I have heard that he did some stuff on the quality of life prior to and during the industrial revolution. Essentially the idea is that the common perception of the industrial revolution as a time of worker exploitation and poor life quality is a myth and that in actuality it was a time of improved life quality and a growing middle class.
Well, I don't know of Hayek's actual writings on the subject, but I think he did write the Introduction to Capitalism and the Historians. You can buy the book online, and parts of it are in links on the website.
Read the article and check the sources.
"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows"
Bob Dylan
you could probably use population growth figures to get at what you're looking for. I.e., the mere fact that the population in industrializing nations exploded during the Industrial Revolution is evidence of its success at raising a middle class, lifting people from poverty, etc. To the extent that the IR might've caused some "exploitation," the fact of the matter is that without the IR, the exploited, as a "class" of people, would not have existed.
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David Z
"The issue is always the same, the government or the market. There is no third solution."