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Modern Library Holdings and Historic City Growth

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  • Chaney, Eric

Abstract

This paper uses more than 30 million records from the union of the world’s largest library collections to provide a novel proxy for historic economic activity. Changes in the number of authors affiliated with a city strongly correlate with existing population growth estimates. An empirical Bayes approach exploits this correlation to improve upon current data and provide new growth estimates where none exist. The paper concludes by using the new data to revisit urban growth during the rise of the Atlantic trade.

Suggested Citation

  • Chaney, Eric, 2020. "Modern Library Holdings and Historic City Growth," CEPR Discussion Papers 14686, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14686
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Thomas Baudin & David de la Croix, 2023. "The Emergence of the Child Quantity-Quality Tradeoff - insights from early modern academics," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2023015, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    2. David de la Croix & Pauline Morault, 2020. "Winners and Losers from the Protestant Reformation: An Analysis of the Network of European Universities," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2020029, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    3. Duc A. Nguyen & Steven Brakman & Harry Garretsen & Tristan Kohl, 2023. "What’s in a Name? Initial Geography and German Urban Development," CESifo Working Paper Series 10435, CESifo.

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