Francesco Cinnirella
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View article: Flow of Ideas: Economic Societies and the Rise of Useful Knowledge
Flow of Ideas: Economic Societies and the Rise of Useful Knowledge Open
Economic societies emerged during the late eighteenth century. We argue that these institutions reduced the costs of accessing useful knowledge by adopting, producing and diffusing new ideas. Combining location information for the universe…
View article: Prussia disaggregated: the demography of its universe of localities in 1871
Prussia disaggregated: the demography of its universe of localities in 1871 Open
We provide, for the first time, a detailed and comprehensive overview of the demography of more than 50,000 towns, villages, and manors in 1871 Prussia. We study religion, literacy, fertility, and group segregation by location type (town, …
View article: Froebel'S Gifts: How the Kindergarten Movement Changed the American Family
Froebel'S Gifts: How the Kindergarten Movement Changed the American Family Open
Public educators and philanthropists in the late 19th century United States promoted the establishment of kindergartens in cities as a remedy for the social problems associated with industrialization and immigration. Between 1880 and 1910,…
View article: Capital-skill complementarity and the emergence of labor emancipation
Capital-skill complementarity and the emergence of labor emancipation Open
This paper advances a novel hypothesis regarding the historical roots of labor emancipation. It argues that the decline of coercive labor institutions in the industrial phase of development has been an inevitable by-product of the intensif…
View article: Prussia Disaggregated: The Demography of its Universe of Localities in 1871
Prussia Disaggregated: The Demography of its Universe of Localities in 1871 Open
We provide, for the first time, a detailed and comprehensive overview of the demography of more than 50,000 towns, villages, and manors in 1871 Prussia. We study religion, literacy, fertility, and group segregation by location type (town, …
View article: Further Evidence of Within-Marriage Fertility Control in Pre-Transitional England
Further Evidence of Within-Marriage Fertility Control in Pre-Transitional England Open
The identification of parity effects on the hazard of a next birth in cross-family data requires accounting for heterogeneity in fecundity across couples. In a previously published article, Cinnirella et al. Demography, 54, 413–436 (2017),…
View article: Religious Tolerance as Engine of Innovation
Religious Tolerance as Engine of Innovation Open
We argue that, for a given level of scientific knowledge, tolerance and diversity are conducive to technological creativity and innovation. In particular, we show that variations in innovation within Prussia during the second industrial re…
View article: Malthus in the Bedroom: Birth Spacing as Birth Control in Pre-Transition England
Malthus in the Bedroom: Birth Spacing as Birth Control in Pre-Transition England Open
We use duration models on a well-known historical data set of more than 15,000 families and 60,000 births in England for the period 1540–1850 to show that the sampled families adjusted the timing of their births in accordance with the econ…
View article: Malthus in the Bedroom: Birth Spacing as Birth Control in Pre-Transition England
Malthus in the Bedroom: Birth Spacing as Birth Control in Pre-Transition England Open
We use duration models on a well-known historical dataset of more than 15,000 families and 60,000 births in England for the period 1540–1850 to show that the sampled families adjusted the timing of their births in accordance with the econo…
View article: Nation Building: The Role of Central Spending in Education
Nation Building: The Role of Central Spending in Education Open
It is generally argued that, in the context of Imperial Germany, public primary education was used to form “loyal citizens” and to build a nation. In this paper we analyze to what extent central spending on primary education affected parti…
View article: The Cost of Decentralization: Linguistic Polarization and the Provision of Education
The Cost of Decentralization: Linguistic Polarization and the Provision of Education Open
In this paper we argue that different preferences in a decentralized system lead to under provision of public goods. We analyze the provision of public primary education in nineteenth-century Prussia which was characterized by a linguistic…