Suchergebnisse

ABSTRACTThe study documents fluctuations of proto-industrial income, of occupation, debt and presence on land markets across the life course for rural households in a major proto-industrial region during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These fluctuations are interpreted on the basis that a major objective of households is to equalize their income across different stages of their development. The permanent income hypothesis is then extended to take into account land purchases and debt-contracting that result from the need to adjust land and capital to fluctuations in the size of the family labour force across the family cycle and from endeavours to improve the family's welfare by increasing the labour to land ratio. The empirical material presented shows marked fluctuations of income from proto-industrial work across the life course and suggests the existence of permanent income-cum-accumulation strategies to cope with these fluctuations.

The permanent income/life cycle hypothesis is tested using Australian data for periods covering the regulated and deregulated financial systems. The hypothesis is rejected for the entire sample period. Further investigation reveals that the rejection is confined to the period in which the financial system was regulated. The evidence points to liquidity constraints as being the cause of this rejection although the existence of myopic consumers may also be a possibility.