Railroads and micro-regional growth in Prussia

We study the effect of railroad access on urban population growth. Using GIS techniques, we match triennial population data for roughly 1000 cities in nineteenth-century Prussia to georeferenced maps of the German railroad network. We find positive short- and long-term effects of having a station on urban growth for different periods during 1840-1871. Causal effects of (potentially endogenous) railroad access on city growth are identified using instrumentalvariable and xed-effects estimation techniques. Our instrument identifies exogenous variation in railroad access by constructing straight-line corridors between terminal stations. Counterfactual models using pre-railroad growth yield no evidence in support of the hypothesis that railroads appeared as a consequence of a previous growth spurt

The political economy of the Prussian three-class franchise

How did the Prussian three-class franchise, which politically over-represented the economic elite, affect policies? Contrary to the predominant and simplistic view that the system allowed the landed elites to capture most political rents, we find that members of parliament from constituencies with a higher vote inequality support more liberal policies, gauging their political orientation from the universe of roll call votes cast in parliament during Prussia’s rapid industrialization (1867–1903). Consistent with the characteristics of German liberalism that aligned with economic interests of business, the link between vote inequality and liberal voting is stronger in regions with large-scale industry

Landownership Concentration and the Expansion of Education

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.Land concentration, Institutions, Serfdom, Education, Prussian economic history

Landownership concentration and the expansion of education

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 serfdom, has a negative effect on schooling. This effect diminishes substantially towards the end 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 present several robustness checks which shed some light on possible mechanisms

Immigration and the Diffusion of Technology: The Huguenot Diaspora in Prussia

This paper analyzes long-term effects of skilled-worker immigration on productivityfor the Huguenots migration to Prussia. We combine Huguenot immigration lists from1700 with Prussian firm-level data on the value of inputs and outputs in 1802 in aunique data base. In 1685, religious persecution drove highly skilled Huguenots out ofFrance into backward Brandenburg-Prussia where they were channeled into towns tocompensate population losses due to plagues during the Thirty Years’ War. Exploitingthis settlement pattern in an instrumental-variable approach, we still find causal effectsof Huguenot settlement on the productivity of textile manufactories hundred years aftertheir immigration.Migration, technological diffusion, human capital, Huguenots, Prussian economic history

Catch Me If You Can: Education and Catch-up in the Industrial Revolution

Existing evidence, mostly from British textile industries, rejects the importance of formal education for the Industrial Revolution. We provide new evidence from Prussia, a technological follower, where early-19th-century institutional reforms created the conditions to adopt the exogenously emerging new technologies. Our unique school-enrollment and factory-employment database links 334 counties from pre-industrial 1816 to two industrial phases in 1849 and 1882. Controlling extensively for pre-industrial development, we use pre-industrial education as an instrument to identify variation in later education that is exogenous to industrialization itself. We find that basic education significantly accelerated non-textile industrialization in both phases of the Industrial Revolution.human capital, industrialization, Prussian economic history

Catch Me If You Can: Education and Catch-up in the Industrial Revolution

Existing evidence, mostly from British textile industries, rejects the importance of formal education for the Industrial Revolution. We provide new evidence from Prussia, a technological follower, where early-19th-century institutional reforms created the conditions to adopt the exogenously emerging new technologies. Our unique school-enrollment and factory-employment database links 334 counties from pre-industrial 1816 to two industrial phases in 1849 and 1882. Controlling extensively for pre-industrial development, we use pre-industrial education as an instrument to identify variation in later education that is exogenous to industrialization itself. We find that basic education significantly accelerated non-textile industrialization in both phases of the Industrial Revolution.human capital, industrialization, Prussian economic history

iPEHD – The ifo Prussian economic history database

This paper provides a documentation of the ifo Prussian Economic History Database (iPEHD), a county-level database covering a rich collection of variables for 19th -century Prussia. The Royal Prussian Statistical Office collected these data in several censuses over the years 1816-1901, with much county-level information surviving in archives. These data provide a unique source for microregional empirical research in economic history, enabling analyses of the importance of such factors as education, religion, fertility, and many others for Prussian economic development in the 19th century. The service of iPEHD is to provide the data in a digitized and structured way

Der europäische Tiefbau bis 2008 - geprägt vom hohen Wachstum in Mittel- und Osteuropa Ausgewählte Ergebnisse der Euroconstruct-Sommerkonferenz 2006

Bereits in den ersten Jahren dieses Jahrzehnts hat sich der Tiefbau gut entwickelt. Nach den Prognosen der Euroconstruct-Institute sind die Aussichten für die Jahre 2006 bis 2008 sogar noch besser: Der gesamte europäische Tiefbaumarkt wuchs 2005 um 1,7%. In diesem Jahr gehen die Schätzungen von 3,3% Wachstum aus. Diese positive Entwicklung wird sich in 2007 und 2008 mit einer Erhöhung um jeweils rund 3% fortsetzen. Besonders die neuen EU-Mitgliedsländer in Mittel- und Osteuropa werden die hohen Zuwächse erreichen. Die kräftige Tiefbaunachfrage in diesen Ländern wird vor allem von umfangreichen Investitionen in die Infrastruktur getragen, wobei Maßnahmen im Straßenbau sowie zur Wasserver- und -entsorgung im Vordergrund stehen.Bauwirtschaft, Tiefbau, Straßenbau, Investition, EU-Staaten, Mitteleuropa, Osteuropa