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New media, firms, ideas, and growth: European cities after Gutenberg

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  • Dittmar, Jeremiah

Abstract

Gutenberg's printing press was the great revolution in Renaissance information technology. This paper presents new evidence on media markets, knowledge transmission, and city growth across Europe 1450-1600. The paper construct- s comprehensive firm-level panel data on the number and subjects of book titles printed each year by the 7,000+ printing firms operating in over 300 European cities 1450-1600. Information from historical books is used to identify the dates at which printers died prematurely and management control of their firms passed to widows or heirs. Firms where managers died prematurely experienced large nega- tive shocks to output. However, at the city-level manager deaths were associated with significant increases in (i) entrance and (ii) production by incumbent firms with product line specializations similar to that of the firm losing its manager. On net, manager deaths increased competition and city-level output. The variation in city-level supply induced by heterogeneous manager deaths is used to identify the impact of print media on city-level population growth. Local access to printed merchants' manuals used in business education was particularly associated with growth. New micro data on book prices document the inter-city trade costs that generated local spillovers.

Suggested Citation

  • Dittmar, Jeremiah, 2013. "New media, firms, ideas, and growth: European cities after Gutenberg," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 53569, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:53569
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    File URL: https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/53569/
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Maria Rosaria Carillo & Vincenzo Lombardo & Alberto Zazzaro, 2015. "Family Firms and Entrepreneurial Human Capital in the Process of Development," CSEF Working Papers 400, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • N13 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N33 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N93 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D

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