Essays in the Economic History of Media

Alexander Taylor

Advisor: Noel D Johnson, PhD, Department of Economics

Committee Members: Mark Koyama, Jonathan F. Schulz

Online Location, Zoom
March 29, 2024, 01:00 PM to 03:00 PM

Abstract:

This dissertation explores the causes and consequences of changes in "media," broadly construed, using causal inference techniques. The first chapter examines the political effects of Confederate monuments in the southern United States, establishing their concrete influence on voting behavior. The second chapter explores the effect of the Black Death pandemic on the adoption of the Gutenberg printing press in 15th century Europe, documenting that market size affects the adoption of capital-intensive forms of production. The third paper investigates the relative influence of vernacular language Bibles and vernacular translation dictionaries in the explosion of non-Latin printing, demonstrating the power of books to shape language.

Chapter one, currently revise & resubmit at Explorations in Economic History, explores the contemporaneous effects of Confederate monuments in the Post-Reconstruction South. I first combine monument, election, and census data to create a panel dataset of monument dedications in former confederate counties between 1878-1912. Then, using a generalized difference-in-differences design and event studies, I measure the effect of monument dedications on voting behavior and demographic outcomes. I find that monument dedications led to increases in Democratic party vote shares, decreases in voter turnout, and decreases in Black population shares. I also find varying effects based on the era of monument dedication, the intensity of monument-building, and monument characteristics. Finally, I show that Black out-migration does not explain monuments' political effects, supporting my argument that monuments influenced the beliefs of the local population. The results have implications for current debates over Confederate monuments in the United States.

Chapter two, co-authored with Noel Johnson and Andrew Thomas, leverages plausibly exogenous variation in mortality from the Black Death (1347-1352) across European cities to estimate the causal impact of market size on early print adoption. Using the universe of data from the Universal Short Title Catalogue we create a database linking early European printed material to historical city populations. We find that cities whose populations were more heavily impacted by the Black Death were less likely to be early adopters of the press and printed fewer unique book editions. We also provide evidence that beyond own-city mortality there were also spatial spillovers from the Black Death shock.

Chapter three explores the relative impact of vernacular language Bibles and Latin to vernacular translation dictionaries on printed language diversity in early modern Europe. Using data from the Universal Short Title Catalogue, a database containing the universe of known book editions printed in the first centuries of moveable-type printing, I construct a language-city panel dataset of vernacular Bible and vernacular translation dictionary printings in European cities from 1450--1650. I then use quasi-experimental generalized difference-in-difference and event study designs to assess the impact of these books on the extensive and intensive margins of the rise of non-Latin printing. I find that both types of books are associated with a temporary increase in the likelihood more vernacular books are printed in the print city. However, dictionaries cause a gradual increase in vernacular printing over time, where Bibles cause an immediate and sustained increase. The results have implications for our understanding of the rise and standardization of vernacular languages.