Shared Knowledge, Shared Lives: Literacy Spillovers in Rural Spanish Households, 1906–1920

Opeyemi Afolabi Femi-Oladunni
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Opeyemi Afolabi Femi-Oladunni: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid; Universidad Europea de Madrid; Universidad Pontificia Comillas

No 304, Working Papers from European Historical Economics Society (EHES)

Abstract: This article reconceptualises literacy as a household resource rather than an individual endowment, using linked census and fiscal microdata from rural Spain (1906–1920) to estimate its returns for illiterate co-residents and test whether the economic boom induced literacy adoption. Findings revealed that co-residing with a literate household member raised illiterate individuals' income by 1.2 percent in the pooled sample and 2.1 percent during the Vineyard Boom, with women gaining up to 4 percent compared with 2 percent for men. Wealth effects were absent or negative, and illiterate members' income and wealth shares fell by 3 and 6–9 percentage points respectively, revealing that literate members captured a disproportionate share of the gains. Farm households, where spillover returns were highest, increased literacy adoption by 12.7 percentage points by 1920 in response to the boom. The household emerges as the arena in which literacy's benefits are both generated and contested.

Keywords: Literacy spillovers; Rural Spain; Human capital; Rural Households (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 I24 J24 N33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-06
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hes:wpaper:0304

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