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​Change and Persistence in the Age of Modernization: Saint-Germain-d'Anxure, 1730-1895 with Romain Wacziarg
Explorations in Economic History, Vol 78, October 2020 - doi 10.1016/j.eeh.2020.101352 - online appendix

Abstract Using a unique, comprehensive household-level dataset for a single French village (1730-1895), we study the process of modernization during a period of rapid institutional and demographic transformation. We document changes in fertility, mortality, human capital and intergenerational social mobility. The fall in fertility followed the French Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, and preceded the rise in education by several decades. Rising literacy was mostly the result of an increase in the supply of schooling due to the Guizot Law, rather than demand side forces. All these changes occurred in the absence of industrialization in and around the village. We conclude that institutional and cultural changes originating outside the village were likely the dominant forces explaining its modernization.​

Awarded: Larry Neal Prize 2021 for best article published in Explorations in Economic History
Coverage: Anderson Review​ and Public Discourse