after about 1870? Which countries in Asia started catching up, which fell further behind, and which held their own place? What role did globalization and demographic forces play? In an effort to suggest a vew research agenda for the region, this essay usesa new data base on real wages and wage/rental ratios for thirteen major Asian regions.