Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T20:32:17.076Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

U.S.Regional Growth And Convergence, 1880–1980

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Abstract

State personal income per capita estimates at six census years are adjusted for state differences in prices and labor input per capita. Decomposition of the variation in state nominal income levels into the contributions of prices, demography, and (residual) labor productivity reveals considerable diversity in the relative importance of each by region and period. Convergence rates across the century differ according to the choice of series (nominal income, price-adjusted income, or productivity). The West and the South play crucial roles in regional convergence, but at different times.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abramovitz, Moses. Thinking about Growth and other Essays on Economic Growth and Welfare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Barro, Robert J., and Sala-i-Martin, Xavier. Economic Growth. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1995.Google Scholar
Bellante, Don. “The North-South Differential and the Migration of Heterogeneous Labor.American Economic Review 69, no. 1 (1979): 166–75.Google Scholar
Brackett, Jean C.New BLS Budgets Provide Yardsticks for Measuring Family Living Costs.” Monthly Labor Review 92, no. 4 (1969): 316.Google Scholar
Coehlo, Philip R. P., and F. Shepherd, James. “Differences in Regional Prices: the United States, 1851–1880.” this JOURNAL 34, no. 3 (1974): 551–91.Google Scholar
Coehlo, . “Regional Differences in Real Wages: The United States, 1851–1880”. Exploradons in Economic History 13, no. 2 (1976): 203–30.Google Scholar
Coehlo, . “The Impact of Regional Differences in Prices and Wages on Economic Growth: The United States in 1890.” this JOURNAL 39, no. 1 (1979): 6985.Google Scholar
Davis, Lance E.The Investment Market, 1870–1914: The Evolution of a National Market.” this JOURNAL 25, no. 3 (1965): 355–99.Google Scholar
De, Long, Bradford, J.. “Productivity Growth, Convergence, and Welfare: Comment.” American Economic Review 78, no. 5 (1988): 1138–54.Google Scholar
Richard B., DuBoff “The Telegraph and the Structure of Markets in the United States, 1845–1890.” In Research in Economic History 8, edited by Paul, Uselding, 253–77. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1982.Google Scholar
Richard A., Easterlin “State Income Estimates.” In Population Redistribution and Economic Growth: United States, 1870–1950, Vol. 1, edited by Lee, Everett S., Miller, Ann Ratner, Carol, Brainerd, et al. , 702–59. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1957.Google Scholar
Richard A., Easterlin “Interregional Differences in Per Capita Income, Population, and Total Income, 1840–1950.” In Trends in the American Economy in the Nineteenth Century, Studies in Income and Wealth Vol. 24, edited by William, Parker, 73140. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1960.Google Scholar
Richard A., Easterlin “Regional Growth in Income: Long Term Tendencies.” In Population Redistribution and Economic Growth: United States, 1870–1950, Vol. 2, edited by Simon, Kuznets, Miller, Ann Rather, and Easterlin, Richard A., 140203. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1960.Google Scholar
Richard A., Easterlin “Regional Income Trends, 1840–1950.” In American Economic History, edited by Harris, Seymour E., 525–47. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1961.Google Scholar
Engel, Charles, and H. Rogers, John. “How Wide is the Border?American Economic Review 86, no. 5 (1996): 1112–25.Google Scholar
Fogel, Robert W.Railroads and American Economic Growth. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1964.Google Scholar
Goldin, Claudia. Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Goldin, Claudia, and A. Margo, Robert. “The Great Compression: The Wage Structure in United States at Mid-Centuiy.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 197, no. 1 (1992): 134.Google Scholar
Groom, Phylis. “A New City Worker's Family Budget.” Monthly Labor Review 90, no. 11 (1967): 18.Google Scholar
Haines, Michael R.A State and Local Consumer Price Index for the United States 1890.” Historical Methods 22, no. 3 (1989): 97105.Google Scholar
Hanna, Frank A.State Income Differentials 1919–1954. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1959.Google Scholar
Heim, Carol E., and J. Morzuch, Bernard. “Convergence and Divergence of Per Capita Incomes Across U.S. States, 1930–1990.” Working Paper 1998–1, Department Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 01 1998.Google Scholar
Kim, Sukkoo. “Economic Integration and Convergence: U.S. Regions, 1840–1987.” this JOURNAL. 58, no. 3 (1998): 659–83.Google Scholar
Margo, Robert A. “Wages in California during the Gold Rush.” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper on Historical Factors in Long Run Growth No. 101, Cambridge MA, 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLean, Ian W. “No Flash in the Pan: Resource Abundance and Economic Growth in California 1848–1910.” Center for International Economic Studies Seminar Paper 93- 09, University of Adelaide, 12 1993.Google Scholar
Ann Ratner, Miller, and P. Brainerd, Carol. “Labor Force Estimates.” In Population Redistribution and Economic Growth: United States, 1870–1950, Vol. 1, edited by Lee, Everett S., Miller, Ann Rather, Carol, Brainerd, et al. , 362633. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1957Google Scholar
Mitchener, Kris James, and W. McLean, Ian. “The Productivity of U.S. States.” Mimeo, Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley, 05 1999Google Scholar
Paul, Rodman W.Mining Frontiers of the Far West 1848–1880. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963.Google Scholar
Paul, Rodman W.The Far West and the Great Plains in Transition 1859–1900. New York: Harper & Row, 1988.Google Scholar
Perloff, Harvey S., S. Dunn, Edgar Jr, and E. Lampard, Eric. Regions, Resources, and Economic Growth. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1960.Google Scholar
Persson, Joakim. “Convergence Across the Swedish Counties, 1911–1993.” European Economic Review. 4, no. 9 (1997): 1835–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ransom, Roger L., and Sutch, Richard. One Kind of Freedom: The Economic Consequences of Emancipation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Roberts, Charles A.Interregional Per Capita Income Diffeentials and Convergence: 1880–1950.” this JOURNAL 39, no. 1 (1979): 101–12.Google Scholar
Rosenbloom, Joshua L.One Market or Many? Labor Market Integration in the Late Nineteenth-Century United States.” this JOURNAL 50, no. 1 (1990): 85107.Google Scholar
Rosenbloom, Joshua L.Was there a National Labor Market at the End of the Nineteenth Century? New Evidence on Earnings in Manufacturing.” this JOURNAL 56, no. 3 (1996): 626–56.Google Scholar
Slaughter, Matthew J. “The Antebellum Transportation Revolution and Factor-Price Convergence.” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 5303, Cambridge, MA, 1995.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Census of the Population. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce, various years.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Statistical Abstract of the United States. Washington, DC: GPO, various years.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970. Washington, DC: GPO, 1975.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis. “Comprehensive Revision of State Personal Income, 1969–1995.” Survey of Current Business 76, 10 (1996): 62.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. State Personal Income: 1929–93. Washington, DC: GPO, 1995.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Retail Prices: 1907 to December 1914.” Bulletin. 156, Washington, DC, Department of Labor, 1915.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Family Budget of a City Worker, October 1950.” Monthly Labor Review 69, no. 2 (1951): 152–55.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. “Family Bud gets.” Monthly Labor Review 104, no. 8 (1981): 5658.Google Scholar
Williamson, Jeffiey G.Regional Inequality and the Process of National Development: A Description of the Patterns.” Economic Development and Cultural Change 13, no. 4, part 2 (1965): 384.Google Scholar
Williamson, Jeffiey G.Growth, Distribution, and Demography: Some Lessons from History.” Explorations in Economic History 35, no. 3 (1998): 241–71.Google Scholar
Williamson, Jeffiey G., and H. Lindert, Peter. American Inequality: A Macroeconomic History. New York: Academic Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Wright, Gavin. Old South, New South: Revolutions in the Southern Economy Since the Civil War. New York: Basic Books, 1986.Google Scholar