Deskilling in Germany? An Inquiry into the German Industrial Revolution

It is generally considered that industrialization is accompanied by an increase in the skills of the workforce. However, this complementarity between human and material capital is controversial, particularly in the early phases of the industrial revolution. It is indeed possible that mechanization, by promoting the division of labor, led to a simplification of tasks and thus to a lower demand for skilled labor. This is the so-called de-skilling hypothesis. The aim of this article is to test this hypothesis using Prussian data from the first half of the 19th century. Industrialization is measured at the county level by the number of workers in the metallurgy sector in 1849. An identification strategy based on the county's proximity to coal mines reveals a negative causal impact of industrialization on schooling rates. This effect seemed to persist right up to the eve of German unification.