Luddites and the Demographic Transition

Kevin O'Rourke, Alan Taylor and Ahmed Rahman

No 7045, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Technological change was unskilled-labor-biased during the early Industrial Revolution, but is skill-biased today. This is not embedded in extant unified growth models. We develop a model which can endogenously account for these facts, where factor bias reflects profit maximizing decisions by innovators. Endowments dictate that the early Industrial Revolution be unskilled-labor-biased. Increasing basic knowledge causes a growth takeoff, an income-led demand for fewer educated children, and the transition to skill-biased technological change. The simulated model tracks British industrialization in the 18th and 19th centuries and generates a demographic transition without relying on either rising skill premia or exogenous educational supply shocks.

Keywords: Demography; Endogenous growth; Unified growth theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 J24 N10 O31 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-dge and nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP7045 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Luddites and the Demographic Transition (2008)
Working Paper: Luddites and the Demographic Transition (2008)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7045

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP7045

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CEPR ().