Human Capital, Technology Diffusion, and Economic Growth: Evidence from PrussianCensus Data

摘要

Prussia was a latecomer to the Industrial Revolution. Many researchers argue that she lacked the institutional preconditions for sustained economic growth. Throughout the eighteenth century, Prussia had been under strong conservative feudal rule. Tumescent calls for reforms remained disregarded until the lack of reforms was blamed for Prussia's defeat in the Napoleonic Wars in 1806. During the Napoleonic occupation period, until the Congress of Vienna (1815) reorganized the national boundaries of Europe, the "Stein-Hardenberg Reforms" changed the basic institutional setting, affecting all members of society in Prussia. These reforms were the foundations that allowed the country to become one of the economic leaders, by the end of the nineteenth century (Pierenkemper and Tilly 2004, pp. 23-41).