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The first poverty line? Davies and Eden’s investigation of rural poverty in late 18th-century England
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 22:34 authored by Ian Gazeley, Nicola VerdonTwo important and well-known surveys of the household budgets of the English rural labouring poor were produced by David Davies and Frederick Eden in the 1790s. We revisit these from the point of view of their original rationale — an investigation of the characteristics and extent of poverty in the countryside. We argue that Davies' standard of ‘tolerable comfort’ can lay claim to being the first poverty line based upon the application of a minimum consumption standard to household income. We find that the majority of households fall below this standard, although those in the south of England were worst off, that family size was the largest coefficient and poverty reduced as the age of the first child increased. The incidence of poverty was not highly correlated with the absence of a woman wage earner.
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- Published
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- Accepted version
Journal
Explorations in Economic HistoryISSN
0014-4983Publisher
ElsevierExternal DOI
Volume
51Page range
94-108Department affiliated with
- History Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2015-09-18First Open Access (FOA) Date
2015-09-18First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2015-09-18Usage metrics
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