WERE PEASANTS IN SERBIA LAZY IN THE 19TH CENTURY?
WERE PEASANTS IN SERBIA LAZY IN THE 19TH CENTURY?

Summary/Abstract: Before the First World War, Serbia was a poor country. Many believed that the main cause of this was the laziness of the peasants and their ancient way of tilling the land. Numerous church holidays, inclination towards taverns and vices there, sheer laziness, etc. were mentioned. However, we have replaced the discussion of laziness with a theory of labor supply as a choice between work and leisure, even with a backward-bending supply curve. It turned out that Serbia perfectly fits the behavior of European peasants in pre-industrial times: peasants work only enough to ensure the existence of the household, and then opt for leisure. Branko Milanović and I analyzed the level of living standard in Serbia in the period 1862–1910 for The Economic History Review and chose 200 working days per year, based on a survey of the agricultural population.

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