Human Capital Formation During the First Industrial Revolution: Evidence from the use of Steam Engines

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: de Pleijt, Alexandra; Nuvolari, Alessandro; Weisdorf, Jacob
• 署名单位: University of Oxford; Utrecht University; Queens University Belfast; Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna; University of Southern Denmark
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1542-4766
• DOI: 10.1093/jeea/jvz006
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 829-889
• 关键词: britain; GROWTH; apprenticeship; TECHNOLOGY; INEQUALITY; fertility; literacy; england; size

摘要

We examine the effect of technical change on human capital formation during England's Industrial Revolution. Using the number of steam engines installed by 1800 as a synthetic indicator of technological change and occupational statistics to measure working skills (using HISCLASS), we establish a positive correlation between the use of steam engines and the share of skilled workers at the county level. We use exogenous variation in carboniferous rock strata (containing coal to fuel the engines) to show that the effect was causal. While technological change stimulated the formation of working skills, it had an overall negative effect on the formation of primary education, captured by literacy and school enrolment rates. It also led to higher gender inequality in literacy.