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‘Getting to Denmark’: the role of agricultural elites for development

Author

Listed:
  • Nina Boberg-Fazlic

    (TU Dortmund University)

  • Peter Sandholt Jensen

    (Linnaeus University)

  • Markus Lampe

    (Vienna University of Economics and Business)

  • Paul Sharp

    (University of Southern Denmark)

  • Christian Volmar Skovsgaard

    (University of Southern Denmark)

Abstract

We explore the role of elites for development and the spread of industrialized dairying in Denmark in the 1880s. We demonstrate that the location of early proto-modern dairies, introduced by landowning elites from northern Germany in the eighteenth century, explains the location of industrialized dairying in 1890: an increase of one standard deviation in elite influence increases industrialized dairying by 56 percent of the mean exposure in one specification. We interpret this as evidence for a spread of ideas from the elites to the peasantry, which we capture through measures of specialization in dairying and demand for education and identify a causal relationship using an instrument based on distance to the influential first mover. Finally, we demonstrate that areas with cooperatives enjoyed greater wealth by the twentieth century, and that they are today associated with other Danish cultural attributes: a belief in democracy and individualism.

Suggested Citation

  • Nina Boberg-Fazlic & Peter Sandholt Jensen & Markus Lampe & Paul Sharp & Christian Volmar Skovsgaard, 2023. "‘Getting to Denmark’: the role of agricultural elites for development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 525-569, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jecgro:v:28:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s10887-023-09226-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10887-023-09226-8
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Institutions; Technology; Knowledge spillovers; Landowning elites; Cooperatives; Denmark;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N53 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • Q13 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; Agribusiness

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