Clark, Gregory and Gray, Rowena (2012) Geography is not Destiny. Geography, Institutions and Literacy in England, 1837-1863. Working Paper. European Historical Economics Society (EHES) Working Papers 0015.
Clark, Gregory and Gray, Rowena (2012) Geography is not Destiny. Geography, Institutions and Literacy in England, 1837-1863. Working Paper. European Historical Economics Society (EHES) Working Papers 0015.
Clark, Gregory and Gray, Rowena (2012) Geography is not Destiny. Geography, Institutions and Literacy in England, 1837-1863. Working Paper. European Historical Economics Society (EHES) Working Papers 0015.
Abstract
Geography made rural society in the south-east of England unequal. Economies of scale in grain growing created a farmer elite and many landless labourers. In the pastoral north-west, in contrast, family farms dominated, with few hired labourers and modest income disparities. Engerman and Sokoloff (2012) argue that such differences in social structure between large plantations in the southern Americas, and family farming in the north, explain the rise of schooling in the north, and its absence in the south. We show, however, that rural literacy across England 1810-45 was not determined by geographically driven inequality. There were substantial differences in literacy by region, but driven by culture not geography. Geography is not destiny.
Item Type: | Monograph (Working Paper) |
---|---|
Uncontrolled Keywords: | Comparative regional history; European education history; human capital development |
Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory |
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics, Department of |
Depositing User: | Jim Jamieson |
Date Deposited: | 16 Jul 2012 22:22 |
Last Modified: | 16 Jul 2012 22:22 |
URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/2874 |