On average, the poor European periphery converged on the rich industrial core in the four or five decades prior to World War I. Some, like the three Scandinavian economies, used industrialization to achieve a spectacular convergence on the leaders, especially in real wages and living standards....

This paper gives a historical dimension to the impact of trade unions on earnings by estimating the union wage effect in Britain between 1889-90 using data from the US Commissioner of Labour survey conducted at that time. The determinants of union status are also investigated in terms of profit...

The paper estimates the correlation between tariffs and economic growth in the late nineteenth century, in the context of three types of growth equation: unconditional convergence equations; conditional convergence equations; and factor accumulation models. It does so for a panel of ten...