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Viktor Malein

Postdoctoral fellow

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The Persistence of the Economic Power of Elites, Expansion of Education and Industrial Transition

Author

  • Viktor Malein

Summary, in English

This paper studies the economic impacts of land ownership concentration among the aristocratic elite in the Russian Empire. I document that areas with a higher concentration of noble land ownership were associated with lower levels of primary education during 1880-1911. Exploring the mechanisms, I show that by controlling local governments the landed elites decreased public spending on education, shifting the financial burden to peasant households. Furthermore, I demonstrate that the presence of large noble estates established constraints on educational demand by diminishing relative agricultural wages. Finally, the paper identifies a significant negative influence of landed elites on industrial growth and firm productivity, with up to 56% of this effect attributable to the human capital channel.

Department/s

  • Department of Economic History
  • Centre for Economic Demography

Publishing year

2024-05-03

Language

English

Document type

Working paper

Publisher

SSRN

Topic

  • Economic History

Keywords

  • Land concentration
  • Education
  • Serfdom
  • Industrialization
  • I24
  • O43
  • Q15
  • N33

Status

Published