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Leandro Prados de la Escosura

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Social Sciences, Faculty Member

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Leandro Prados-de-la-Escosura is Emeritus Professor at Universidad Carlos III, Madrid and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research. He holds a D. Phil. (Oxford) and a Ph.D. Economics (Complutense, Madrid). He has taught at Georgetown University (Prince of Asturias Professor) and University of California, San Diego. He has been Honorary Maddison Chair (Groningen), Leverhulme Professorial Fellow (LSE), Visiting Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford, and Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute (Florence).

He has served as President of the European Historical Economics Society (EHES) (2001-2003), and at the Executive Committee of the International Economic History Association (2006-2012). He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Economic Surveys and Cliometrica, and has been chief editor of Revista de Historia Económica (1990-1994). He belongs to the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Review of Economic History, Explorations in Economic History, and the Scandinavian Economic History Review.

He has published and edited monographs on long-run growth and distribution in Spain, Latin America since its independence, the costs and benefits of European imperialism, British exceptionalism at the time of the Industrial Revolution, and the sources of long run growth. He is the author of Spanish Economic Growth, 1850-2015 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) and Human Development and the Path to Freedom (Cambridge University Press, 2022). His current research interests are economic freedom and well-being in historical perspective and Spain’s economic development in the very long run.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leandro_Prados_de_la_Escosura
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2362-4305

e-mail: leandro.prados.delaescosura@uc3m.es
Address: Department of Social Sciences
Universidad Carlos III
28903 Getafe (Madrid), Spain

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Papers by Leandro Prados de la Escosura

La política monetaria y el sistema financiero: una investigación del Banco de España sobre la Restauración (1874-1974)

Trade and Empire, 1700-1870

Subjective well-being and inequality in Spain’s decline

Cliometrica, May 24, 2024

The economic decline of Early Modern Spain offers an opportunity to explore how it affected perce... more The economic decline of Early Modern Spain offers an opportunity to explore how it affected perceptions of welfare and inequality. We provide an answer based on the Bull of the Crusade, an inexpensive alms collected by the Hispanic Monarchy and massively purchased by a highly religious population that believed in its spiritual benefits. The purchase of the bull represented a public practice of religion that captured people's religiosity and belief in the afterlife and had a positive impact on their spiritual well-being. We find that our measure of spiritual well-being-the ratio of (normalized) bulls sold to their recipients (the population aged 12 and above)-deteriorated in the late 1570s and 1580s and the 1640s but improved during the 1670s, while subjective inequality-the ratio between the number of bulls sold to those who deemed themselves affluent and those sold to common individuals-increased from 1600-1640 and fell in the 1580s and early 1590s and the 1670s. Hence, improving (deteriorating) subjective well-being was accompanied by declining (improving) subjective inequality through the seventeenth century.

Trade and Empire, 1700-1870

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Jul 1, 2008

This paper surveys the rise and fall of the European mercantilist system, and the transition to t... more This paper surveys the rise and fall of the European mercantilist system, and the transition to the modern, well-integrated international economy of the 19th century. It also surveys the literature on the links between trade and economic growth during the period, and on the economic effects of empire.

Capital in Spain, 1850-2019

Social Science Research Network, Oct 1, 2020

The rising trend in the capital-output ratio and the productivity slowdown have put capital back ... more The rising trend in the capital-output ratio and the productivity slowdown have put capital back in the economist's agenda. This paper contributes to the debate by providing new estimates of net capital stock and services for Spain over the last 170 years. The net capital (wealth) stock-GDP ratio rose over time and doubled in the last half-a-century. Capital services grew fast over the long-run accelerating in the 1920s and from the mid-1950s to 2007. Until 1975 its acceleration was helped by an increase in the 'quality' of capital. Capital deepening proceeded steadily, accelerating during 1955-1985, and slowing down thereafter for expanding sectors attracted less investment-specific technological progress. Although capital consumption rose over time, the rate of depreciation fell from 1970 to 2007 as new capital goods' relative prices declined due to embodied technological change.

Assessing negative freedom: economic liberty in the long run

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2014

"This paper presents historical indices for the main dimensions of economic freedom and an a... more "This paper presents historical indices for the main dimensions of economic freedom and an aggregate index for nowadays developed countries -(pre-1994) OECD, for short-. Economic liberty expanded over the last one-and-a-half centuries, reaching two thirds of its maximum possible. Its evolution has been, however, far from linear. After a substantial improvement since mid-nineteenth century, World War I brought a major setback. The post-war recovery up to 1929 was followed by a dramatic decline in the 1930s and significant progress took place during the Golden Age but fell short from the pre-World War I peak. A steady expansion since the early 1980s has resulted in the highest levels of economic liberty of the last two centuries. Each main dimension of economic freedom exhibited a distinctive trend and its contribution to the aggregate index varied over time. Nonetheless, improved property rights provided the main contribution to the long-run advancement of economic liberty."

El progreso económico de España: 1850-2000

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Sep 1, 2003

Falling behind: explaining the development gap between Latin America and the United States

The Economic History Review, Aug 1, 2009

The plea by historical economists appears to have worked for political scientists, who in this vo... more The plea by historical economists appears to have worked for political scientists, who in this volume deal with a topic that has long captured the imagination of scholars: when and why has Latin America fallen behind Anglo-America? This volume comprises eight papers with a brief introduction and a concluding chapter by the editor, plus a preface. In part I, 'The historical context', Tulio Halperín Donghi and Enrique Krauze provide an intellectual and cultural background to the Latin American-US 'development gap', while Jorge Dominguez offers a political economy assessment of Latin America since 1950. Part II, 'The politics of underdevelopment', presents an excellent paper by Adam Przeworski and Carolina Curvale, perhaps the volume's most interesting one for the economic historian. They make too much, however, of the consequences of delaying independence and turmoil. If they account for two-thirds of the per capita income gap between Cuba and the US in 2000, what would be left, then, for the disastrous performance under communist rule over the last half a century? Then, Riordan Roett and Francisco Gonzalez address the high-stakes politics in Latin America as opposed to pacts and compromise in the US. In part III, 'Institutional factors in Latin America's development', James Robinson exposes his 'reversal of fortune' hypothesis and makes an unpersuasive attempt at explaining the persistence of poor institutions over time. A thorough exploration of the formal and informal institutions underlying the gap by Francis Fukuyama and Natalio Botana's comparative essay on 'fiscal citizenship' close the volume.

Health, income, and the preston curve: A long view

Economics and Human Biology, 2023

A Expansão Dos Impérios Europeus: Valeu a Pena?

Revista de Economia, 1999

Este artigo é uma revisão do crescente volume de publicações sobre os custos e benefícios, para a... more Este artigo é uma revisão do crescente volume de publicações sobre os custos e benefícios, para as economias européias, de cinco séculos de envolvimento com impérios ultramarinos. Para isso, é dada atenção à tradição do debate político e ao discurso histórico relativos às ‘despesas’ e ‘retornos’ do imperialismo formal. Este artigo se concentra nos custos e benefícios dos impérios para o crescimento de longo prazo de algumas economias européias durante o período de 1815-1914. Também são analisados os períodos subseqüentes de reintegração e descolonização, inaugurada pelas duas guerras mundiais no século XX. This paper surveys a growing volume of publications with a view to assessing the costs and benefits of five centuries of European involvement with empires overseas. Therefore, attention is paid to the tradition of political debate and to the historical discourse regarding ‘outlays’ and ‘returns’ flowing from formal imperialism. The paper focuses on the costs and benefits of empire...

Wellbeing inequality in retrospect

Rising trends in GDP per capita are often interpreted as reflecting rising levels of general well... more Rising trends in GDP per capita are often interpreted as reflecting rising levels of general wellbeing. But GDP per capita is at best a crude proxy for wellbeing, neglecting important qualitative dimensions. This column explores the long-term trends in global wellbeing inequality using a new dataset. Inequality indices reflecting various aspects of wellbeing are shown to have been declining since WWI, unlike real GDP per capita inequality. Leandro de la Escosura (Universidad Carlos III) writes on his recent paper for the

Population, 1850–2015

Spain's Statistical Office (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE) provides yearly series of 're... more Spain's Statistical Office (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE) provides yearly series of 'resident' population from 1971. INE also presents annual series of 'de facto' population for 1900-1991, in which figures for census benchmark years are linearly interpolated. Roser Nicolau (2005) collected and completed the series back to 1858. More recently, Jordi Maluquer de Motes (2008) has constructed yearly estimates of 'de facto' population for 1850-1991 and spliced them with 'resident' population for 2001. In order to do so, Maluquer de Motes started from census figures at the beginning of each census year adding up annually the natural increase in population (that is, births less deaths) plus net migration (namely immigrants less emigrants). I have followed Maluquer de Motes's approach with some modifications. Thus, I have accepted census benchmark years' figures and Gustav Sündbarg (1908) estimate for 1850 and obtained the natural increase in population with Nicolau (2005) figures for births and deaths from 1858 onwards, completed for 1850-1857 with Sündbarg (1908) net estimates at decadal averages equally distributed. 1 My main departure from Maluquer de Motes approach has been with regards to net migration

La economía de Hispanoamérica en el medio siglo tras la independencia: una reevaluación

GDP, Income Distribution, and Welfare

But how did GDP per head gains affect economic well-being? Within the existing national accounts ... more But how did GDP per head gains affect economic well-being? Within the existing national accounts framework, Sitglitz et al. (2009: 23-25) recommend to look at net rather than gross measures, in order to take into account the depreciation of capital goods. Net National Disposable Income (NNDI) measures income accruing to Spanish nationals, rather than production in Spain, and also accounts for capital consumption. NNDI provides, therefore, a more accurate measure of the impact of economic growth on average incomes than GDP. In Fig. 5.1, a long-term decline in the NNDI share of GDP is observed. The reason is that as the stock of capital gets larger and its composition shifts from assets with long lives but low returns (i.e. residential construction) to shorter life assets but with higher returns (i.e. machinery), capital consumption increases. The integration of Spain into the global economy since the last quarter of the twentieth century accentuated this process. Nonetheless, it can be noticed that per capita NNDI grows in parallel with GDP per head, although at a slower pace from 1960 onwards, that resulted in its 13-fold increase over 1850-2015, against 16-fold for per capita GDP (Fig. 5.2 and Table 5.1).

War, pandemics, and modern economic growth in Europe

Explorations in Economic History, Oct 1, 2022

Trade and empire

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Oct 4, 2010

This paper surveys the rise and fall of the European mercantilist system, and the transition to t... more This paper surveys the rise and fall of the European mercantilist system, and the transition to the modern, well-integrated international economy of the 19th century. It also surveys the literature on the links between trade and economic growth during the period, and on the economic effects of empire.

La Independencia americana : consecuencias económicas

Alianza Editorial eBooks, 1993

ABSTRACT

Desigualdad y libertad económica: ¿existe un dilema?

Información comercial española, Nov 14, 2019

desigualdad había aumentado durante tres décadas en los países desarrollados. Simultáneamente, la... more desigualdad había aumentado durante tres décadas en los países desarrollados. Simultáneamente, la libertad económica era más elevada que en cualquier época anterior. ¿Existe un dilema entre preservar la libertad de los individuos y reducir la desigualdad? No se comprueba, sin embargo, una asociación a largo plazo entre libertad económica y desigualdad en los actuales países avanzados. Se advierte, no obstante, una correlación entre libertad económica y concentración del ingreso en períodos específicos y en países anglosajones. Inequality and economic freedom: is there a dilemma? By the eve of the Great Recession income inequality had increased for nearly three decades in developed countries. Simultaneously, economic liberty was higher than at any previous time. Does society face a dilemma between preserving individuals' freedom and reducing inequality? In this essay no clear long-run association is found between economic freedom and income inequality for present-day advanced countries. However, some correlation between economic freedom and top income concentration exists for specific periods and, particularly, for Anglo-Saxon countries.

Sector agrario y actividades económicas urbanas, siglos XVI-XVIII

810, pp. 73 y 168 (lO-III y 9-VI-1770). ' Si se lo compara con el que reportaban los cereales, la... more 810, pp. 73 y 168 (lO-III y 9-VI-1770). ' Si se lo compara con el que reportaban los cereales, la viña daba al cultivador un alto beneficio. Al disponer de un excedente negociable, el agricultor podía aprovechar los efectos del alza de precios; para Labrousse, el beneficio vinícola representaba la gran categoría del beneficio rural popular. Ernest LABROUSSE, Fluctuaciones económicas e historia social (Madrid, 1962), pp. 35, 37 y ss., y 351 y ss.

Renta y riqueza

La política monetaria y el sistema financiero: una investigación del Banco de España sobre la Restauración (1874-1974)

Trade and Empire, 1700-1870

Subjective well-being and inequality in Spain’s decline

Cliometrica, May 24, 2024

The economic decline of Early Modern Spain offers an opportunity to explore how it affected perce... more The economic decline of Early Modern Spain offers an opportunity to explore how it affected perceptions of welfare and inequality. We provide an answer based on the Bull of the Crusade, an inexpensive alms collected by the Hispanic Monarchy and massively purchased by a highly religious population that believed in its spiritual benefits. The purchase of the bull represented a public practice of religion that captured people's religiosity and belief in the afterlife and had a positive impact on their spiritual well-being. We find that our measure of spiritual well-being-the ratio of (normalized) bulls sold to their recipients (the population aged 12 and above)-deteriorated in the late 1570s and 1580s and the 1640s but improved during the 1670s, while subjective inequality-the ratio between the number of bulls sold to those who deemed themselves affluent and those sold to common individuals-increased from 1600-1640 and fell in the 1580s and early 1590s and the 1670s. Hence, improving (deteriorating) subjective well-being was accompanied by declining (improving) subjective inequality through the seventeenth century.

Trade and Empire, 1700-1870

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Jul 1, 2008

This paper surveys the rise and fall of the European mercantilist system, and the transition to t... more This paper surveys the rise and fall of the European mercantilist system, and the transition to the modern, well-integrated international economy of the 19th century. It also surveys the literature on the links between trade and economic growth during the period, and on the economic effects of empire.

Capital in Spain, 1850-2019

Social Science Research Network, Oct 1, 2020

The rising trend in the capital-output ratio and the productivity slowdown have put capital back ... more The rising trend in the capital-output ratio and the productivity slowdown have put capital back in the economist's agenda. This paper contributes to the debate by providing new estimates of net capital stock and services for Spain over the last 170 years. The net capital (wealth) stock-GDP ratio rose over time and doubled in the last half-a-century. Capital services grew fast over the long-run accelerating in the 1920s and from the mid-1950s to 2007. Until 1975 its acceleration was helped by an increase in the 'quality' of capital. Capital deepening proceeded steadily, accelerating during 1955-1985, and slowing down thereafter for expanding sectors attracted less investment-specific technological progress. Although capital consumption rose over time, the rate of depreciation fell from 1970 to 2007 as new capital goods' relative prices declined due to embodied technological change.

Assessing negative freedom: economic liberty in the long run

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2014

"This paper presents historical indices for the main dimensions of economic freedom and an a... more "This paper presents historical indices for the main dimensions of economic freedom and an aggregate index for nowadays developed countries -(pre-1994) OECD, for short-. Economic liberty expanded over the last one-and-a-half centuries, reaching two thirds of its maximum possible. Its evolution has been, however, far from linear. After a substantial improvement since mid-nineteenth century, World War I brought a major setback. The post-war recovery up to 1929 was followed by a dramatic decline in the 1930s and significant progress took place during the Golden Age but fell short from the pre-World War I peak. A steady expansion since the early 1980s has resulted in the highest levels of economic liberty of the last two centuries. Each main dimension of economic freedom exhibited a distinctive trend and its contribution to the aggregate index varied over time. Nonetheless, improved property rights provided the main contribution to the long-run advancement of economic liberty."

El progreso económico de España: 1850-2000

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Sep 1, 2003

Falling behind: explaining the development gap between Latin America and the United States

The Economic History Review, Aug 1, 2009

The plea by historical economists appears to have worked for political scientists, who in this vo... more The plea by historical economists appears to have worked for political scientists, who in this volume deal with a topic that has long captured the imagination of scholars: when and why has Latin America fallen behind Anglo-America? This volume comprises eight papers with a brief introduction and a concluding chapter by the editor, plus a preface. In part I, 'The historical context', Tulio Halperín Donghi and Enrique Krauze provide an intellectual and cultural background to the Latin American-US 'development gap', while Jorge Dominguez offers a political economy assessment of Latin America since 1950. Part II, 'The politics of underdevelopment', presents an excellent paper by Adam Przeworski and Carolina Curvale, perhaps the volume's most interesting one for the economic historian. They make too much, however, of the consequences of delaying independence and turmoil. If they account for two-thirds of the per capita income gap between Cuba and the US in 2000, what would be left, then, for the disastrous performance under communist rule over the last half a century? Then, Riordan Roett and Francisco Gonzalez address the high-stakes politics in Latin America as opposed to pacts and compromise in the US. In part III, 'Institutional factors in Latin America's development', James Robinson exposes his 'reversal of fortune' hypothesis and makes an unpersuasive attempt at explaining the persistence of poor institutions over time. A thorough exploration of the formal and informal institutions underlying the gap by Francis Fukuyama and Natalio Botana's comparative essay on 'fiscal citizenship' close the volume.

Health, income, and the preston curve: A long view

Economics and Human Biology, 2023

A Expansão Dos Impérios Europeus: Valeu a Pena?

Revista de Economia, 1999

Este artigo é uma revisão do crescente volume de publicações sobre os custos e benefícios, para a... more Este artigo é uma revisão do crescente volume de publicações sobre os custos e benefícios, para as economias européias, de cinco séculos de envolvimento com impérios ultramarinos. Para isso, é dada atenção à tradição do debate político e ao discurso histórico relativos às ‘despesas’ e ‘retornos’ do imperialismo formal. Este artigo se concentra nos custos e benefícios dos impérios para o crescimento de longo prazo de algumas economias européias durante o período de 1815-1914. Também são analisados os períodos subseqüentes de reintegração e descolonização, inaugurada pelas duas guerras mundiais no século XX. This paper surveys a growing volume of publications with a view to assessing the costs and benefits of five centuries of European involvement with empires overseas. Therefore, attention is paid to the tradition of political debate and to the historical discourse regarding ‘outlays’ and ‘returns’ flowing from formal imperialism. The paper focuses on the costs and benefits of empire...

Wellbeing inequality in retrospect

Rising trends in GDP per capita are often interpreted as reflecting rising levels of general well... more Rising trends in GDP per capita are often interpreted as reflecting rising levels of general wellbeing. But GDP per capita is at best a crude proxy for wellbeing, neglecting important qualitative dimensions. This column explores the long-term trends in global wellbeing inequality using a new dataset. Inequality indices reflecting various aspects of wellbeing are shown to have been declining since WWI, unlike real GDP per capita inequality. Leandro de la Escosura (Universidad Carlos III) writes on his recent paper for the

Population, 1850–2015

Spain's Statistical Office (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE) provides yearly series of 're... more Spain's Statistical Office (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE) provides yearly series of 'resident' population from 1971. INE also presents annual series of 'de facto' population for 1900-1991, in which figures for census benchmark years are linearly interpolated. Roser Nicolau (2005) collected and completed the series back to 1858. More recently, Jordi Maluquer de Motes (2008) has constructed yearly estimates of 'de facto' population for 1850-1991 and spliced them with 'resident' population for 2001. In order to do so, Maluquer de Motes started from census figures at the beginning of each census year adding up annually the natural increase in population (that is, births less deaths) plus net migration (namely immigrants less emigrants). I have followed Maluquer de Motes's approach with some modifications. Thus, I have accepted census benchmark years' figures and Gustav Sündbarg (1908) estimate for 1850 and obtained the natural increase in population with Nicolau (2005) figures for births and deaths from 1858 onwards, completed for 1850-1857 with Sündbarg (1908) net estimates at decadal averages equally distributed. 1 My main departure from Maluquer de Motes approach has been with regards to net migration

La economía de Hispanoamérica en el medio siglo tras la independencia: una reevaluación

GDP, Income Distribution, and Welfare

But how did GDP per head gains affect economic well-being? Within the existing national accounts ... more But how did GDP per head gains affect economic well-being? Within the existing national accounts framework, Sitglitz et al. (2009: 23-25) recommend to look at net rather than gross measures, in order to take into account the depreciation of capital goods. Net National Disposable Income (NNDI) measures income accruing to Spanish nationals, rather than production in Spain, and also accounts for capital consumption. NNDI provides, therefore, a more accurate measure of the impact of economic growth on average incomes than GDP. In Fig. 5.1, a long-term decline in the NNDI share of GDP is observed. The reason is that as the stock of capital gets larger and its composition shifts from assets with long lives but low returns (i.e. residential construction) to shorter life assets but with higher returns (i.e. machinery), capital consumption increases. The integration of Spain into the global economy since the last quarter of the twentieth century accentuated this process. Nonetheless, it can be noticed that per capita NNDI grows in parallel with GDP per head, although at a slower pace from 1960 onwards, that resulted in its 13-fold increase over 1850-2015, against 16-fold for per capita GDP (Fig. 5.2 and Table 5.1).

War, pandemics, and modern economic growth in Europe

Explorations in Economic History, Oct 1, 2022

Trade and empire

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Oct 4, 2010

This paper surveys the rise and fall of the European mercantilist system, and the transition to t... more This paper surveys the rise and fall of the European mercantilist system, and the transition to the modern, well-integrated international economy of the 19th century. It also surveys the literature on the links between trade and economic growth during the period, and on the economic effects of empire.

La Independencia americana : consecuencias económicas

Alianza Editorial eBooks, 1993

ABSTRACT

Desigualdad y libertad económica: ¿existe un dilema?

Información comercial española, Nov 14, 2019

desigualdad había aumentado durante tres décadas en los países desarrollados. Simultáneamente, la... more desigualdad había aumentado durante tres décadas en los países desarrollados. Simultáneamente, la libertad económica era más elevada que en cualquier época anterior. ¿Existe un dilema entre preservar la libertad de los individuos y reducir la desigualdad? No se comprueba, sin embargo, una asociación a largo plazo entre libertad económica y desigualdad en los actuales países avanzados. Se advierte, no obstante, una correlación entre libertad económica y concentración del ingreso en períodos específicos y en países anglosajones. Inequality and economic freedom: is there a dilemma? By the eve of the Great Recession income inequality had increased for nearly three decades in developed countries. Simultaneously, economic liberty was higher than at any previous time. Does society face a dilemma between preserving individuals' freedom and reducing inequality? In this essay no clear long-run association is found between economic freedom and income inequality for present-day advanced countries. However, some correlation between economic freedom and top income concentration exists for specific periods and, particularly, for Anglo-Saxon countries.

Sector agrario y actividades económicas urbanas, siglos XVI-XVIII

810, pp. 73 y 168 (lO-III y 9-VI-1770). ' Si se lo compara con el que reportaban los cereales, la... more 810, pp. 73 y 168 (lO-III y 9-VI-1770). ' Si se lo compara con el que reportaban los cereales, la viña daba al cultivador un alto beneficio. Al disponer de un excedente negociable, el agricultor podía aprovechar los efectos del alza de precios; para Labrousse, el beneficio vinícola representaba la gran categoría del beneficio rural popular. Ernest LABROUSSE, Fluctuaciones económicas e historia social (Madrid, 1962), pp. 35, 37 y ss., y 351 y ss.

Renta y riqueza

Las Independencias hispanoamericanas. Interpretaciones 200 años después. Marco Palacios Coordinador (2009)

by Marco Palacios and Leandro Prados de la Escosura

13 ensayos de reputados especialistas de América Latina, Europa y Estados Unidos

Economic effects of the Black Death: Spain in European perspective

by Carlos Álvarez Nogal and Leandro Prados de la Escosura

Investigaciones de Historia Económica - Economic History Research 16 (2020) 35-48, 2020

The Black Death was the most devastating demographic shock in recorded human history. However, th... more The Black Death was the most devastating demographic shock in recorded human history. However, the effects in the European population were highly asymmetrical as were its economic consequences. This paper surveys the short and long run economic effects of the plague in Spain in European perspective. While the demographic impact in Spain was moderate compared to the European average, the economic effects were more severe and incomes per head fell sharply. This was a consequence of the existence of a frontier economy in Spain charac-terised by a relative scarcity of labour and a fragile equilibrium between factors of production. Unlike most of Europe, in Spain the Black Death increased inequality as the remuneration of labour decreased more rapidly than proprietors' gains. In the long term the Plague reinforced the frontier economy status. © 2020 Asociación Española de Historia Económica JEL classification: I10 N13 N33 O52 Keywords Black Death Frontier economy Malthusian economy Spain Los efectos económicos de la peste negra: España en perspectiva europea R E S U M E N Códigos JEL: I10 N13 N33 O52 Palabras clave: Peste negra Economía de frontera Economía Malthusiana España La peste fue el shock demográfico más devastador registrado en la historia de la humanidad. Sin embargo, los efectos en la población europea y en sus economías fueron asimétricos. Este trabajo estudia los efectos econó-micos de la peste en España en el corto y largo plazo en perspectiva europea. Mientras que el impacto demo-gráfico en España fue moderado comparado con la media europea, los efectos económicos fueron más severos y el ingreso per cápita descendió abruptamente. Esto se debió a la existencia de una economía de frontera en España caracterizada por la escasez de trabajo y un frágil equilibrio entre los factores de producción. Al contra-rio que en la mayoría de Europa, en España la peste incremento la desigualdad al descender la remuneración del trabajo más rápidamente que las ganancias de los propietarios. En el largo plazo la peste reforzó el estatus de economía de frontera.