Journal article
Did the Black Death cause economic development by ‘inventing’ fertility restriction?
- Abstract:
- The Black Death is claimed to have caused the European Marriage Pattern in England by raising pastoral wages and thus delaying female marriage. We show that this argument does not hold. There is no consensus that late female marriage emerged in rural England after the Black Death. Women wanting to do pastoral work in medieval England did not have to remain unmarried, so improved pastoral opportunities did not necessitate later marriage. Nor does the quantitative relationship between pastoralism and female marriage age in England provide support for this argument. Fertility restriction was not exogenously triggered by the Black Death.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Accepted manuscript, pdf, 523.4KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1093/oep/gpaa056
Authors
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- Journal:
- Oxford Economic Papers More from this journal
- Volume:
- 74
- Issue:
- 4
- Pages:
- 1228-1246
- Publication date:
- 2021-03-20
- Acceptance date:
- 2020-10-25
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1464-3812
- ISSN:
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0030-7653
- Language:
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English
- Pubs id:
-
2295989
- Local pid:
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pubs:2295989
- Deposit date:
-
2025-10-08
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Oxford University Press
- Copyright date:
- 2022
- Rights statement:
- © Oxford University Press 2021.All rights reserved.
- Notes:
- This is the accepted manuscript version of the article. The final version is available online from Oxford University Press at https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oep/gpaa056
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