IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ahe/dtaehe/1615.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Literacy in Spain in the 19th century: An econometric analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Rafael Barquín

    (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Spain)

  • Pedro Pérez

    (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Spain)

  • Basilio Sanz

    (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Spain)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to identify variables that could explain Spanish urban literacy growth between 1860 and 1910. We have made use of census data and other public sources. One of the main obstacles is to find appropriate city definition criteria. We have addressed this issue by resorting to the relevant bibliography. A priori, expected key variables are the Church influence, whether or not the city is a provincial capital, the access to the railway system, the mining and industrial activity and, above all, the literacy programs undertaken by Liberal governments. Results of several econometric models - panel data based considering cross and time fixed effects - show firstly, that local idiosyncratic factors were sizeable. Secondly, in the literacy process the educational offer was more decisive than the personal economic incentives, especially among girls. And finally, that Church influence largely explains the literacy levels at the middle of 19th century, as well as its decline in the second half of that century.

Suggested Citation

  • Rafael Barquín & Pedro Pérez & Basilio Sanz, 2016. "Literacy in Spain in the 19th century: An econometric analysis," Documentos de Trabajo (DT-AEHE) 1615, Asociación Española de Historia Económica.
    • Handle: RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1615
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://media.timtul.com/media/web_aehe/dt-aehe-1615_20240108094531.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barquín, Rafael & Pérez, Pedro & Sanz, Basilio, 2012. "La influencia del ferrocarril en el desarrollo urbano español (1860-1910)," Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(3), pages 391-416, December.
    2. Chaudhary, Latika & Musacchio, Aldo & Nafziger, Steven & Yan, Se, 2012. "Big BRICs, weak foundations: The beginning of public elementary education in Brazil, Russia, India, and China," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 221-240.
    3. Alberto Basso, 2014. "Ownership Structure and Literacy: Evidence Across Spanish Districts in Late 19th Century," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 5(2).
    4. Roses, Joan R., 2015. "Spanish land reform in the 1930s: economic necessity or political opportunism?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 64498, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Robert J. Barro, 2001. "Human Capital and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(2), pages 12-17, May.
    6. Peter Lindert, 2004. "Social Spending and Economic Growth," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(4), pages 6-16.
    7. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    8. Julio Martinez-Galarraga & Francisco Beltrán Tapia, 2015. "Land Access Inequality and Education in Pre-Industrial Spain," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _137, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    9. Silvestre, Javier, 2005. "Internal migrations in Spain, 1877–1930," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 233-265, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Una mirada al fracaso histórico de la educación
      by Francisco Beltrán Tapia in Nada Es Gratis on 2017-07-27 09:00:20

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gerring, John & Gjerløw, Haakon & Knutsen, Carl Henrik, 2022. "Regimes and industrialization," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    2. C. Dannemann & Erkan Goeren, 2018. "The Educational Burden of ADHD: Evidence From Student Achievement Test Scores," Working Papers V-408-18, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2018.
    3. Gabriele Cappelli, 2016. "Escaping from a human capital trap? Italy's regions and the move to centralized primary schooling, 1861–1936," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 20(1), pages 46-65.
    4. Cinnirella, Francesco & Schueler, Ruth, 2018. "Nation building: The role of central spending in education," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 18-39.
    5. Ruth Maria Schüler, 2018. "Education Economics from a Historical Perspective," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 78.
    6. Paola Azar & Sergio Espuelas, 2021. "Democracy and primary education spending in Spain, 1902-22," UB School of Economics Working Papers 2021/409, University of Barcelona School of Economics.
    7. Leonel Muinelo‐Gallo & Ronald Miranda Lescano, 2022. "Redistribution and efficiency: An empirical analysis of the relevant trade‐offs of welfare state fiscal policies," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 562-586, February.
    8. Oriana Bandiera & Myra Mohnen & Imran Rasul & Martina Viarengo, 2019. "Nation-building Through Compulsory Schooling during the Age of Mass Migration," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(617), pages 62-109.
    9. Cinnirella, Francesco & Schüler, Ruth M., 2016. "The Cost of Decentralization: Linguistic Polarization and the Provision of Education," CEPR Discussion Papers 11274, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Johnston, Andrew C., 2021. "Preferences, Selection, and the Structure of Teacher Pay," IZA Discussion Papers 14831, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Chang, Eric C.C. & Wu, Wen-Chin, 2022. "Autocracy and human capital," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    12. Filippo Berti Mecocci & Amir Maghssudipour & Marco Bellandi, 2022. "The effect of cultural and creative production on human capital: Evidence from European regions," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(6), pages 1263-1287, December.
    13. Mueller, Normann, 2007. "(Mis-)Understanding Education Externalities," MPRA Paper 6307, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Tomas Cvrcek & Miroslav Zajicek, 2013. "School, what is it good for? Useful Human Capital and the History of Public Education in Central Europe," NBER Working Papers 19690, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Tomas Cvrcek & Miroslav Zajicek, 2019. "The rise of public schooling in nineteenth-century Imperial Austria: Who gained and who paid?," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 13(3), pages 367-403, September.
    16. Andersson, Jens & Berger, Thor, 2016. "Elites and the Expansion of Education in 19th-century Sweden," Lund Papers in Economic History 149, Lund University, Department of Economic History.
    17. de Pleijt, Alexandra M., 2015. "Human capital and long run economic growth : Evidence from the stock of human capital in England, 1300-1900," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 229, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    18. Tabitha Knight, 2022. "Women’s Employment and Public Spending: A Cross-Country Study," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 28(1), pages 1-17, May.
    19. Cvrcek, Tomas & Zajicek, Miroslav, 2019. "The making of a liberal education: Political economy of the Austrian school reform, 1865 – 1880," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 1-1.
    20. Paola Azar, 2022. "Politics as a determinant of primary school provision: the case of Uruguay," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 16(2), pages 333-367, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Literacy; Schooling; Church; Panel Data Models;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • N33 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1615. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Antònia Morey (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeheeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.