Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/84159 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 4391
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
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.
Subjects: 
human capital
growth
literacy
innovation
patents
Prussia
JEL: 
N13
N33
O11
O31
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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