Essays on British labour markets during the Second Industrial Revolution
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Vancouver School of Economics
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Milner, Benjamin
issued: 2020-11-25T20:45:58Z
issued: 2020
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Chapter 1 examines the importance of public education to occupational outcomes and intergenerational mobility. The UK's 1870 Education Act, which introduced a public education system in England and Wales, provides a unique historical context in which to explore this. Using newly digitized historical records and a regression kink design, I find that public school access improved a child's chance of obtaining an occupation requiring literacy in adulthood by as much as 13 pp. To study the reform's effect on intergenerational mobility, I link father-son pairs across time using full-count historical censuses. I find that by targeting the lower classes, public school introduction significantly improved intergenerational mobility, decreasing the adult outcome gap between high- and low- class children by over 10%. Chapter 2 demonstrates how legislation can change the incentives for human capital accumulation in resource-dependant communities, and in doing so help insure against future resource busts. I examine the UK's 1860 Mining Act, which made literacy or schooling a prerequisite for children seeking to work in mines. Using a triple difference specification and full-count census records linked across decades, I find that by decreasing the opportunity cost and increasing the returns to schooling, the Act led to increased human capital acquisition among the children of coal miners. This improved their likelihood of holding human capital-intensive occupations in adulthood, particularly among children residing in parishes that subsequently experienced mining busts. Chapter 3 explores the effects conflict continues to have on labour and marriage markets even after the shooting stops. Using variation in First World War death rates across British communities, I find higher conflict death rates are associated with a fall in poverty, particularly among men, and an increase in employment, particularly among women. Together, these results suggest that while high death rates improve…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/76580
note: Essays on British Labour Markets During the SecondIndustrial RevolutionbyBenjamin MilnerB.A. (Honours), University of Saskatchewan, 2012M.A., Queen’s University, 2013A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OFTHE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OFDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHYinThe Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies(Economics)THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA(Vancouver)November 2020c© Benjamin Milner, 2020The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty ofGraduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation titled:Essays on British Labour Markets During the Second Industrial Revolutionsubmitted by Benjamin Milner in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree ofDoctor of Philosophy in Economics.Examining Committee:Mauricio Drelichman, Associate Professor, Economics, UBCSupervisorFelipe Valencia Caicedo, Assistant Professor, Economics, UBCSupervisory Committee MemberThomas Lemieux, Professor, Economics, UBCUniversity ExaminerChristopher Kam, Associate Professor, Political Science, UBCUniversity ExaminerAdditional Supervisory Committee Members:Nicole Fortin, Professor, Economics, UBCSupervisory Committee MemberMarit Rehavi, Associate Professor, Economics, UBCSupervisory Committee MemberiiAbstractChapter 1 examines the importance of public education to occupational outcomes and inter-generational mobility. The UK’s 1870 Education Act, which introduced a public educationsystem in England and Wales, provides a unique historical context in which to explore this.Using newly digitized historical records and a regression kink design, I find that public schoolaccess improved a child’s chance of obtaining an occupation requiring literacy in adulthoodby as much as 13 pp. To study the reform’s effect on intergenerational mobility, I linkfather-son pairs across time using full-count historical censuses. I find that by targeting thelower classes, public school introduction significantly improved intergenerational mobility,d…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2021-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0395034
language: eng
degree discipline: Economics
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/76580