Did industrialisation improve standards of living in interwar industrial Spain? We seek to contrast this empirically with high frequency data from 1914 until 1936 for the Bilbao area, an emerging industrial centre. Contrary to existing historiography suggesting that overall standards of living improved, we find that welfare ratios remained at the same level and, at times, fluctuated significantly below sustenance levels. Demographic and socioeconomic variables were highly responsive to short-term real wage shocks driven by food price increases and the delay in nominal wage increases. Interwar industrialisation provided improvements, but did not provide protection from recurring deprivations and these may have constituted an important part of future political and socioeconomic polarisation and violence.

This paper aims to analyze the changes in the standard of living of workers in the popular sectors of Mendoza during the “great expansion” of the Argentine economy. A series of real wages of the construction pawn in public works is calculated for 1895–1914, in order to compare it with series of real wages of low and medium public employee grades (low-level policeman, porter and clerk) and vineyard employees, which were previously estimated. In this way, we try to know if the dynamism of viticulture and public investment improved their living conditions. In addition, it seeks to compare these results with the cost of a basic basket of goods and services and calculate family income for some construction laborers identified in the National Population Census of 1895, in order to know if they insured family subsistence.

Using data from two national surveys (ENSA, 2000; ENSANUT, 2006) we assess the evolution of biological standards of living of the Mexican population born during the second half of the 20th century. Our results show that there was an improvement in living standards reflected in an increase in stature, but this amelioration was limited. We observe differences across socio-economic strata, across educational levels, and between men and women. Persistent structural inequality has been byproduct of a system of security and social protection that was limited, segmented and hampered the potentially positive effects of social-welfare policies. We corroborate the relatively modest improvement in heights by comparing outcomes in Mexico with other Latin American countries.

In this article I present new calculations for the evolution of prices and standards of living in Seville from 1521 to 1603. Using new data on prices and new research on changes in nutrition and consumption, I improve the consumer price index. Two major improvements can be highlighted: the inclusion of rented housing prices and the use of three baskets of goods, according to the transformations identified in the consumption patterns. As a result of these improvements, the new data show that prices increase more (336%) than previously estimated by Hamilton (155%) and when using the Allen method (234%). Consequently, real wages decrease more with the new index (32%).

This article presents and analyses wholesale price series of Santa Fe (Argentina), an essential core of colonial commercial circuits, during the period 1700-1810. Mainly from monastic sources, the presented series include 14 products from local and regional origin. Production data has also been deflated using these indexes and purchasing power of wages has been measured. This allows studying inflation, deflation and standards of living and their relation to economic growth. Growth, even prior to trade liberalization of 1778, was matched by deflation so it may suggest improvements in mercantile circuits. This new evidence provides a solid tool for regional and international comparative analysis.

This study builds the first internationally comparable index of real wages for Mexico City bridging the 18th and the early 20th century. Real wages started out in relatively high international levels in the mid 18th century, but declined from the late 1770s on, with some partial and temporal rebounds after the 1810s. After the 1860s, real wages recovered and eventually reached 18th-century levels in the early 20th century. Real wages of Mexico City’s workers subsequently fell behind those of high-wage economies to converge with the lower fringes of middle-wage economies. The age of the global Great Divergence was Mexico’s own age of stagnation and decline relative to the world economy.