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Comments On Geraghty, Márquez, And Vizcarra, George R. Boyer
Comments On Geraghty, Márquez, And Vizcarra, George R. Boyer
George R. Boyer
Professor Boyer reviews and comments upon the three dissertations that were finalists for the Alexander Gerschenkron Prize in 2002.
The Economic Role Of The English Poor Law, 1780-1834, George R. Boyer
The Economic Role Of The English Poor Law, 1780-1834, George R. Boyer
George R. Boyer
[Excerpt] Over the 85-year period from 1748/50 to 1832/34, real per capita expenditures on poor relief increased at an average rate of approximately 1 percent per year. There were also important changes in the administration of relief with respect to able-bodied laborers during the period. Policies providing relief outside of workhouses to unemployed and under-employed able-bodied laborers became widespread during the 1770s and 1780s in the grain-producing South and East of England. The so-called Speenhamland system of outdoor relief flourished until 1834, when it was abolished by the Poor Law Amendment Act. The aim of the thesis is to provide …
Malthus Was Right After All: Poor Relief And Birth Rates In Southeastern England, George R. Boyer
Malthus Was Right After All: Poor Relief And Birth Rates In Southeastern England, George R. Boyer
George R. Boyer
The payment of child allowances to laborers with large families was widespread in early nineteenth-century England. This paper tests Thomas Malthus's hypothesis that child allowances caused the birth rate to increase. A cross-sectional regression model is estimated to explain variations in birth rates across parishes in 1826-30. Birth rates are found to be related to child allowances, income, and the availability of housing, as Malthus contended. The paper concludes by examining the role played by the adoption of child allowances after 1795 in the fertility increase of the early nineteenth century.