Geography, land inequality and regional numeracy in Europe in historical perspective

@article{Baten2018GeographyLI,
  title={Geography, land inequality and regional numeracy in Europe in historical perspective},
  author={Joerg Baten and Ralph Hippe},
  journal={Journal of Economic Growth},
  year={2018},
  volume={23},
  pages={79-109}
}
We find a relationship between geographic factors and numeracy in more than 300 regions of Europe around the year 1900. We argue that the distribution of land ownership is a plausible mechanism, given that it is related to the geographic factors under study. Consistent with theoretical studies in the Unified Growth Theory framework, we find that inequality in land distribution has a negative correlation with human capital formation as landowners did not have incentives to promote educational… 
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