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Leaving Their Mark: Using Danish Student Grade Lists to Construct a More Detailed Measure of Historical Human Capital

Ford, Nicholas LU ; Ranestad, Kristin LU and Sharp, Paul (2022) In Rivista di Storia Economica 1. p.29-56
Abstract
We provide a brief overview of the educational history of Denmark and document archival and printed sources covering the development of primary, secondary, and tertiary education. In particular, we focus on student grade lists, which are available for individuals at all levels of education from the early Nineteenth century until well into the Twentieth century. We suggest that these can be used to construct more detailed measures of human capital than those usually employed, making it possible to deconstruct aggregate levels and types of education into e.g., science or humanities, as well as to measure the extent to which this was actually learned, as captured by the grades achieved. Given the role usually attributed to human capital for... (More)
We provide a brief overview of the educational history of Denmark and document archival and printed sources covering the development of primary, secondary, and tertiary education. In particular, we focus on student grade lists, which are available for individuals at all levels of education from the early Nineteenth century until well into the Twentieth century. We suggest that these can be used to construct more detailed measures of human capital than those usually employed, making it possible to deconstruct aggregate levels and types of education into e.g., science or humanities, as well as to measure the extent to which this was actually learned, as captured by the grades achieved. Given the role usually attributed to human capital for development, and perhaps particularly with regards to the Nordic countries, such data has the potential to greatly increase our understanding of how Denmark became the rich and successful country it is today. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Denmark, grade lists, human capital
in
Rivista di Storia Economica
volume
1
pages
28 pages
publisher
Societa Editrice Il Mulino
external identifiers
  • scopus:85133847357
ISSN
0393-3415
DOI
10.1410/102500
project
The life course of graduates: Assessing the economic effects of education in Scandinavia, 1880–1920
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
4abe658a-4cf5-47ac-8c6e-06ba0de015bc
date added to LUP
2023-04-22 14:57:36
date last changed
2023-04-24 13:13:06
@article{4abe658a-4cf5-47ac-8c6e-06ba0de015bc,
  abstract     = {{We provide a brief overview of the educational history of Denmark and document archival and printed sources covering the development of primary, secondary, and tertiary education. In particular, we focus on student grade lists, which are available for individuals at all levels of education from the early Nineteenth century until well into the Twentieth century. We suggest that these can be used to construct more detailed measures of human capital than those usually employed, making it possible to deconstruct aggregate levels and types of education into e.g., science or humanities, as well as to measure the extent to which this was actually learned, as captured by the grades achieved. Given the role usually attributed to human capital for development, and perhaps particularly with regards to the Nordic countries, such data has the potential to greatly increase our understanding of how Denmark became the rich and successful country it is today.}},
  author       = {{Ford, Nicholas and Ranestad, Kristin and Sharp, Paul}},
  issn         = {{0393-3415}},
  keywords     = {{Denmark; grade lists; human capital}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{29--56}},
  publisher    = {{Societa Editrice Il Mulino}},
  series       = {{Rivista di Storia Economica}},
  title        = {{Leaving Their Mark: Using Danish Student Grade Lists to Construct a More Detailed Measure of Historical Human Capital}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1410/102500}},
  doi          = {{10.1410/102500}},
  volume       = {{1}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}