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Elites and the Expansion of Education in 19th-century Sweden

Andersson, Jens LU and Berger, Thor LU (2016) In Lund Papers in Economic History: Education and the Labour Market
Abstract
Did economic and political inequality hamper the spread of mass schooling in the 19th century? This paper analyzes the link between investments in primary schooling and the spread of voting rights in 19th-century Sweden using newly collected data on educational expenditure and the distribution of voting rights in local governments. We find that municipalities governed by local elites spent substantially more on primary schooling relative to those that were more egalitarian. This empirical result is robust to using matching estimators, comparing municipalities located within the same county or district, and using differences in agricultural suitability as an instrument for the presence of local landed elites. Broadly, these findings suggest... (More)
Did economic and political inequality hamper the spread of mass schooling in the 19th century? This paper analyzes the link between investments in primary schooling and the spread of voting rights in 19th-century Sweden using newly collected data on educational expenditure and the distribution of voting rights in local governments. We find that municipalities governed by local elites spent substantially more on primary schooling relative to those that were more egalitarian. This empirical result is robust to using matching estimators, comparing municipalities located within the same county or district, and using differences in agricultural suitability as an instrument for the presence of local landed elites. Broadly, these findings suggest that elites were historically not always a barrier to the diffusion of elementary education and further our understanding of how Sweden managed to maintain a high level of human capital despite its low level of economic development and restricted franchise in the 19th century. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Democratization, elites, human capital development, I21, I24, N33
in
Lund Papers in Economic History: Education and the Labour Market
issue
149
pages
32 pages
publisher
Department of Economic History, Lund University
ISSN
1101-346X
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
2ef9cf61-a470-42c7-b791-e60df23d697b
date added to LUP
2016-10-07 13:14:42
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:26:29
@misc{2ef9cf61-a470-42c7-b791-e60df23d697b,
  abstract     = {{Did economic and political inequality hamper the spread of mass schooling in the 19th century? This paper analyzes the link between investments in primary schooling and the spread of voting rights in 19th-century Sweden using newly collected data on educational expenditure and the distribution of voting rights in local governments. We find that municipalities governed by local elites spent substantially more on primary schooling relative to those that were more egalitarian. This empirical result is robust to using matching estimators, comparing municipalities located within the same county or district, and using differences in agricultural suitability as an instrument for the presence of local landed elites. Broadly, these findings suggest that elites were historically not always a barrier to the diffusion of elementary education and further our understanding of how Sweden managed to maintain a high level of human capital despite its low level of economic development and restricted franchise in the 19th century.}},
  author       = {{Andersson, Jens and Berger, Thor}},
  issn         = {{1101-346X}},
  keywords     = {{Democratization; elites; human capital development; I21; I24; N33}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{149}},
  publisher    = {{Department of Economic History, Lund University}},
  series       = {{Lund Papers in Economic History: Education and the Labour Market}},
  title        = {{Elites and the Expansion of Education in 19th-century Sweden}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/13625993/LUP149.pdf}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}