Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/185107 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 11647
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Maddison's international panel data show that technically it was the faster growth rate of the US economy that led to its overtaking the UK as economic superpower. We explore the contributing factors. Identifying the land-grant colleges system triggered by the 1862/1890 Morrill Acts (MAs) as a major contributor, we develop this hypothesis theoretically and test it via difference-in-differences regression analyses viewing the MAs as the experiment, the US or US states as treatment groups, and the UK as chief control group in the country-level comparisons. Using national and state-level data, we estimate that the MAs produced sizeable educational and economic returns which catapulted the US into its leading status.
Subjects: 
aggregate human capital
public investment
education and research institutions
economic development
endogenous growth
institutions and growth
comparative studies of countries
economic history-education
JEL: 
N3
E24
H42
I2
O1
O57
O4
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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