IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/exehis/v81y2021ics0014498321000176.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Skilled immigrants and technology adoption: Evidence from the German settlements in the Russian empire

Author

Listed:
  • Natkhov, Timur
  • Vasilenok, Natalia

Abstract

This paper examines knowledge spillovers across ethnic boundaries. Using the case of skilled German immigrants in the Russian Empire, we study technology adoption among Russian peasants. We find that distance to German settlements predicts the prevalence of heavy iron ploughs, fanning mills and wheat sowing among Russians, who traditionally ploughed with a light wooden ard and sowed rye. The main channel of technology adoption was German fairs. We show that heavy ploughs increased the labor productivity of Russian peasants. However, communication barriers precluded Russians from adopting skill-intensive occupations like blacksmithing, mechanics, carpentry, and other crafts. The results suggest that skilled immigrants may enhance local development through the introduction of advanced tools without transmitting their skills to a receiving society.

Suggested Citation

  • Natkhov, Timur & Vasilenok, Natalia, 2021. "Skilled immigrants and technology adoption: Evidence from the German settlements in the Russian empire," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:exehis:v:81:y:2021:i:c:s0014498321000176
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eeh.2021.101399
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014498321000176
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eeh.2021.101399?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David de la Croix & Matthias Doepke & Joel Mokyr, 2018. "Clans, Guilds, and Markets: Apprenticeship Institutions and Growth in the Preindustrial Economy," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(1), pages 1-70.
    2. Andrei Markevich & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, 2018. "The Economic Effects of the Abolition of Serfdom: Evidence from the Russian Empire," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(4-5), pages 1074-1117, April.
    3. Petra Moser & Alessandra Voena & Fabian Waldinger, 2014. "German Jewish ?migr?s and US Invention," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(10), pages 3222-3255, October.
    4. Quamrul Ashraf & Oded Galor, 2011. "Cultural Diversity, Geographical Isolation, and the Origin of the Wealth of Nations," Department of Economics Working Papers 2011-15, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    5. Arrow, Kenneth J, 1969. "Classificatory Notes on the Production and Transmission of Technological Knowledge," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(2), pages 29-35, May.
    6. Oriana Bandiera & Imran Rasul, 2006. "Social Networks and Technology Adoption in Northern Mozambique," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(514), pages 869-902, October.
    7. Amanda G. Gregg, 2020. "Factory Productivity and the Concession System of Incorporation in Late Imperial Russia, 1894–1908," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(2), pages 401-427, February.
    8. Rudi Rocha & Claudio Ferraz & Rodrigo R. Soares, 2017. "Human Capital Persistence and Development," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 105-136, October.
    9. Andrew D. Foster & Mark R. Rosenzweig, 2010. "Microeconomics of Technology Adoption," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 2(1), pages 395-424, September.
    10. Spolaore, Enrico & Wacziarg, Romain, 2014. "Long-Term Barriers to Economic Development," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 3, pages 121-176, Elsevier.
    11. William Easterly & Ross Levine, 2016. "The European origins of economic development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 225-257, September.
    12. Enrico Spolaore & Romain Wacziarg, 2009. "The Diffusion of Development," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(2), pages 469-529.
    13. Diego A. Comin & Martí Mestieri, 2010. "An Intensive Exploration of Technology Diffusion," NBER Working Papers 16379, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Andersen, Thomas Barnebeck & Jensen, Peter Sandholt & Skovsgaard, Christian Volmar, 2016. "The heavy plow and the agricultural revolution in Medieval Europe," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 133-149.
    15. Ufuk Akcigit & John Grigsby & Tom Nicholas, 2017. "Immigration and the Rise of American Ingenuity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 327-331, May.
    16. Dany Bahar & Hillel Rapoport, 2018. "Migration, Knowledge Diffusion and the Comparative Advantage of Nations," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(612), pages 273-305, July.
    17. Ran Abramitzky & Leah Boustan, 2017. "Immigration in American Economic History," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1311-1345, December.
    18. Alberto Alesina & Paola Giuliano & Nathan Nunn, 2013. "On the Origins of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(2), pages 469-530.
    19. Timothy G. Conley & Christopher R. Udry, 2010. "Learning about a New Technology: Pineapple in Ghana," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(1), pages 35-69, March.
    20. Diego Comin & Bart Hobijn, 2010. "An Exploration of Technology Diffusion," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(5), pages 2031-2059, December.
    21. Paul Castañeda Dower & Andrei Markevich, 2019. "The Stolypin reform and agricultural productivity in late imperial Russia," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 23(3), pages 241-267.
    22. Amanda Gregg & Steven Nafziger, 2019. "Capital structure and corporate performance in late Imperial Russia," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 23(4), pages 446-481.
    23. Felipe Valencia Caicedo, 2019. "The Mission: Human Capital Transmission, Economic Persistence, and Culture in South America," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(1), pages 507-556.
    24. Emily Oster, 2019. "Unobservable Selection and Coefficient Stability: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(2), pages 187-204, April.
    25. Diego Comin & Martí Mestieri, 2018. "If Technology Has Arrived Everywhere, Why Has Income Diverged?," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 137-178, July.
    26. Leonard Wantchekon & Marko Klašnja & Natalija Novta, 2015. "Education and Human Capital Externalities: Evidence from Colonial Benin," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(2), pages 703-757.
    27. Federico Droller, 2018. "Migration, Population Composition and Long Run Economic Development: Evidence from Settlements in the Pampas," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(614), pages 2321-2352, September.
    28. George J. Borjas, 2019. "Immigration and Economic Growth," NBER Working Papers 25836, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    29. Danila Raskov & Vadim Kufenko, 2017. "Religious minority in business history: The case of Old Believers," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(6), pages 951-974, August.
    30. Conley, T. G., 1999. "GMM estimation with cross sectional dependence," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 1-45, September.
    31. Nafziger, Steven, 2010. "Peasant communes and factor markets in late nineteenth-century Russia," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 381-402, October.
    32. Erik Hornung, 2014. "Immigration and the Diffusion of Technology: The Huguenot Diaspora in Prussia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(1), pages 84-122, January.
    33. Johan Fourie & Dieter Fintel, 2014. "Settler skills and colonial development: the Huguenot wine-makers in eighteenth-century Dutch South Africa," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(4), pages 932-963, November.
    34. Andrew Shaver & David B. Carter & Tsering Wangyal Shawa, 2019. "Terrain ruggedness and land cover: Improved data for most research designs," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 36(2), pages 191-218, March.
    35. Oded Galor & Quamrul Ashraf, 2007. "Cultural Assimilation, Cultural Diffusion and the Origin of the Wealth of Nations," Working Papers 2007-3, Brown University, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Viktor Malein, 2021. "Human Capital and Industrialization: German Settlers in Late Imperial Russia," Working Papers 0221, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    2. Messono, Omang & Asongu, Simplice, 2021. "Historical Prevalence of Infectious Diseases and Entrepreneurship: the Role of Institutions in 125 Countries," MPRA Paper 111842, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Maria Lopatina & Eva-Maria Berens & Julia Klinger & Diane Levin-Zamir & Uliana Kostareva & Altyn Aringazina & Oxana Drapkina & Jürgen M. Pelikan, 2022. "Adaptation of the Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS 19 -Q) for Russian-Speaking Populations—International Collaboration across Germany, Israel, Kazakhstan, Russia, and the USA," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-12, March.
    4. Cemal Eren Arbatlı & Gunes Gokmen, 2023. "Human capital transfers and sub-national development: Armenian and Greek legacy in post-expulsion Turkey," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 1-43, March.
    5. Qiliang, Mao & Xianzhuang, Mao, 2024. "The shaping of inter-regional industrial linkages by institutional and cultural division in China: Characteristics and differences," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1113-1132.

    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. Timur Natkhov & Natalia Vasilenok, 2019. "Technology Adoption in Agrarian Societies: the Effect of Volga Germans in Imperial Russia," HSE Working papers WP BRP 220/EC/2019, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    2. Viktor Malein, 2021. "Human Capital and Industrialization: German Settlers in Late Imperial Russia," Working Papers 0221, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    3. Hausmann, Ricardo & Neffke, Frank M.H., 2019. "The workforce of pioneer plants," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 628-648.
    4. Rudi Rocha & Claudio Ferraz & Rodrigo R. Soares, 2017. "Human Capital Persistence and Development," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 105-136, October.
    5. Johannes C. Buggle, 2020. "Growing collectivism: irrigation, group conformity and technological divergence," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 147-193, June.
    6. Matthias Blum & Karl‐Peter Krauss & Dmytro Myeshkov, 2022. "Human capital transfer of German‐speaking migrants in eastern Europe, 1780s–1820s," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(3), pages 703-738, August.
    7. Andreas Link, 2023. "The Fall of Constantinople and the Rise of the West," Working Papers 223, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    8. Comin, Diego & Mestieri, Martí, 2014. "Technology Diffusion: Measurement, Causes, and Consequences," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 2, pages 565-622, Elsevier.
    9. Li, Ya-Wei (Jake), 2020. "When Does Critical Habitat Designation Benefit Species Recovery?," Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University 307170, Center for Growth and Opportunity.
    10. Nina Boberg-Fazlić & Paul Sharp, 2024. "Immigrant Communities and Knowledge Spillovers: Danish Americans and the Development of the Dairy Industry in the United States," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(1), pages 102-146, January.
    11. Dario Diodato & Ricardo Hausmann & Frank Neffke, 2020. "The impact of return migration from the U.S. on employment and wages in Mexican cities," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2012, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Mar 2020.
    12. Timothy J. Hatton & Zachary Ward, 2024. "International Migration in the Atlantic Economy 1850–1940," Springer Books, in: Claude Diebolt & Michael Haupert (ed.), Handbook of Cliometrics, edition 3, pages 507-535, Springer.
    13. Alessandra Fogli & Laura Veldkamp, 2021. "Germs, Social Networks, and Growth [Unbundling Institutions]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(3), pages 1074-1100.
    14. Veldkamp, Laura & Fogli, Alessandra, 2014. "Germs, Social Networks and Growth," CEPR Discussion Papers 10222, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Maloney, William F. & Valencia Caicedo, Felipe, 2014. "Engineers, Innovative Capacity and Development in the Americas," IZA Discussion Papers 8271, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Link, Andreas, 2023. "The Fall of Constantinople and the Rise of the West," VfS Annual Conference 2023 (Regensburg): Growth and the "sociale Frage" 277619, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    17. Barham, Bradford L. & Chavas, Jean-Paul & Fitz, Dylan & Schechter, Laura, 2018. "Receptiveness to advice, cognitive ability, and technology adoption," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 239-268.
    18. Mekonnen, Daniel Ayalew & Gerber, Nicolas & Matz, Julia Anna, 2018. "Gendered Social Networks, Agricultural Innovations, and Farm Productivity in Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 321-335.
    19. Mbassi, Christophe Martial & Messono, Omang Ombolo, 2023. "Historical technology and current economic development: Reassessing the nature of the relationship," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    20. Sandra Sequeira & Nathan Nunn & Nancy Qian, 2020. "Immigrants and the Making of America," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(1), pages 382-419.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Skilled immigration; Technology adoption; Agriculture; Russian Empire;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N33 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N53 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • I15 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Economic Development
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    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:eee:exehis:v:81:y:2021:i:c:s0014498321000176. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622830 .

    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.