scholarly journals Human Capital Formation During the First Industrial Revolution: Evidence from the use of Steam Engines

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 829-889 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra de Pleijt ◽  
Alessandro Nuvolari ◽  
Jacob Weisdorf
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Technological Change ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Capital Formation ◽  
Human Capital Formation ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Synthetic Indicator ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Rock Strata ◽  
Carboniferous Rock

Abstract We examine the effect of technical change on human capital formation during England's Industrial Revolution. Using the number of steam engines installed by 1800 as a synthetic indicator of technological change and occupational statistics to measure working skills (using HISCLASS), we establish a positive correlation between the use of steam engines and the share of skilled workers at the county level. We use exogenous variation in carboniferous rock strata (containing coal to fuel the engines) to show that the effect was causal. While technological change stimulated the formation of working skills, it had an overall negative effect on the formation of primary education, captured by literacy and school enrolment rates. It also led to higher gender inequality in literacy.

scholarly journals HUMAN CAPITAL AND ITS ROLE IN THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yelyzaveta Snitko ◽  
Yevheniia Zavhorodnia
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Technological Change ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽  
Modern Economy ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Impact

The development of a modern economy, in the context of the fourth industrial revolution, is impossible without the accumulation and development of human capital, since the foundation of the transformation of the economic system in an innovative economy is human capital. In this regard, the level of development and the efficiency of using human capital are of paramount importance. This article attempts to assess the role of human capital in the fourth industrial revolution. In the future, human talent will play a much more important role in the production process than capital. However, it will also lead to a greater division of the labor market with a growing gap between low-paid and high-paid jobs, and will contribute to an increase in social tensions. Already today, there is an increase in demand for highly skilled workers, especially in high-income countries, with a decrease in demand for workers with lower skills and lower levels of education. Analysis of labor market trends suggests that the future labor market is a market where there is simultaneously a certain demand for both higher and lower skills and abilities, combined with the devastation of the middle tier. The fourth industrial revolution relies heavily on the concept of human capital and the importance of finding complementarity between human and technology. In assessing the impact of the fourth industrial revolution, the relationship between technology, economic growth and human resources was examined. The analysis was carried out in terms of three concepts of economic growth, technological change and human capital. Human capital contributes to the advancement of new technologies, which makes the concept of human capital an essential factor in technological change. The authors emphasize that the modern economy makes new demands on workers; therefore it is necessary to constantly accumulate human capital, develop it through continuous learning, which will allow the domestic economy to enter the trajectory of sustainable economic growth. The need to create conditions for a comprehensive increase in the level of human capital development is noted.

Closing the Gender Gap in Human Capital Formation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution

2020 ◽  
pp. 177-204
Author(s):  
Tinuke Fapohunda
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Economic Cost ◽  
Capital Formation ◽  
Human Capital Formation ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Wealth Of Nations

Disparities in gender calculations in several nations have originated turbulence in multinational platforms in the recent past. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals list gender equality and women empowerment as the fifth of the eight goals. This study scrutinizes the gender gaps in human capital formation. It demonstrated the economic cost of gender inequality in human capital formation (losses in human capital attributable to gender inequality are estimated at $160.2 trillion) and considered some clear-cut involvements that can ease the realization of greater equality. To boost women's human capital formation, investments throughout the life cycle are obligatory. Successful involvements can be affected to tackle time use restrictions, support access to productive assets, and resolve market and institutional disappointments that reprimand women. Spending on girls and women is indispensable not only to boosting gender equality and the changing wealth of nations but also allowing nations to grow in maintainable manners.

scholarly journals Technology-Skill Complementarity in Early Phases of Industrialization

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphaël Franck ◽  
Oded Galor
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Capital Formation ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Human Capital Formation ◽  
Regional Variations ◽  
Technology Skill ◽  
Early Phases

Abstract The research explores the effect of early industrialization on human capital formation. Exploiting exogenous regional variations in the adoption of steam engines across France, the study suggests that, in contrast to conventional wisdom that views early industrialization as a predominantly deskilling process, the industrial revolution was conducive for human capital formation, generating wide-ranging gains in literacy rates and educational attainment. However this increase in human capital formation was limited to basic literacy and numeracy and did not entail an increase in the share of pupils in middle and high-school in the population.

Earnings related pension schemes and human capital formation

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
FABIAN KINDERMANN
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Capital Investment ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Capital Formation ◽  
Generation Model ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Tax Structure ◽  
Human Capital Formation ◽  
Skilled Workers

AbstractIn this paper, I show that traditional earnings related pay-as-you-go pension systems as we see them in many OECD countries subsidize human capital formation. The reason is that these systems come along with an implicit tax structure that features high tax rates at the beginning of working life and low tax rates toward the end. When the costs of human capital investment are mainly time costs, such an implicit tax structure lowers the costs of human capital investments and simultaneously increases the payoff. The fact that higher skilled workers tend to have steeper wage profiles over the working phase than the unskilled enforces this mechanism. I first show this result in a simple analytical model and then quantify the macroeconomic and welfare effects of making the implicit tax structure age independent in a large-scale overlapping generation model, in which households can invest in human capital both by going to college and through on-the-job training. In terms of welfare, such a reform comes along with a lot of intergenerational redistribution. Although the welfare of current retirees may increase by about 4.5% of their remaining life-time resources, current older workers will lose due to an increase in their implicit tax rates. The welfare of future generations slightly declines by 0.1%.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document