CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 81Historical Economic and Social StudiesEconomic Growth and ProductivityEconomic Development and Digital Transformation

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 3 of the 3 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

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

Open access
de Pleijt, Alexandra, Nuvolari, Alessandro, Weisdorf, Jacob·2020·Journal of the European Economic Association
DOI 10.1093/jeea/jvz006
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

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.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1093/jeea/jvz006

Cites

3 of 3 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Show all 3 references

Research works printed but not linked: 57

  1. Allen, 2009, The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective, 10.1017/CBO9780511816680 · DOI
  2. Andersen, 2017, Pre-Reformation Roots of the Protestant Ethic, The Economic Journal, 127, 1756, 10.1111/ecoj.12367 · DOI
  3. Asch, 2005, The 1:5 Million International Geological Map of Europe and Adjacent Areas
  4. Atack, 2004, Skill Intensity and Rising Wage Dispersion in Nineteenth-Century American Manufacturing, Journal of Economic History, 64, 172, 10.1017/S0022050704002645 · DOI
  5. Atack, 2008, Steam Power, Establishment Size, and Labor Productivity Growth in Nineteenth Century American Manufacturing, Explorations in Economic History, 45, 185, 10.1016/j.eeh.2007.08.002 · DOI
  6. Baten, 2014, Numeracy and the Impact of High Food Prices in Industrializing Britain, 1780–1850, Review of Economics and Statistics, 96, 418, 10.1162/REST_a_00403 · DOI
  7. Bosker, 2013, From Baghdad to London: Unraveling Urban Development in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, 800–1800, Review of Economics and Statistics, 96, 1418, 10.1162/REST_a_00284 · DOI
  8. Berg, 1980, The Machinery Question and the Making of Political Economy 1815–1848, 10.1017/CBO9780511560330 · DOI
  9. Berg, 1994, The Age of Manufactures. Industry, Innovation and Work in Britain, 1700–1820
  10. Cinnirella, 2017, Malthus in the Bedroom: Birth Spacing as Birth Control in Pre-Transition England, Demography, 54, 413, 10.1007/s13524-017-0556-4 · DOI
  11. Clark, 2005, Human Capital, Fertility, and the Industrial Revolution, Journal of the European Economic Association, 3, 505, 10.1162/jeea.2005.3.2-3.505 · DOI
  12. Crafts, 1992, Output Growth and the British Industrial Revolution: A Restatement of the Crafts-Harley View, The Economic History Review, 45, 703, 10.2307/2597415 · DOI · Paper page
  13. Crafts, 2006, How Did the Location of Industry Respond to Falling Transport Costs in Britain Before World War I?, Journal of Economic History, 66, 575, 10.1017/S002205070600026X · DOI
  14. Cullingford, 1980, A History of Dorset
  15. de Pleijt, 2018, Human Capital Formation in the Long Run: Evidence from Average Years of Schooling in England, 1300–1900, Cliometrica, 12, 99, 10.1007/s11698-016-0156-3 · DOI
  16. de Pleijt, 2017, Human Capital Formation from Occupations: The ‘Deskilling Hypothesis’ Revisited, Cliometrica, 11, 1, 10.1007/s11698-016-0140-y · DOI
  17. Education Census, 1851, Census of Great Britain, 1851
  18. Engels, 1993, The Condition of the Working Class in England
  19. Feldman, 2016, Skill Choice and Skill Complementarity in Eighteenth Century England, Explorations in Economic History, 59, 94, 10.1016/j.eeh.2015.09.001 · DOI
  20. Franck, 2017, Technology-Skill Complementarity in the Early Phase of Industrialization, 10.3386/w23197 · DOI
  21. Fernihough, 2014, Coal and the European Industrial Revolution, 10.3386/w19802 · DOI
  22. Freeman, 2001, As Time Goes By. From the Industrial Revolutions to the Information Revolution
  23. Galor, 2011, Unified Growth Theory
  24. Galor, 2000, Population, Technology, and Growth: From Malthusian Stagnation to the Demographic Transition and Beyond, American Economic Review, 90, 806, 10.1257/aer.90.4.806 · DOI · Paper page
  25. Galor, 2006, Das Human-Kapital: A Theory of the Demise of the Class Structure, Review of Economics Studies, 73, 85, 10.1111/j.1467-937X.2006.00370.x · DOI
  26. Galor, 2009, Inequality in Landownership, the Emergence of Human-Capital Promoting Institutions, and the Great Divergence, Review of Economic Studies, 76, 143, 10.1111/j.1467-937X.2008.00506.x · DOI
  27. Goldin, 1982, Women, Children, and Industrialization in the Early Republic: Evidence from the Manufacturing Censuses, Journal of Economic History, 42, 741, 10.1017/S0022050700028321 · DOI
  28. Goldin, 1998, The Origins of Technology-Skill Complementarity, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 113, 693, 10.1162/003355398555720 · DOI
  29. Griliches, 1969, Capital-Skill Complementarity, The Review of Economics and Statistics, 51, 465, 10.2307/1926439 · DOI
  30. Humphries, 2010, Childhood and Child Labour in the British Industrial Revolution, 10.1017/CBO9780511780455 · DOI
  31. James, 1985, The Resolution of the Labor-Scarcity Paradox, Journal of Economic History, 45, 513, 10.1017/S0022050700034483 · DOI
  32. Kanefsky, 1980, Steam Engines in 18th-Century Britain: A Quantitative Assessment, Technology and Culture, 21, 161, 10.2307/3103337 · DOI
  33. Lloyd-Jones, 1980, The Size of Firms in the Cotton Industry: Manchester 1815–41, Economic History Review, 33, 72
  34. Mann, 1854, Census of Great Britain 1851: Religions Worship in England and Wales
  35. Meisenzahl, 2012, The Rate and Direction of Invention in the British Industrial Revolution: Incentives and Institutions, 443
  36. Minns, 2013, The Price of Human Capital in a Pre-industrial Economy: Premiums and Apprenticeship Contracts in 18th Century England, Explorations in Economic History, 50, 335, 10.1016/j.eeh.2013.02.001 · DOI
  37. Mitch, 1999, The Role of Education and Skill in the British Industrial Revolution
  38. Mokyr, 2005, Long-Term Economic Growth and the History of Technology, 10.1016/S1574-0684(05)01017-8 · DOI
  39. Mokyr, 2009, Understanding Growth in Early Modern Europe
  40. Nicholas, 1992, Male Literacy, “Deskilling,” and the Industrial Revolution, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 23, 1, 10.2307/205479 · DOI
  41. Nuvolari, 2002, The “Machine-Breakers” and the Industrial Revolution, Journal of European Economic History, 31, 393
  42. Nuvolari, 2011, The Early Diffusion of the Steam Engine in Britain, 1700–1800. A Reappraisal, Cliometrica, 5, 291, 10.1007/s11698-011-0063-6 · DOI
  43. O’Rourke, 2013, Luddites, the Industrial Revolution, and the Demographic Transition, Journal of Economic Growth, 18, 373, 10.1007/s10887-013-9096-y · DOI
  44. Pisati, 2001, sg162: Tools for Spatial Data Analysis, Stata Technical Bulletin, 60, 21
  45. Sanderson, 1972, Literacy and Social Mobility in the Industrial Revolution in England, Past & Present, 56, 75, 10.1093/past/56.1.75 · DOI
  46. Schofield, 1973, Dimensions of Illiteracy, 1750–1850, Explorations in Economic History, 10, 437, 10.1016/0014-4983(73)90026-0 · DOI
  47. Schofield, 1985, English Marriage Patterns Revisited, Journal of Family History, 10, 2, 10.1177/036319908501000101 · DOI
  48. Squicciarini, 2015, Human Capital and Industrialization: Evidence from the Age of Enlightenment, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 130, 1825, 10.1093/qje/qjv025 · DOI · Paper page
  49. Stephens, 1987, Education, Literacy and Society, 1830–70: The Geography of Diversity in Provincial England
  50. van der Beek, 2014, England's Eighteenth-Century Demand for High-Quality Workmanship: Evidence from Apprenticeship, 1710-1770
  51. van Leeuwen, 2011, HISCLASS: A Historical International Social Class Scheme
  52. van Zanden, 2009, The Skill Premium and the ‘Great Divergence’, European Review of Economic History, 13, 121, 10.1017/S1361491609002408 · DOI
  53. von Tunzelmann, 1978, Steam Power and British Industrialization to 1860
  54. von Tunzelmann, 1986, Coal and Steam Power
  55. Wrigley, 2007, English County Populations in the Later Eighteenth Century, Economic History Review, 60, 35, 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2006.00355.x · DOI
  56. Wrigley, 2010, Energy and the English Industrial Revolution, 10.1017/CBO9780511779619 · DOI · Paper page
  57. Wrigley, 2016, The Path to Sustained Growth. England's Transition from an Organic Economy to an Industrial Revolution, 10.1017/CBO9781316488256 · DOI

Cited by

Sorted by citations

See all 81

Metadata

Authors
de Pleijt, A., Nuvolari, A., & Weisdorf, J.
Affiliations
  • Queen's University Belfast (GB)
  • Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (IT)
  • University of Southern Denmark (DK)
Corresponding author
  • de Pleijt, Alexandra
  • Nuvolari, Alessandro
  • Weisdorf, Jacob
ORCID
Venue
Journal of the European Economic Association
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2019-03-20
Volume
18
Issue
2
Pages
829-889
ISSN
  • 1542-4766 (ISSN-L)
  • 1542-4774
DOI
10.1093/jeea/jvz006
OpenAlex
W2524191418
Cited by
81
References
3
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 8
FWCI
10.33
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model (vor)
Locations
  • Journal of the European Economic Association (publishedVersion)
  • University of Southern Denmark Research Portal (University of Southern Denmark) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • IRIS Research product catalog (Sapienza University of Rome) (submittedVersion)
  • Research Portal (Queen's University Belfast) (submittedVersion)
  • CINECA IRIS Institutional Research Information System (Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Historical Economic and Social Studies
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Economic Growth and Productivity
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › General Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economic Development and Digital Transformation
Keywords
human capital accumulation, First Industrial Revolution, steam engines, technological change, skilled workers, vocational skills, primary education, literacy, school enrolment, coal deposits, England

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review