England’s post-Reformation demographic regime has been characterized as 'low pressure'. Yet the evidence hitherto for the presence of a preventive check, defined as the short-run response of marriage and births to variations in living standards, is rather weak. New evidence in this paper strengthens the case for the preventive check in both medieval and early modern England. We invoke manorial data to argue the case for a preventive check on marriages in the middle ages. Our analysis of the post-1540 period, based on parish-level rather than aggregate data, finds evidence for a preventive check on marriages and births.
Type of Material
Working Paper
Publisher
University College Dublin. School of Economics
Start Page
1
End Page
25
Series
UCD Centre for Economic Research Working Paper Series
