Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/52430 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 3603
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
This paper studies the effect of landownership concentration on school enrollment for nineteenth-century Prussia. Prussia is an interesting laboratory given its decentralized educational system and the presence of heterogeneous agricultural institutions. We find that landownership concentration, a proxy for the institution of serf labor, has a negative effect on schooling. This effect diminishes substantially in the second half of the century. Causality of this relationship is confirmed by introducing soil-texture to identify exogenous farm size variation. Panel estimates further rule out unobserved heterogeneity. We argue that serfdom hampered peasants' demand for education whereas the successive emancipation triggered a demand thereof.
Subjects: 
land concentration
institutions
serfdom
education
Prussian economic history
JEL: 
O43
Q15
I25
N33
Document Type: 
Working Paper
Appears in Collections:

Files in This Item:
File
Size





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