Books do not die: the price of information, Human Capital and the Black Death in the long fourteenth century

Eltjo Buringh

No 55, Working Papers from Utrecht University, Centre for Global Economic History

Abstract: The overall price trend of late-medieval hand-written books was downwards, despite rising demand by a more literate population, causing upward pressure on prices. Gradually, higher writing speeds reduced late-medieval book prices. A lower price of information facilitated schooling and an increase in human capital. The plague’s demographic shock (1348-1351) reduced used book prices to one half or two-thirds of their pre-plague levels, while production costs of new books then rose. Cheaper access to information (used books) in combination with other post-plague trend breaks gave human capital in the Latin West a boost, and laid a foundation for modern economic growth.

Keywords: : hand-written books; human capital; economic growth; black death; books (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2014-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro, nep-his and nep-hrm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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