In a recent article, Ritschl (2008) criticized findings of Broadberry and Burhop (2007) regarding the comparative level of manufacturing labour productivity in Germany compared to Britain between 1895 and 1938. In this paper, we re-evaluate Ritschl's claims and show that our earlier results are...

Throughout the period 1871-1938, the average British worker was better off than the average German worker, but there were significant differences between major sectors. For the aggregate economy, the real wage gap was about the same as the labour productivity gap, but again there were important...