IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/116235.html

Gender gap and spatial disparities in the evolution of literacy in Spain, 1860-1910

Author

Listed:
  • Gutiérrez, José Manuel
  • Quiroga Valle, Gloria

Abstract

This article considers the dynamics of Spanish literacy in the period 1860-1910, characterized by local councils’ responsibility of public elementary education. To this end, it is built a harmonized series of the literacy of the population aged ten or over, disaggregated by sex and province. Marked spatial differences and a very large gender gap can be observed. Five clusters are determined according to the male literacy rates of the provinces in 1860; these clusters prove to have explanatory power all along the period and for both sexes. A parsimonious statistical model of the evolution of male literacy during the period, introducing linguistics variables, shows a considerable temporal stability of the spatial distribution of male literacy. The model of the evolution of female literacy presents similarities with that of male literacy, although now the initial state (in 1860) is not described by female literacy, but yet by male literacy. All in all, the evolution of literacy in Spain between 1860 and 1910 did not follow the spatial pattern of the economic modernization process. Besides, there was no correlation between birth rates and literacy rates of children, for both sexes, and the same can be said of the correlation between urbanization and literacy. Considering the West European context, the Spanish literacy process during the period 1860-1910 was a failure, except for the geographical area of the first cluster.

Suggested Citation

  • Gutiérrez, José Manuel & Quiroga Valle, Gloria, 2023. "Gender gap and spatial disparities in the evolution of literacy in Spain, 1860-1910," MPRA Paper 116235, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:116235
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/116235/1/MPRA_paper_116235.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/118534/1/Alfabetizaci%C3%B3n%201860-1910.pdf
    File Function: revised version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alexandra de Pleijt & Alessandro Nuvolari & Jacob Weisdorf, 2020. "Human Capital Formation During the First Industrial Revolution: Evidence from the use of Steam Engines," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(2), pages 829-889.
    2. Bernard Baffour & Thomas King & Paolo Valente, 2013. "The Modern Census: Evolution, Examples and Evaluation," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 81(3), pages 407-425, December.
    3. Oded Galor, 2011. "Unified Growth Theory and Comparative Development," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, issue 2, pages 9-21, April-Jun.
    4. Gabriele Cappelli & Gloria Quiroga Valle, 2021. "Female teachers and the rise of primary education in Italy and Spain, 1861–1921: evidence from a new dataset," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 74(3), pages 754-783, August.
    5. Gabriele Cappelli & Michelangelo Vasta, 2020. "Can school centralization foster human capital accumulation? A quasi‐experiment from early twentieth‐century Italy," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 73(1), pages 159-184, February.
    6. Oded Galor, 2011. "Unified Growth Theory," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9477, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Adrian Palacios-Mateo, 2023. "Education and household decision-making in Spanish mining communities, 1877–1924," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 17(2), pages 301-340, May.
    2. Björn Brey, 2021. "The Long-run Gains from the Early Adoption of Electricity," Working Papers ECARES 2021-23, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    3. Gabriele Cappelli & Michelangelo Vasta, 2021. "A “Silent Revolution”: school reforms and Italy’s educational gender gap in the Liberal Age (1861–1921)," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 15(1), pages 203-229, January.
    4. Oded Galor, 2024. "Unified Growth Theory: Roots of Growth and Inequality in the Wealth of Nations," NBER Working Papers 33288, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Carillo, Mario F., 2024. "Human capital composition and long-run economic growth," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    6. Galor, Oded, 2024. "Unified Growth Theory: Engines of Growth and Inequality in the Wealth of Nations," IZA Discussion Papers 17491, IZA Network @ LISER.
    7. Katz‬‏, ‪Ori, 2018. "Railroads, Economic Development, and the Demographic Transition in the United States," MPRA Paper 88869, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Gabriele Cappelli & Gloria Quiroga Valle, 2021. "Female teachers and the rise of primary education in Italy and Spain, 1861–1921: evidence from a new dataset," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 74(3), pages 754-783, August.
    9. Tomas Cvrcek & Miroslav Zajicek, 2019. "The rise of public schooling in nineteenth-century Imperial Austria: Who gained and who paid?," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 13(3), pages 367-403, September.
    10. Kawalec Paweł, 2020. "The dynamics of theories of economic growth: An impact of Unified Growth Theory," Economics and Business Review, Sciendo, vol. 6(2), pages 19-44, June.
    11. Thomas Baudin & Robert Stelter, 2022. "The rural exodus and the rise of Europe," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 365-414, September.
    12. Herrera-Almanza, Catalina & McCarthy, Aine Seitz, 2025. "Strategic Responses to Disparities in Spousal Desired Fertility: Experimental Evidence from Rural Tanzania," IZA Discussion Papers 18115, IZA Network @ LISER.
    13. Casey, Gregory & Galor, Oded, 2017. "Is faster economic growth compatible with reductions in carbon emissions? The role of diminished population growth," MPRA Paper 76164, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Jeremy Greenwood & Nezih Guner & Guillaume Vandenbroucke, 2017. "Family Economics Writ Large," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1346-1434, December.
    15. Li, Defu & Bental, Benjamin, 2023. "What determines the Direction of Technological Progress(2023.11.16)?," MPRA Paper 119211, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 16 Nov 2023.
    16. Thomas I. Renström & Luca Spataro, 2021. "Optimal taxation in an endogenous growth model with variable population and public expenditure," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 23(4), pages 639-659, August.
    17. Richard S. J. Tol, 2021. "The Economic Impact of Climate in the Long Run," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Anil Markandya & Dirk Rübbelke (ed.), CLIMATE AND DEVELOPMENT, chapter 1, pages 3-36, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    18. Darrell J. Glaser & Ahmed S. Rahman, 2017. "Development and Retention of Human Capital in Large Bureaucracies," Departmental Working Papers 60, United States Naval Academy Department of Economics.
    19. Hu, Sijie, 2025. "Celebrating legacy: The intergenerational transmission of reproduction and human capital in Ming-Qing Chinese families," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1572, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    20. Franck, Raphaël & Galor, Oded, 2021. "Flowers of evil? Industrialization and long run development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 108-128.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • N3 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:116235. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.