Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/246964 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
EHES Working Papers in Economic History No. 33
Publisher: 
European Historical Economics Society (EHES), s.l.
Abstract: 
In this paper, we assess the inheritance of human capital in the early modern period with a comprehensive dataset covering eight countries in Europe and Latin America. We focus on the within-household process of human capital formation. Gregory Clark suggested that the wealthy and 'capitalist' groups of society provided their offspring with favorable skills. We confirm this finding partially, but there is another large group that reproduces successfully: farmers. By applying age-heaping-based techniques to a dataset of more than 322,000 observations, we argue that farmers contributed significantly to the formation of human capital and, consequently, to modern economic growth.
JEL: 
J13
J24
N30
O14
Q12
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.