abstract: 'Using the Ensenada Cadastre, a unique database on Castilian households

  circa 1750, this paper provides new evidence on the relationship between

  human capital and male labor earnings in eighteenth-century Spain. Human

  capital is proxied by individual indicators of basic skills (literacy

  and numeracy) and of occupational skills. We employ a Mincerian

  regression approach and find a positive and statistically significant

  association between skills and average earnings. Although we cannot

  reliably assess causality in the observed relationship, these findings

  are robust to conditioning on household composition, job

  characteristics, and place of residence. Nonetheless, further testing

  indicates that the earnings gradient associated with literacy is driven

  mainly by unobservable variables (e.g., ability, family background) that

  explain both the worker''s acquisition of this skill and his earnings.

  The estimated associations are stronger for urban than for rural workers

  and are highly heterogeneous across activity sectors. Our analysis

  reveals that workers with higher skills were not only better remunerated

  in their main occupation but also more likely to diversify their

  earnings through ``by-employment{''''}. Finally, quantile regression

  analysis indicates that earnings disparities between workers with

  different skills were much smaller at the lower than the upper end of

  the earnings distribution. This evidence suggests that, in

  pre-industrial Castile, human capital may have contributed to inequality

  of earnings. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.'
affiliation: 'Palencia, FR (Corresponding Author), Univ Pablo Olavide, Dept Econ,
  Carretera Utrera Km 1, Seville 41013, Spain.

  Alvarez, Begona, Univ Vigo, Dept Appl Econ, Campus Lagoas Marcosende, Vigo 36310,
  Spain.

  Ramos Palencia, Fernando, Univ Pablo Olavide, Dept Econ, Carretera Utrera Km 1,
  Seville 41013, Spain.'
author: Alvarez, Begona and Ramos Palencia, Fernando
author-email: 'alvarez@uvigo.es

  fernando.ramos.palencia@gmail.com'
author_list:
- family: Alvarez
  given: Begona
- family: Ramos Palencia
  given: Fernando
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1016/j.eeh.2017.10.005
eissn: 1090-2457
files: []
issn: 0014-4983
journal: EXPLORATIONS IN ECONOMIC HISTORY
keywords: 'Literacy; Numeracy; Occupational skills; Pre-industrial Spain;

  Individual earnings; Skill premia'
keywords-plus: 'TECHNOLOGICAL DIFFUSION; WESTERN-EUROPE; INEQUALITY; SPAIN; EDUCATION;

  LITERACY; SKILLS; PARTICIPATION; 19TH-CENTURY; FERTILITY'
language: English
month: JAN
number-of-cited-references: '112'
orcid-numbers: 'Alvarez, Begoña/0000-0003-1756-7014

  Ramos-Palencia, Fernando/0000-0002-4677-2730

  Palencia, Fernando Ramos/0000-0002-4677-2730'
pages: 105-133
papis_id: 62b69d3116d269a2a90d3f57ba1b5424
ref: Alvarez2018humancapital
researcherid-numbers: 'Alvarez, Begoña/H-9724-2015

  Ramos-Palencia, Fernando/E-8556-2016

  Palencia, Fernando Ramos/N-5092-2019'
times-cited: '17'
title: Human capital and earnings in eighteenth-century Castile
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000424188200006
usage-count-last-180-days: '0'
usage-count-since-2013: '9'
volume: '67'
web-of-science-categories: Economics; History Of Social Sciences
year: '2018'