Industrial activities and primary schooling in early nineteenth-century France

Adrien Montalbo
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Adrien Montalbo: PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: This article investigates the relation between industrial activities and the expansion of primary instruction in early nineteenth-century France. To do so, I use a newly constituted database on the location and characteristics of primary schools at the level of municipalities. This database is extracted from the Guizot Survey conducted in 1833, before the implementation of the first national law making the opening of a school mandatory in any municipality more than 500 inhabitants. By using mineral deposits as an instrument, I first show that the presence of industrial activities and the level of industrial production in a given municipality were positively influencing the presence of primary schools. Second, I show that this was due to an income effect thanks to which municipalities were capable of attracting teachers and of more frequently paying them on a regular basis. Other economic factors, as the agricultural resources of districts, and geographical or demographical factors as population dispersion were also important in explaining the location of primary schools. Finally, I show that this came at a price in terms of children enrolment in schools. The same economic factors were contributing to a diversion of children from schools, either because of a relative impoverishment of workers or because of an increased opportunity cost of schooling.

Keywords: primary instruction; industrial activities; nineteenth-century France (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-ure
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