A peak or a plain? The evolution of the urban real wages in the Argentina’s First Globalization (1898-1913)

Abstract

In this essay, we propose a new estimation of Argentina’s real wages in the second phase of the first globalization (1895-1913). Using new sources of the period, we propose an estimation of the evolution in the price index and the wages of two urban labor categories in the economic structure (unskilled workers and skilled employees) for the Argentine provinces. The results tend to show a general growth in wages along the period. Between 1895 and 1903 this expansive dynamic is related to a big deflation episode after 1897 and the nominal wages recovery after the 1890 crisis. From 1904 to 1913, the wages grew slower, but the general index showed an improvement, related to a process of modernization on the labor structure, that resulted in a considerable skill level improvement among the workers. Provincial datasets show a wide diversity of trends at subnational level, including sharp rises, moderate increase and stagnation along the period. We suggest that this movement of wages is the result of an externality of an endogenous dynamic of the growth of regional economies.