Regional GDP in the UK, 1861–1911: new estimates

This article compares the Geary–Stark method for distributing known GDP totals across regions with a variation suggested by Crafts. Tests of the Geary–Stark method confirm that it generates accurate estimates of regional GDP. There are practical and conceptual problems with Crafts' extension, and it is not tested nor is it testable. New estimates of regional GDP for the period 1861 to 1911 contradict Crafts's suggestion of rising regional inequality. Purchasing power parity adjustments do not alter this trend. The new estimates confirm Ireland's post‐Famine catch‐up. The great bulk of Irish labour productivity growth can be accounted for by an upward shifting production function, though it can be argued that that portion of growth that represents catch‐up may be attributable to labour force decline.     

Numeracy of Africans,Asians, and Europeans during the early modern period: new evidence from Cape Colony court registers

The lack of accurate measures of human capital formation often constrains investigations into the long‐run determinants of growth and comparative economic development, especially in the developing world. Using the reported ages of criminals in the Court of Justice records in the Cape Archives, this article documents for the first time numeracy levels and trends for inhabitants of the Cape Colony born between the late seventeenth and early nineteenth century: the native Khoesan, European settlers, and imported slaves from other African regions and Asia. This variety of origins allows us to compare contemporaneous levels of early modern development across three continents. By isolating those slaves born at the Cape, we also provide a glimpse into the dynamics of human capital transfer in a colonial setting. The Colony's relatively high level of human capital overall had implications for what was later to be the richest country on African soil, but the very unequal attainment of numeracy also foreshadowed extreme income inequality.     

Gender,ethnicity, and unequal opportunity in colonial Uganda: European influences,African realities,and the pitfalls of parish register data

The renaissance of African economic history in the past decade has opened up new research avenues for studying the long‐term social and economic development of Africa. A sensitive treatment of African realities in the evaluation of European colonial legacies and a critical stance towards the use of new sources and approaches is crucial. In this article, we engage with a recent article by Meier zu Selhausen and Weisdorf to show how selection biases in, and Eurocentric interpretations of, parish registers have provoked an overly optimistic account of European influences on the educational and occupational opportunities of African men and women. We confront their dataset, drawn from the marriage registers of the Anglican Cathedral in Kampala, with Uganda's 1991 census, and show that trends in the literacy and numeracy of men and women born in Kampala lagged half a century behind those who wedded in Namirembe Cathedral. We run a regression analysis showing that access to schooling during the colonial era was unequal along lines of gender and ethnicity. We foreground the role of Africans in the spread of education, and we argue that European influences were not just diffusive but also divisive, and that gender inequality was reconfigured rather than eliminated under colonial rule.     

Human capital and the pre-Famine Irish emigration to England

This paper analyzes the human capital resources of pre-Famine Irish emigrants to England. The data source comprises over 16,000 Irish and English convicts transported to New South Wales between 1817 and 1839. The convict indents distinguish between those convicts transported directly from Ireland (the stayers) and those Irish-born transportees convicted and sent from England (the emigrants). A comparison of the skill, literacy, and age characteristics of the stayers and emigrants suggests that Ireland lost skilled workers in the pre-Famine period. A logit micromigration model confirms the “brain-drain” hypothesis for Irish workers emigrating to Britain. Finally, the human capital of the Irish emigrants is found to compare favorably with that of the native English workers transported to Australia.     

Machine tools and mass production in the armaments boom: Germany and the United States, 1929–44

This article anatomizes the ‘productivity race’ between Nazi Germany and the US over the period from the Great Depression to the Second World War in the metalworking industry. We present novel data that allow us to account for both the quantity of installed machine tools and their technological type. Hitherto, comparison of productive technologies has been limited to case studies and well‐worn narratives about US mass production and European‐style flexible specialization. Our data show that the two countries in fact employed similar types of machines combined in different ratios. Furthermore, neither country was locked in a rigid technological paradigm. By 1945 Germany had converged on the US both in terms of capital‐intensity and the specific technologies employed. Capital investment made a greater contribution to output growth in Germany, whereas US growth was capital‐saving. Total factor productivity growth made a substantial contribution to the armaments boom in both countries. But it was US industry, spared the war's most disruptive effects, that was in a position to take fullest advantage of the opportunities for wartime productivity growth. This adds a new element to familiar explanations for Germany's rapid catch‐up after 1945.     

Age heaping and numeracy: looking behind the curtain

Age‐heaping‐based numeracy indicators have served as valuable tools to derive basic human capital estimates, especially for periods where other indicators are unavailable. However, the accuracy of individual age statements usually remains unknown, and due to the lack of precise information it can only be assumed that excessive occurrence of multiples of five in age distributions reflects inferior numerical skills. This article addresses this lacuna by identifying 162 individuals in two independent data sources: self‐reported age statements and independently kept records which are based on family heritage books and church registers. This method makes it possible to identify individual misreporting and the degree of accuracy of each individual. Findings show that not everyone who reported a multiple of five was reporting an incorrect age, nor was it the case that everyone who reported an age that was not a multiple of five was reporting an accurate age. The empirical analysis shows that the commonly used binary numeracy indicator is correlated with the observed degree of accuracy in age statements, and that a more sophisticated occupational background reduces this inaccuracy. These results tentatively suggest that the commonly used binary indicator measuring age heaping is a valuable proxy for numerical skills and occupational background in a population.     

Convergence and divergence of numeracy: the development of age heaping in Latin America from the seventeenth to the twentieth century1

This study makes the first systematic attempt to trace the long‐term development of Latin American numeracy, a phenomenon of great interest to economic historians in that it serves as an accurate gauge of human capital development. In order to approximate basic numeracy we use age‐heaping techniques. We find that Latin America was on a path of convergence with western Europe during the early eighteenth century. During the early nineteenth century, not only did numeracy development stagnate in some Latin American countries but differences among some of them actually increased. While numeracy rates in Argentina, Uruguay, and to a lesser extent Brazil, along with Europe, underwent a significant increase in the late nineteenth century, they declined in Mexico, Ecuador, and Colombia. By performing a regression analysis, we find that, even when we control for investment in education, mass immigration contributed to human capital formation.     

R＆D,Human Capital Investment and Productivity： Firm-level Evidence from China＇s Electronics Industry

Usingfirm-level panel data covering 2005-2007, the present paper examines the effects of R＆D and human capital investment on productivity in China＇s electronics industry. It is found that both R＆D and on-the-job training positively contribute to total factor productivity （TFP）. Firms＇ investment inemployees＇ health insurance andpensions, whichare components of workers＇ compensation, generate a productivity-enhancing effect, supporting the efficiency wage hypothesis. The estimated impact of R＆D on productivity varies among different forms of ownership, and foreign-owncd enterprises experience higher R＆D efficiency than state or private enterprises. After controlling for potential endogenous causality between TFP and R＆D, the above findings remain unchanged We also find that on-the-job training can improve the quality of human capital and is helpful in promoting productivity. Therefore, establishing indigenous technological capability through various technological sources is quite important, and the government should devote further effort to investing in human capital.     

Select bibliography of contributions to economic and social history appearing in Scandinavian Books,Periodicals And Year-Books, 1980

Abstract

Recent theoretical advances reveal the importance of human capital for long-run economic growth. However, the absence of data makes it difficult to measure human capital before 1870 at the national level, let alone at the regional level within countries. By using the age heaping method and a large, new data set, we approximate the numeracy values in more than 570 regions in Europe between 1790 and 1880. The results indicate a significant gap in numeracy levels between advanced west and central European countries and the rest of Europe. Nevertheless, differences in basic numeracy between and within countries became smaller over the nineteenth century, as the periphery solved its basic numeracy problem.     

Social and intertemporal differences of basic numeracy in Pannonia (first century BCE to third century CE)

In this study, we assess the human capital of Roman legionaries, officers and the civilian population born between the first century BCE and the third century CE in Pannonia (today’s West Hungary). Age-heaping techniques allow the measurement of human capital for this early period, although we need to discuss intensively potential selectivity. We find that the Roman military benefited strongly from occupational choice selectivity: those social groups who decided for a military career had better numeracy values than the remainder of the population. This applied especially to the first centuries BCE and CE. Over time, however, the civilian population converged to the military occupational groups. This ‘military bias’ analysis also contributes to the debate about long-term growth determinants: in some societies, the most educated parts of the elites selected a military career, rather than opting for entreprenuerial activities which might have impacted more positively on macroeconomic growth.     

An assessment of Ireland’s export-led growth strategy via foreign direct investment: 1960–1980

An Assessment of Ireland’s Export-Led Growth Strategy via Foreign Direct Investment: 1960-80. - Ireland’s export-led growth strategy using foreign direct investment as a vehicle for industrialization reveals many lessons for newly-industrializing economies in Europe and Asia. Using a relatively simple macroeconomic model of the Irish economy, this study sought to ascertain if government subsidies and grants were a significant locational determinant for foreign direct investment and if foreign direct investment led to the expansion of exports, capital formation, employment, and output. The results show that from 1960-80 Irish exports, output, and manufacturing employment grew, but so did the dependence and vulnerability of the Irish economy.     

中国高技术产业的劳动生产率差异——基于DEA的实证分析

本文运用数据包络分析,将中国高技术产业劳动生产率变化的源泉分解成技术效率、技术进步、资本深化和人力资本积累四个部分,分析了它们对劳动生产率及其差异的影响。2000-2009年间17个高技术产业的实证分析表明:(1)中国高技术产业劳动生产率水平有了显著提升,其中技术效率改善、技术进步和人力资本积累促进了劳动生产率的提高,资本深化则阻碍了劳动生产率的提高;(2)中国高技术产业的劳动生产率差异缩小了,其中技术效率变化、资本深化是劳动生产率差距缩小的主要原因,而技术进步和人力资本积累则阻碍了劳动生产率差距的缩小。     

Productivity or Endowments? Sectoral Evidence for Hong Kong's Aggregate Growth*

The present paper provides sectoral evidence that sheds new light on the current debate regarding the sources of growth of the East Asian miracle. We test both the productivity‐driven and endowment‐driven hypotheses using Hong Kong's sectoral data. The results show that most of the growth of the service sector is driven by rapidly‐accumulating capital endowments, and not by productivity growth. In addition, productivity growth in the manufacturing sector is unimpressive. The manufacturing sector is revealed to be more labor intensive than the service sector and its growth is hindered by the reallocation of resources into the service sector as a result of the growth of capital endowments and imports. Overall, sectoral evidence supports the endowment‐driven hypothesis.     

Laissez‐faire,the Irish famine,and British financial crisis

The decision in 1847 to cut Treasury spending on public relief efforts during the Irish famine is generally attributed by economic historians to the pervasive influence of ‘laissez‐faire’ ideas on the Whig government of Lord John Russell. This article draws on the papers of political leaders and contemporary financial information to argue that economic reasons were the trigger for the change in policy. Robert Peel and Charles Wood's macroeconomic policies of the 1840s, including the gold standard, the Bank Charter Act, and corn law repeal, left the Whigs unable to borrow to finance relief efforts in Ireland without panicking markets. The scaling back of public assistance programmes that resulted from this—and which increased mortality at the height of the Irish famine—was the unintended result of Peel and Wood's economic policies, in the context of the Whig government's parliamentary weakness.     

Farmers at the heart of the ‘human capital revolution’? Decomposing the numeracy increase in early modern Europe†

Did the early development of skills and numerical abilities occur primarily in urban centres and among the elite groups of society? This study assesses the human capital of different occupational groups in the early modern period and partially confirms this finding: skilled and professional groups had higher levels of numeracy and literacy than persons in unskilled occupations. However, there was another large group that developed substantial human capital and represented around one‐third of the total population: farmers. By analysing numeracy and literacy evidence from six countries in Europe and Latin America, we argue that farmers contributed significantly to the formation of human capital and, consequently, to modern economic growth.     

The productivity–wage relationship in South Africa: an empirical investigation

This article investigates the relationship between labour productivity, average real wages and the unemployment rate in South Africa at the macroeconomic level, using time‐series econometric techniques. There is strong evidence of a structural break in 1990, after which time all three variables rose rapidly. The break appears to have negatively affected the level of employment in the first instance, and subsequently fed through into per worker wages and productivity. A long‐term equilibrium (cointegrating) relationship was found between real wages and productivity, but unemployment was apparently unconnected to the system, which lends support to the insider–outsider theory. A long‐term wage–productivity elasticity of 0,58 indicates that productivity has grown more rapidly than wages, which is consistent with the finding that labour's share of gross output has been shrinking over the past decade. These trends may be explained plausibly by the adoption of job‐shedding technology and capital intensification.     

What happened to Irish industry after the British industrial revolution? Some evidence from the first UK Census of Production in 19071

This article examines Ireland's relative position within the UK industrial sector in the early twentieth century, by critically evaluating the Irish component of the First UK Census of Production. Firstly, Ireland's employment, net output shares, and net output per person are compared to the UK results. Secondly, by supplementing and adjusting the census evidence, a new estimate of the size of the industrial workforce is constructed, which is then used to produce a new estimate of Irish industrial output. From this it is possible to estimate the contribution of industry to Irish GDP, which can then be compared to its contribution in other European economies.     

Raiffeisenism abroad: why did German cooperative banking fail in Ireland but prosper in the Netherlands?

Why did imitations of Raiffeisen's rural cooperative savings and loans associations work well in some European countries, but fail in others? This article considers the example of Raiffeisenism in Ireland and in the Netherlands. Raiffeisen banks arrived in both places at the same time, but had drastically different fates. In Ireland they were almost wiped out by the early 1920s, while in the Netherlands they proved to be a long‐lasting institutional transplant. Raiffeisen banks were successful in the Netherlands because they operated in niche markets with few competitors, while rural financial markets in Ireland were unsegmented and populated by long‐established incumbents, leaving little room for new players, whatever their institutional advantages. Dutch Raiffeisen banks were largely self‐financing, closely integrated into the wider rural economy, and able to take advantage of economic and religious divisions in rural society. Their Irish counterparts were not.     

Consumption and material culture in sixteenth‐century Ireland1

New evidence from a series of 11 Bristol customs accounts indicates that Irish consumption patterns underwent significant changes over the course of the sixteenth century. This article considers the use of the Bristol ‘particular’ accounts and port books as a source for Irish material culture and consumption studies and uses the customs data as a statistical framework on which to establish how, why, and to what extent patterns of consumption changed in Ireland. It considers who was consuming the increasing range of commodities that were imported into Ireland from Bristol towards the end of the century, and what changing consumption patterns may reveal about the nature of Ireland's economy, society, and culture during this critical period in Irish history.