Who Benefited from Industrialization? The Local Effects of Hydropower Technology Adoption in Norway

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Statistics Norway; Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet)
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050719000743
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 207-245
• 关键词: rural electrification; UNITED-STATES; job polarization; technical change; INEQUALITY; mobility; britain

摘要

This paper studies the impact of the construction of hydropower facilities on labor market outcomes in Norway at the turn of the twentieth century (1891-1920). The sudden breakthrough in hydropower technology provides a quasi-experimental setting, as not all municipalities had suitable natural endowments and the possible production sites were often located in remote areas. We find that hydropower municipalities experienced faster structural transformation and displayed higher occupational mobility. We interpret this as evidence that this early twentieth-century technology was skill biased, as workers in the new skilled jobs were recruited from a broad segment of the population.