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Disentangling the demographic determinants of the English take-off: 1530-1860

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  • BOUCEKKINE, Raouf

    (Université catholique de Louvain (UCL). Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE))

  • DE LA CROIX, David

    (Université catholique de Louvain (UCL). Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE))

  • PEETERS, Dominique

    (Université catholique de Louvain (UCL). Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE))

Abstract

We propose amodelwith some of themain demographic, economic and institutional factors usually considered to matter in the transition to modern growth. We apply our theory to England over the period 1530-1860. We use the model to measure the impact of mortality, population density and technological progress on school foundations, literacy and growth through a set of experiments. We find that one third of the rise in literacy over the period 1530-1850 can be directly related to the rise in population density, while one sixth is linked to higher longevity and one half to exogenous total factor productivity growth. Moreover, the timing of the effect of population density in the model is consistent with the available evidence for England, where it is shown that schools were established at a high rate over the period 1540-1620.

Suggested Citation

  • BOUCEKKINE, Raouf & DE LA CROIX, David & PEETERS, Dominique, 2007. "Disentangling the demographic determinants of the English take-off: 1530-1860," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2007033, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    • Handle: RePEc:cor:louvco:2007033
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    Cited by:

    1. Joerg Baten & Jan Zanden, 2008. "Book production and the onset of modern economic growth," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 217-235, September.
    2. Alexandra M. de Pleijt & Jan Luiten van Zanden, 2016. "Accounting for the “Little Divergence”: What drove economic growth in pre-industrial Europe, 1300–1800?," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 20(4), pages 387-409.
    3. Raouf Boucekkine & Bity Diene & Theophile Azomahou, 2008. "Growth Economics of Epidemics: A Review of the Theory," Mathematical Population Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 1-26.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts

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