Technology and Innovation
Paper Session
Friday, Jan. 7, 2022 3:45 PM - 5:45 PM (EST)
- Chair: Shari Eli, University of Toronto
'Mechanization Takes Command': Powered Machinery and Production Times in Late Nineteenth Century American Manufacturing
Abstract
During the nineteenth century, U.S. manufacturers shifted from “hand” to “machine labor,” fundamentally changing production tasks, jobs, and job requirements. This paper uses digitized data from an 1899 US Commissioner of Labor report to estimate the frequency and impact of the use of inanimate power on production times. About half of production operations were mechanized; and use of inanimate power raised productivity, accounting for one-quarter to one-third of the overall productivity advantage of machine labor. Additional factors, such as the increased division of labor and adoption of high-volume production, also played important roles in raising productivity.All Is Water: Technological Complementarities and Path Dependence in Indian Agriculture
Abstract
What are the myriad ways in which history impacts economic development? I examine this question in the context of structural transformation in Indian agriculture which dramatically improved food production but has led to an environmental crisis. I find that districts with colonial investments in irrigation i.e. a canal built before 1931 were associated with successful adoption of ‘Green Revolution’ practices between 1955-1985. Additionally, districts where canals were proposed in 1857 but never built continue to have worse agricultural outcomes more than a century later, despite having similar land suitability. Finally, I show that places that adopted modern practices are, paradoxically, facing depleting groundwater today. The findings suggest that control over water is an important mechanism through which history has persisting effects.Was Domar Right? Serfdom and the Land-Labour Ratio in Bohemia
Abstract
Are institutions shaped by economic fundamentals? Labor-coercion institutions such as serfdom, which profoundly restricted economic growth, were ascribed by Domar (1970) to high land-labor ratios. But other theoretical approaches argued the opposite, and historical evidence appeared to refute this idea. We carry out the first multivariate analysis of factor proportions and serfdom, using data for over eleven thousand serf villages in Bohemia (the Czech lands). We hold constant political-economy variables by analyzing a specific serf society, and also control for village and estate characteristics that may have obscured the impact of factor endowments in previous studies. The net effect of higher land-labor ratios, we find, was to increase labor coercion. The impact intensified when landlords extracted labor in human-animal teams, and diminished as land-labor ratios rose. Outside options in the urban sector exerted no effect. Controlling for other factors, we conclude, institutions are indeed partly shaped by economic fundamentals.Discussant(s)
Petra Moser
,
New York University
Martin Rotemberg
,
New York University
Latika Hartmann
,
Naval Postgraduate School
Erik Hornung
,
University of Cologne
JEL Classifications
- N7 - Transport, Trade, Energy, Technology, and Other Services
- O3 - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights