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

Ford, Nick LU ; Ranestad, Kristin LU and Sharp, Paul (2021) In EHES Working Paper
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 education into e.g. knowledge of 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 education into e.g. knowledge of 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 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
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Denmark, grade lists, human capital, education, marks, graduate, exams, examinations, I21, N33, N34
in
EHES Working Paper
issue
207
pages
23 pages
publisher
European Historical Economics Society
project
The life course of graduates: Assessing the economic effects of education in Scandinavia, 1880–1920
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
957d68ac-89bb-40f0-8d2b-fb72e0e9c92e
alternative location
http://www.ehes.org/EHES_207.pdf
date added to LUP
2021-02-02 13:00:26
date last changed
2022-11-08 12:16:24
@misc{957d68ac-89bb-40f0-8d2b-fb72e0e9c92e,
  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 education into e.g. knowledge of 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 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, Nick and Ranestad, Kristin and Sharp, Paul}},
  keywords     = {{Denmark; grade lists; human capital; education; marks; graduate; exams; examinations; I21; N33; N34}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{02}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{207}},
  publisher    = {{European Historical Economics Society}},
  series       = {{EHES Working Paper}},
  title        = {{Leaving Their Mark : Using Danish Student Grade Lists to Construct a More Detailed Measure of Historical Human Capital}},
  url          = {{http://www.ehes.org/EHES_207.pdf}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}