Bruno Caprettini
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Prof. Ph.D.
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Caprettini
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Bruno
Email
bruno.caprettini@unisg.ch
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+41 71 224 7750

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  • Publication
    New Deal, New Patriots: How 1930s Government Spending Boosted Patriotism During World War II
    (Oxford University Press, 2022)
    Caprettini, Bruno
    ;
    Voth, Hans-Joachim
    We demonstrate an important complementarity between patriotism and public-good provision. After 1933, the New Deal led to an unprecedented expansion of the U.S. federal government’s role. Those who benefited from social spending were markedly more patriotic during World War II: they bought more war bonds, volunteered more, and, as soldiers, won more medals. This pattern was new—World War I volunteering did not show the same geography of patriotism. We match military service records with the 1940 census to show that this pattern holds at the individual level. Using geographical variation, we exploit two instruments to suggest that the effect is causal: droughts and congressional committee representation predict more New Deal agricultural support, as well as bond buying, volunteering, and medals.
    Type: journal article
    Journal: The Quarterly Journal of Economics
    Volume: 138
    Issue: 1
    DOI: 10.1093/qje/qjac028
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/109216
    Scopus© Citations 7
  • Publication
    Fighting for Growth: Labor Scarcity and Technological Progress During the British Industrial Revolution
    ( 2022-12-06)
    Voth, Hans-Joachim
    ;
    Caprettini, Bruno
    ;
    Trew, Alex
    We collect new data and present new evidence on the effects of labor scarcity on the adoption of labor-saving technology in industrializing England. Where the British armed forces recruited heavily, more machines that economized on labor were adopted. For purposes of identification, we focus on naval recruitment. Using warships' ease of access to coastal locations as an instrument, we show that exogenous shocks to labor scarcity led to technology adoption. The same shocks are only weakly associated with the adoption of non-labor saving technologies. Importantly, there is also a synergy between skill abundance and labor scarcity boosting technology adoption. Where labor shortages led to labor-saving machine adoption, technology afterwards improved more rapidly.
    Type: conference contribution
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/118461
  • Publication
    Fighting for Growth: Labor Scarcity and Technological Progress During the British Industrial Revolution
    ( 2022-12-06)
    Voth, Hans-Joachim
    ;
    Caprettini, Bruno
    ;
    Trew, Alex
    We collect new data and present new evidence on the effects of labor scarcity on the adoption of labor-saving technology in industrializing England. Where the British armed forces recruited heavily, more machines that economized on labor were adopted. For purposes of identification, we focus on naval recruitment. Using warships' ease of access to coastal locations as an instrument, we show that exogenous shocks to labor scarcity led to technology adoption. The same shocks are only weakly associated with the adoption of non-labor saving technologies. Importantly, there is also a synergy between skill abundance and labor scarcity boosting technology adoption. Where labor shortages led to labor-saving machine adoption, technology afterwards improved more rapidly.
    Type: conference contribution
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/118462
  • Publication
    Fighting for Growth: Labor Scarcity and Technological Progress During the British Industrial Revolution *
    ( 2022-12-06)
    Voth, Hans-Joachim
    ;
    Caprettini, Bruno
    ;
    Trew, Alex
    We collect new data and present new evidence on the effects of labor scarcity on the adoption of labor-saving technology in industrializing England. Where the British armed forces recruited heavily, more machines that economized on labor were adopted. For purposes of identification, we focus on naval recruitment. Using warships' ease of access to coastal locations as an instrument, we show that exogenous shocks to labor scarcity led to technology adoption. The same shocks are only weakly associated with the adoption of non-labor saving technologies. Importantly, there is also a synergy between skill abundance and labor scarcity boosting technology adoption. Where labor shortages led to labor-saving machine adoption, technology afterwards improved more rapidly.
    Type: conference contribution
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/118463
  • Publication
    You Only Weave Twice: Industrial Espionage and Economic Growth in XIX Century France
    ( 2023)
    Bruno Caprettini
    ;
    Julian Langer
    ;
    Raffaele Pio Blasone
    Can state-sponsored industrial espionage promote innovation and lead to self-sustained growth? We study the effect of 18th century French industrial espionage activity on French innovation and industrial activity in the XIX century. Between 1730 and 1800 the French Bureau of Commerce promoted an ambitious plan aimed at stealing from Britain the new technologies of the Industrial Revolution, bribing British entrepreneurs and inventors to leave England and bring their expertise to France. We assemble a novel database with a comprehensive list of French espionage activity between 1730-1800 and combine it with newly-digitized 17th 18th century industrial surveys, 1800s industrial censuses, and the full list of early French patents. We find large, positive, and persistent effects of industrial espionage on industrial activity and innovation.
    Type: presentation
    URL: https://economia.unipd.it/dsea-seminars/dsea-seminars/economics-seminars
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/118712