Authors: Christopher L. Colvin (@ClioChris), Stuart Henderson and Eoin McLaughlin (@eoinaldo) Dozens of papers are published every year that take some source of historical age data and then infer human capital from anomalies in its distribution. Finding new demographic data and applying the now-standard age heaping toolkit has become something of an industry. So long […]
To Block or Not: Why the British Ruling Elite Enabled the Industrial Revolution during the 18th Century
Author: Emrah Gülsunar Twitter: @GulsunarEng For centuries before the Industrial Revolution, ruling elites used their political power to block or constrain technological and economic development in many countries from China to Europe with motivations to protect their power, keep economic rents, or avoid social disturbances. Accordingly, it was possible for the British ruling elite to […]