Abstract

Socio-economic conditions are widely believed to have improved for those who survived the Great Irish Famine as depopulation realigned Ireland with its narrowing economic prospects. Yet, the scale and sources of this improvement remain uncertain, particularly for the poorest. I construct a new annual measure of absolute poverty spanning forty years and 158 Poor Law Unions, which shows that while poverty declined on average, improvement was uneven and prone to volatility during times of crises. Econometric analysis finds an inconsistent role for depopulation, which weakened through time as Unions became less poor. Instead, broader demographic shifts and agricultural composition emerge as the possible drivers of poverty reduction.

Keywords: poverty, multi-dimensional, agriculture, convergence, demography, economic history of Ireland.