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SUMMARY:Progress in the pipeline: cholera\, politics and the waterworks re
 volution in Germany.​ - Daniel Gallardo Albarrán (Wageningen University
 )​
DTSTART:20250219T160000Z
DTEND:20250219T173000Z
UID:TALK226978@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Jenny Bishop
DESCRIPTION:European countries paved the way for modern economic growth du
 ring the nineteenth century with large-scale reforms facilitating human ca
 pital accumulation. The literature has investigated the drivers of this pr
 ocess by looking at the role of elites in broad education investments. How
 ever\, less attention has been devoted to understanding the provision of i
 nfrastructures promoting workers' health\, a key component of human capita
 l at the time. This paper tests the hypothesis whether capital-labour prod
 uction complementarities in the production process compelled economic and 
 political elites to invest in public health goods. We relate the extraordi
 nary and sudden decline in working-age population caused by the 1866 chole
 ra epidemic in Germany to subsequent construction of piped water supplies.
  Our results show that cities affected by the epidemic were approximately 
 6 percentage points more likely to build waterworks compared to cities wit
 hout the epidemic. An instrumental variable approach supports the causal i
 nterpretation of our results. In addition\, we find that capital-skill com
 plementarities were an important driver of investment in health infrastruc
 tures. We show that commercial cities\, employing more valuable workers\, 
 exposed to cholera were more likely to build waterworks. Also\, shocked pl
 aces with a greater share of literate workers invested in these systems ea
 rlier than their counterparts with lower levels of human capital\, particu
 larly in the first two decades after the epidemic.
LOCATION:Rm 101\, William Hardy Building\, Department of Geography\, Downi
 ng Site
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