Abstract
This paper investigates the development of intermediate human capital in nineteenth-century France. We perform panel and cross-sectional regression analyses to compare the effect of technological change on basic versus intermediate human capital accumulation. Our contribution reveals that a shift in the kind of skills required occurred in the second half of the nineteenth century. We show that steam technology adoption was conducive to the accumulation of intermediate human capital in the second half of the nineteenth century.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
On the relationship between industrialization and the rise of adult education, see Diebolt et al. (2019).
At this period, steam power remained the main source of energy for production. The first International Electricity Exhibition took place in Paris in 1881, but the use of electricity power in manufacturing was scarce (if null). According to David (1990, 356): “At the turn of the century, farsighted engineers had envisaged profound transformations that electrification would bring to factories stores, and homes. But the materialization of such visions hardly was imminent.”
According to Grew and Harrigan (1991, 192), enrolments in secondary schools were only about 3 percent of the enrolments in primary schools in the 1870s.
« L'instruction primaire supérieure comprend nécessairement, en outre, les éléments de la géométrie et ses applications usuelles, spécialement le dessin linéaire et l'arpentage, des notions des sciences physiques et de l'histoire naturelle applicables aux usages de la vie, le chant, les éléments de l'histoire et de la géographie, et surtout de l'histoire et de la géographie de la France. » (Guizot Law 1833, Article 1).
The decline around 1870 is related to the Franco-German war. From 1870 onwards, Alsace-Moselle does not belong to France anymore, making the national record of steam engines decreasing mechanically.
Basses-Alpes, Hautes-Alpes, Ariège, Cantal, Corrèze, Corse, Creuse, Landes, Lot, Lot-et-Garonne, Lozère, Basses-Pyrénées, Hautes-Pyrénées, Pyrénées-Orientales, Haute-Vienne and Yonne.
We do not choose a more recent time period, like 1786–1790 or 1816–1820, because these two more recent measures can plausibly be correlated with the industrial era.
Due to the lack of available data, we use the number of primary schools per 10 000 inhabitants and the number of municipalities with no school in 1837 as a proxy for the density of the educational network in the 1840s. We make the assumption that the educational network varied slowly. To check robustness, we test the number of municipalities with no school in 1850. Estimates are very similar.
Due to data constraints, we consider enrolments in classes for adults in 1837 as a proxy for 1840. The relationship remains nonsignificant when considering a 10-year lag.
References
Allen RC (2003) Progress and poverty in early modern Europe. Econ Hist Rev 56(3):403–443
Briand JP, Chapoulie JM (1992) Les collèges du peuple. L’enseignement primaire supérieur et le développement de la scolarisation prolongée sous la Troisième République. INRP/CNRS/ENS, Paris
Christen C (2014a) Jalons pour une histoire de l’éducation industrielle destinée aux ouvriers adultes au XIXe siècle. Les Études Sociales 1:3–9
Christen C (2014b) L’éducation industrielle vue par la presse ouvrière dans les années 1840. Les Études Sociales 159(1):65–83
Christen C, Besse L (dir.) (2017) Histoire de l’éducation populaire 1815–1945. Perspectives françaises et internationales, Villeneuve d’Ascq, Presses universitaires du Septentrion (Histoire et Civilisations)
Clark G (2005) The condition of the working class in England, 1209–2004. J Political Econ 113(6):1307–1340
David PA (1990) The dynamo and the computer: an historical perspective on the modern productivity paradox. Am Econ Rev 80(2):355–361
De La Croix D, Doepke M, Mokyr J (2018) Clans, guilds, and markets: apprenticeship institutions and growth in the pre-industrial economy. Q J Econ 133(1):1–70
De Pleijt AM, Weisdorf J (2017) Human capital formation from occupations: the ‘deskilling hypothesis’ revisited. Cliometrica 11(1):1–30
De Pleijt AM, Nuvolari A, Weisdorf J (2019) Human capital formation during the first industrial revolution: evidence from the use of steam engines. J Eur Econ Assoc. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvz006
d’Enfert R (2017) École du peuple et scolarisation post-élémentaire: Les débuts de l’école primaire supérieure fondée par la ville de Paris (1839–1852). Revue d’histoire du XIXe siècle 55(2):43–57
Diebolt C, Jaoul M, San-martino G (2005) Le mythe de Ferry: une analyse cliométrique. Revue d’Economie Politique 115(4):471–497
Diebolt C, Le Chapelain C, Ménard A (2019) Learning outside the factory: the impact of technological change on the rise of adult education in nineteenth-century France. Eur J Hist Econ Thought 26(4):775–800
Feldman NE, van der Beek K (2016) Skill choice and skill complementarity in eighteenth century England. Explor Econ Hist 59(January):94–113
Franck R, Galor O (2018) Technology-skill complementarity in the early phase of industrialization. IZA Discussion Paper Series n°9758
Furet F, Ozouf J (1977) Lire et écrire: l’alphabétisation des Français de Calvin à Jules Ferry, Paris, Éditions de Minuit, 2
Galor O, Moav O, Vollrath D (2009) Inequality in landownership, the emergence of human-capital promoting institutions, and the great divergence. Rev Econ Stud 76(1):143–179
Goldin C, Katz LF (1998) The origins of technology-skill complementarity. Q J Econ 113(3):693–732
Grew R, Harrigan P (1991) School, state, and society: the growth of elementary schooling in nineteenth-century France: a quantitative analysis. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor
Hall RE, Jones CI (1996) The productivity of nations, Working paper No. 5812, National Bureau of Economic Research
Hall RE, Jones CI (1999) Why do some countries produce so much more output per worker than others? Q J Econ 94:83–116
Humphries J (2003) English apprenticeship: a neglected factor in the first industrial revolution. In: David PA, Thomas M (eds) The economic future in historical perspective. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Katz O (2018) Railroads, economic development, and the demographic transition in the United States. Working Paper. University Library of Munich, Germany
Kelly M, Mokyr J, Gráda CÓ (2014) Precocious Albion: a new interpretation of the British industrial revolution. Annu Rev Econ 6(1):363–389
Lelièvre C (1988) L’offre et la demande d’éducation populaire: les cours d’adultes dans la Somme, 1860–1940. Histoire de l’éducation 37:17–46
McCloskey DN (2010) Bourgeois dignity: why economics can’t explain the modern world. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Meisenzahl R, Mokyr J (2012) The rate and direction of invention during the industrial revolution: incentives and institutions. In: Lerner J, Stern S (eds) The rate and direction of inventive activity revisited. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 443–479
Mitch D (1999) The role of education and skill in the British industrial revolution. In: Mokyr J (ed) The British industrial revolution: an economic perspective, 2nd edn. Boulder, Westview, pp 241–279
Mokyr J (1990) The lever of riches: technological creativity and technological progress. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Mokyr J (1993) Editor’s introduction: the new economic history and the industrial revolution. In: Mokyr J (ed) The British industrial revolution: an economic perspective. Boulder, Westview
Mokyr J (2005) Long-term economic growth and the history of technology. In: Aghion P, Durlauf S (eds) Handbook of economic growth, vol 1. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 1113–1180
Nicholas SJ, Nicholas JM (1992) Male literacy, “deskilling,” and the industrial revolution. J Interdiscip Hist 23(1):1–18
Nuvolari A, Verspagen B, von Tunzelmann N (2011) The early diffusion of the steam engine in Britain, 1700–1800: a reappraisal. Cliometrica 5(3):291–321
Prost A (1968) L’enseignement en France, 1800–1967. Armand Colin, Paris
Rosenberg N, Trajtenberg M (2004) A general-purpose technology at work: the Corliss steam engine in the late-nineteenth-century United States. J Econ Hist 64(1):61–99
Sandberg LG (1979) The case of the impoverished sophisticate: human capital and Swedish economic growth before World War I. J Econ Hist 39(1):225–241
Squicciarini M, Voigtländer N (2015) Human capital and industrialization: evidence from the age of enlightenment. Q J Econ 30(4):1825–1883
Tamura R (2002) Human capital and the switch from agriculture to industry. J Econ Dyn Control 27(2):207–242
Zeev NB, Mokyr J, Van Der Beek K (2017) Flexible supply of apprenticeship in the british industrial revolution. J Econ Hist 77(1):208–250
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank Joerg Baten, Joyce Burnette, Alexandra De Pleijt, Chris Minns, Kevin O’Rourke, Alessandro Nuvolari, Douglas Puffert, Claudia Rei, Jacob Weisdorf and Jeffrey Williamson for helpful comments and discussions during the 8th World Congress of Cliometrics. We are also grateful to Robin Cowan, Michael Haupert, David Le Bris, Julien Pénin, the audience of the Cournot Seminar and the participants at the “Cliometrics” session during the 66th AFSE Congress. We are deeply indebted to the University of Lyon III, the University of Strasbourg (BETA), the Association De Dietrich and the Association Française de Cliométrie for their financial and scientific support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Appendices
Appendix 1
See Fig. 4.
Number of steam engines in use in France (1839–1900), number of industries in France using the steam technology (1840–1900) and the steam power in use in France (1840–1900)
Appendix 2
See Fig. 5.
Number of steam engines against distance to Fresnes, in 1839, 1861 and 1886: scatter plots and linear prediction
Appendix 3
Summary statistics for cross-sectional analyses
Variable | Obs. | Mean | SD | Min. | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Steam engines | |||||
Steam engines (number in 1839) | 87 | 29.21839 | 78.66923 | 0 | 500 |
Steam engines (number in 1861) | 89 | 177.5843 | 339.6053 | 0 | 2195 |
Steam engines (number in 1886) | 87 | 603.1149 | 818.2184 | 7 | 5156 |
Human capital | |||||
1839 | |||||
Basic skills | |||||
Schools per 10,000 inhabitants 1837 | 86 | 16.37105 | 6.576636 | 4.87 | 35.41 |
Number of municipalities with no school in 1837 | 86 | 65.89535 | 58.81797 | 0 | 271 |
Proportion of conscripts in 1871–1875 | 86 | 65.74767 | 18.22843 | 26.1 | 96.3 |
Intermediate skills | |||||
Number of men in classes for adults in 1837 | 86 | 429.814 | 775.1765 | 0 | 4354 |
Number of men in EPS in 1840 | 89 | 171.4045 | 288.0978 | 0 | 2317 |
1861 | |||||
Basic skills | |||||
Number of municipalities with no school in 1863 | 89 | 9.191011 | 14.81697 | 0 | 94 |
Proportion of conscripts in 1851–1855 | 87 | 82.47241 | 11.13518 | 50.9 | 98.7 |
Schools per 10,000 inhabitants in 1863 | 89 | 19.93674 | 8.013606 | 1.99 | 61.79 |
Intermediate skills | |||||
Number of individuals in EPS in 1882 | 86 | 348.0116 | 607.7334 | 0 | 4956 |
Number of individuals in classes for adults in 1863 | 89 | 1411.764 | 2178.488 | 0 | 15,017 |
1886 | |||||
Basic skills | |||||
Schools per 10,000 inhabitants in 1886 | 86 | 24.28488 | 8.632967 | 6.4 | 59.1 |
Number of municipalities with no school in 1886 | 85 | 0.9411765 | 1.966099 | 0 | 12 |
Proportion of conscripts in 1886 | 86 | 94.97674 | 4.243214 | 80.6 | 99.7 |
Intermediate skills | |||||
Number of individuals in classes for adults in 1886 | 89 | 2032.27 | 4082.784 | 0 | 32,370 |
Number of individuals in EPS in 1886 | 86 | 445.6512 | 686.3865 | 0 | 5616 |
Instrument and controls | |||||
Distance to Fresnes (aerial distance in km) | 89 | 497.5562 | 220.6439 | 43 | 999.5 |
Distance to Paris (aerial distance in km) | 89 | 365.4663 | 188.7642 | 0 | 918.86 |
Literacy (percent of grooms who signed their marriage license in 1686–1690) | 76 | 18.96816 | 10.87633 | 3.68 | 45.66 |
Latitude | 89 | 46.42664 | 2.105079 | 41.9192 | 50.6292 |
Fertile soil (in 1837) | 86 | 84,608.93 | 100,777.4 | 0 | 429,000 |
Cultivable land (in 1834) | 86 | 215,814.2 | 90,405.15 | 29,278 | 416,770 |
Royal roads (number in 1824) | 86 | 6.953488 | 3.184178 | 3 | 25 |
Population density (in 1801) | 86 | 1314.895 | 2757.644 | 0 | 26,316 |
Maritime | 89 | 0.258427 | 0.4402502 | 0 | 1 |
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Diebolt, C., Le Chapelain, C. & Menard, A.R. Neither the elite, nor the mass. The rise of intermediate human capital during the French industrialization process. Cliometrica 15, 167–202 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11698-019-00199-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11698-019-00199-6