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  5. Fighting for Growth: Labor Scarcity and Technological Progress During the British Industrial Revolution

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Fighting for Growth: Labor Scarcity and Technological Progress During the British Industrial Revolution

  • Hans-Joachim Voth ⓡ
  • Bruno Caprettini ⓡ
  • Alex Trew
American Economic Review (Forthcoming)

Abstract

We establish a link between labor scarcity and the adoption of labor-saving technology in industrializing England. During the Napoleonic Wars, more than 10 percent of the male population served in the armed forces. Where recruitment was heavy, more machines economizing on labor were adopted. Naval recruitment, instrumented by warships’ coastal access, provides exogenous variation in labor scarcity and suggests that the link between labor shortages and adoption is causal. Where mechanical skills were abundant, the impact of labor scarcity on adoption appears to be larger.

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