http://hdl.handle.net/2451/42230 Thu, 02 Jul 2026 12:18:57 GMT 2026-07-02T12:18:57Z http://hdl.handle.net/2451/75852 Title: The institutional determinants of Southern secession Authors: Chacon, Mario; Jensen, Jeffrey Abstract: We use the Southern secession movement of 1860-1861 to study how elites in democracy enact their preferred policies. Most states used specially convened conventions to determine whether or not to secede from the Union. We argue that although the delegates of these conventions were popularly elected, the electoral rules favored slaveholders. Using an original dataset of representation in each convention, we first demonstrate that slave-intensive districts were systematically overrepresented. Slaveholders were also spatially concentrated and could thereby obtain local pluralities in favor of secession more easily. As a result of these electoral biases, less than 10% of the electorate was sufficient to elect a majority of delegates in four of the six original Confederate states. We also show how delegates representing slave-intensive counties were more likely to support secession. These factors explain the disproportionate influence of slaveholders during the crisis and why secessionists strategically chose conventions over statewide referenda. Wed, 01 Mar 2017 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2451/75852 2017-03-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2451/75851 Title: Class structure and inequality during the Industrial Revolution: Lessons from England’s social tables, 1688-1867 Authors: Allen, Robert C. Abstract: This paper measures the size and incomes of six major social classes across the Industrial Revolution using social tables for England and Wales in 1688, 1759, 1798, 1846, and 1867. Lindert and Williamson famously revised these tables, and this paper extends their work in three directions: First, servants are removed from middle and upper class households in the tables of King, Massie, and Colquhoun and tallied separately. Second, estimates are made for the same tables of the number and incomes of women and children employed in the various occupations, and, third, incomes are broken down into rents, profits, and employment income. These extensions to the tables allow variables to be computed that can be checked against independent estimates as a validation exercise. The tables are retabulated in a standardized set of six social groups to highlight the changing structure of society across the industrial revolution. Gini coefficients are computed from the social tables to measure inequality. These measures confirm that Britain traversed a ‘Kuznets curve’ in this period. Changes in overall inequality are related to the changing fortunes of the major social classes. Description: The version of record for this article can be found at: Allen, R. C. (2019). Class structure and inequality during the industrial revolution: Lessons from England's social tables, 1688–1867. The Economic History Review, 72, 88-125. https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.12661 Mon, 01 May 2017 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2451/75851 2017-05-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2451/75850 Title: Russian real wages before and after 1917: In global perspective Authors: Allen, Robert C.; Khaustova, Ekaterina Mon, 01 May 2017 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2451/75850 2017-05-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2451/75849 Title: The hand-loom weaver and the power loom: A Schumpeterian perspective Authors: Allen, Robert C. Abstract: Schumpeter’s ‘perennial gale of creative destruction’ blew strongly through Britain during the Industrial Revolution, as the factory mode of production displaced the cottage mode in many industries. A famous example is the shift from hand loom weaving to the use of power looms in mills. As the use of power looms expanded, the price of cloth fell, and the ‘golden age of the hand loom weaver’ gave way to poverty and unemployment. This paper argues that the fates of the hand and machine processes were even more closely interwoven. With the expansion of factory spinning in the 1780s, the demand for hand loom weavers soared in order to process the newly available cheap yarn. The rise in demand raised the earnings of hand loom weavers, thereby, creating the ‘golden age’. The high earnings also increased the profitability of developing the power loom by raising the value of the labour that it saved. This meant that less efficient–hence, cheaper to develop--power looms could be brought into commercial use than would have been the case had the golden age not occurred. The counterfactual possibilities are explored with a model of the costs of weaving by hand and by power. The cottage mode of production was an efficient system of producing cloth, but it self-destructed as its expansion after 1780 raised the demand for sector-specific skills, thus providing the incentive for inventors to develop a power technology to replace it. The power loom, in turn, devalued the old skills, so poverty accompanied progress. Description: The version of record for this article can be found at: Allen, R. C. (2018). The hand-loom weaver and the power loom: A Schumpeterian perspective. European Review of Economic History, 22(4), 381–402. https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/hex030 Mon, 01 May 2017 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2451/75849 2017-05-01T00:00:00Z