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The Role of Human Capital and Innovation in Prussian Economic Development

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  • Francesco Cinnirella
  • Jochen Streb

Abstract

By merging individual data on valuable patents granted in Prussia in the late nineteenth century with county level information on literacy and income tax revenues we show that increases in the stock of human capital not only improved workers’ productivity but also accelerated innovative activities which, in turn, evoked an additional rise in the productivity level. Instrumenting the stock of literate people with information on the number of blind and deaf-mute people we also establish the direct causal effect of human capital on income, net of the innovation channel.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesco Cinnirella & Jochen Streb, 2013. "The Role of Human Capital and Innovation in Prussian Economic Development," CESifo Working Paper Series 4391, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_4391
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Francesco Cinnirella & Jochen Streb, 2017. "Religious Tolerance as Engine of Innovation," CESifo Working Paper Series 6797, CESifo.
    2. Horst Hanusch & Lekha S. Chakraborty & Swati Khurana, 2017. "Fiscal Policy, Economic Growth and Innovation: An Empirical Analysis of G20 Countries," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_883, Levy Economics Institute.
    3. Quamrul H. Ashraf & Francesco Cinnirella & Oded Galor & Boris Gershman & Erik Hornung, 2017. "Capital-Skill Complementarity and the Emergence of Labor Emancipation," CESifo Working Paper Series 6423, CESifo.
    4. Alessandro Nuvolari & Michelangelo Vasta, 2017. "The geography of innovation in Italy, 1861–1913: evidence from patent data," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 21(3), pages 326-356.
    5. Horst Hanusch & Lekha Chakraborty & Swati Khurana, 2016. "Public Expenditures, Innovation and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from G20 Countries," Discussion Paper Series 329, Universitaet Augsburg, Institute for Economics.
    6. William F. Maloney & Felipe Valencia Caicedo, 2017. "Engineering Growth: Innovative Capacity and Development in the Americas," CESifo Working Paper Series 6339, CESifo.
    7. Alexandra Semrad, 2015. "Modern secondary education and economic performance: the introduction of the Gewerbeschule and Realschule in nineteenth-century Bavaria," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 68(4), pages 1306-1338, November.
    8. Lehmann-Hasemeyer, Sibylle & Streb, Jochen, 2017. "Does Social Security crowd out Private Savings? The Case of Bismarck’s System of Social Insurance," IBF Paper Series 06-17, IBF – Institut für Bank- und Finanzgeschichte / Institute for Banking and Financial History, Frankfurt am Main.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    human capital; growth; literacy; innovation; patents; Prussia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N13 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N33 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

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