How does economic modernization affect group identity? Modernization theory emphasizes how labor migration led to the adoption of common identities. Yet economic development may reduce incentives to emigrate, preserving local cultures. We study England and Wales during the Second Industrial Revolution, a period characterized by the development of new industries and declines in transportation and communication costs. Using microdata on individuals’ names and migration decisions, we quantify identity change and its variation across space. We develop and estimate a quantitative spatial model in which migration and cultural identities are inter-dependent. Different components of economic modernization had different effects on identity change. Falling migration costs homogenized peripheral regions. In contrast, industrial development led to heterogeneity, increasing the overall prevalence of the culture of London, while also creating local identity holdouts by reducing out-migration from industrializing peripheries. Modernization promotes both national identities and persistent local identities in peripheral regions that industrialize.
Authors
- Acknowledgements & Disclosure
- The authors would like to thank Rikhil Bhavnani, Volha Charnysh, Gary Cox, Amir Goldberg, David Laitin, Jonathan Rodden, Kenneth Scheve, Alain Schläpfer, Marco Tabellini, Yanos Zylberberg and seminar participants at Jinan University, the University of Copenhagen Workshop on Migration and Culture, the Stanford GSB Workshop on Cultural Evolution and Organizational Theory, the 2024 APSA Annual Meeting and the 2024 ASSA Annual Meeting for helpful feedback. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3386/w33114
- Pages
- 102
- Published in
- United States of America
Table of Contents
- These changes in migration rates in turn are associated with cultural change. Models 17
- Building on the results of Table 2 we model migration and identity decisions explicitly in 21
- Figure 7 Binned scatterplots of cultural transmission tastes cultural amenities and 31
- Figures A.8B which plot counterfactual changes in migration to the Southeast under 1851 36
- This section reviews a number of additional analyses that extend or reinforce our findings. 41
- Journal of the Royal 47
- American Economic 47
- Econometrica 47
- Journal of Political Economy 49
- Notes and Records the Royal 49
- Green Elliott. 2022. 50
- Historical Methods A Journal of 51
- The 51
- Journal of International Economics 51
- History of Modern Britain Volume 1 Industrialisation 1700-1860 51
- Creative Ways to apply Historical 52
- The Review of 53
- Frechet shock the equivalent of in our model is interpreted as a location-specific skill. 86
