Research Seminar on Diversity and Development Raphaël Franck "Labor Scarcity, Technology Adoption and Innovation: Evidence from the Cholera Pandemics in 19th Century France"

HSE International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development (ICSID) and NES Center for the Study of Diversity and Social Interactions are pleased to announce their next joint Research Seminar on Diversity and Development. The event is held jointly with the seminar “Political Economy”.

Raphaël Franck (Department of Economics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem) will present his paper “Labor Scarcity, Technology Adoption and Innovation: Evidence from the Cholera Pandemics in 19th Century France”.

The seminar will be held at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 2, 2021. 

Working language of the seminar is English.
Abstract: To analyze the effect of labor scarcity on technology adoption and innovation, this study uses the differential spread of cholera across France in 1832, 1849 and 1854, before the transmission mode of this disease was understood. The results suggest that a larger share of cholera deaths in the population, which can be causally linked to summer temperature levels, had a positive and significant effect on technology adoption and innovation in agriculture in the mid-run but a negative and significant impact on technology adoption in industry in the short-run.  These results, which are not driven by migration, urbanization, religiosity or local financial intermediation, can be explained by the positive effect of labor scarcity on human capital formation.

The seminar will be held online: https://zoom.us/j/94590475179
If you have any questions please contact Valeria Kotelnikova (vkotelnikova@hse.ru)

We look forward to seeing you!
Kind regards,
ICSID and NES CSDSI