Engineering Growth

Felipe Valencia Caicedo and William Maloney

No 15144, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper offers the first systematic historical evidence on the role of a central actor in modern growth theory—the engineer. It collects cross-country and state level data on the labor share of engineers for the Americas, and county level data on engineering and patenting for the U.S. during the Second Industrial Revolution. These are robustly correlated with income today after controlling for literacy, other types of higher order human capital (e.g. lawyers, physicians) and demand side factors, as well as after instrumenting engineering using the 1862 Land Grant Colleges program. A one standard deviation increase in engineers in 1880 accounts for 10% higher US county incomes today, while patenting capacity contributes another 10%. To document the mechanisms through which engineering density works, we show how it supported technology adoption and structural transformation across intermediate time periods, and is strongly correlated with numerous measures of the knowledge economy today.

Keywords: Engineers; Innovation; Human capital; Technology diffusion; Patents; Growth; Structural transformation; Development; History (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 N10 O11 O30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro and nep-his
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