Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP14138
Authors: Karine van der Beek; Joel Mokyr; Assaf Sarid
Abstract: This paper examines the effect of the early adoption of technology on the evolution of human capital and industrialization, in the context of Britain’s Industrial Revolution. We demonstrate that millwrights, eighteenth century specialists in advanced carpentry and hydraulic machinery, evolved following the diffusion of watermills, and are recorded in the Domesday Book survey (1086). Our results suggest that their availability was a major factor in determining the persistence of English industrial location from the thirteenth century to the eve of the Industrial Revolution. Furthermore, in locations that adopted watermills in the Middle Ages, we show that the availability of physical infrastructure and of highly skilled wrights jointly determined the location of English industry from the end of the thirteenth century to the eve of the Industrial Revolution.
Keywords: human capital; industrialization; economic growth; mechanical skills; watermill; england
JEL Codes: O14; O15; O33; N00; N13; N53; N73; N93
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| number of domesday mills recorded in 1086 (N63) | persistence of industrial locations in England (N93) |
| wrights (J83) | spatial distribution of the textile and iron-making industries (R12) |
| number of domesday mills recorded in 1086 (N63) | emergence of advanced industrial techniques (O14) |
| number of domesday mills recorded in 1086 (N63) | number of wright apprentices in the early eighteenth century (1710-1750) (N63) |