The Persistence of the Economic Power of Elites, Expansion of Education and Industrial Transition
(2024)- Abstract
- This paper studies the economic impacts of land ownership concentration among the aristocratic elite in the Russian Empire. I document that areas with a higher concentration of noble land ownership were associated with lower levels of primary education during 1880-1911. Exploring the mechanisms, I show that by controlling local governments the landed elites decreased public spending on education, shifting the financial burden to peasant households. Furthermore, I demonstrate that the presence of large noble estates established constraints on educational demand by diminishing relative agricultural wages. Finally, the paper identifies a significant negative influence of landed elites on industrial growth and firm productivity, with up to 56%... (More)
- This paper studies the economic impacts of land ownership concentration among the aristocratic elite in the Russian Empire. I document that areas with a higher concentration of noble land ownership were associated with lower levels of primary education during 1880-1911. Exploring the mechanisms, I show that by controlling local governments the landed elites decreased public spending on education, shifting the financial burden to peasant households. Furthermore, I demonstrate that the presence of large noble estates established constraints on educational demand by diminishing relative agricultural wages. Finally, the paper identifies a significant negative influence of landed elites on industrial growth and firm productivity, with up to 56% of this effect attributable to the human capital channel. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/806b6b4f-6f7e-4df7-9981-384d8381562d
- author
- Malein, Viktor LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024-05-03
- type
- Working paper/Preprint
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Land concentration, Education, Serfdom, Industrialization, I24, O43, Q15, N33
- publisher
- SSRN
- DOI
- 10.2139/ssrn.4738889
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 806b6b4f-6f7e-4df7-9981-384d8381562d
- alternative location
- https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4738889
- date added to LUP
- 2024-05-06 14:02:01
- date last changed
- 2024-05-06 15:49:27
@misc{806b6b4f-6f7e-4df7-9981-384d8381562d, abstract = {{This paper studies the economic impacts of land ownership concentration among the aristocratic elite in the Russian Empire. I document that areas with a higher concentration of noble land ownership were associated with lower levels of primary education during 1880-1911. Exploring the mechanisms, I show that by controlling local governments the landed elites decreased public spending on education, shifting the financial burden to peasant households. Furthermore, I demonstrate that the presence of large noble estates established constraints on educational demand by diminishing relative agricultural wages. Finally, the paper identifies a significant negative influence of landed elites on industrial growth and firm productivity, with up to 56% of this effect attributable to the human capital channel.}}, author = {{Malein, Viktor}}, keywords = {{Land concentration; Education; Serfdom; Industrialization; I24; O43; Q15; N33}}, language = {{eng}}, month = {{05}}, note = {{Working Paper}}, publisher = {{SSRN}}, title = {{The Persistence of the Economic Power of Elites, Expansion of Education and Industrial Transition}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4738889}}, doi = {{10.2139/ssrn.4738889}}, year = {{2024}}, }