The Equally 'Bad' French and English Farmers of Quebec: New TFP Measures from the 1831 Census

Type of resource
Authors/collaborators
Title
The Equally 'Bad' French and English Farmers of Quebec: New TFP Measures from the 1831 Census
Abstract
The authors use new Total-Factor Productivity (TFP) estimates drawn from the neglected census of 1831 for Lower Canada to test the dominant traditional “poor French farmers” explanation for a prolonged economic crisis. The authors argue that new evidence shows that French-speaking areas of Lower Canada were equally as productive as English-speaking areas, something that challenges the established consensus and reinforces the minority viewpoint that culture had little to do with the crisis. Using a broad range of controls, the authors find that their conclusion is robust and that other variables such as settlement recency, environment, and economic structure were much more significant determinants of TFP. They would like that their results warrant the abandonment of the cultural explanation and a shift toward other explanatory channels.
Publication
Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History
Volume
Vol. 50
Issue
no. 3
Pages
170-189
Date
2017
Language
en
Citation
Geloso, Vincent, Michael Hinton, and Vadim Kufenko. “The Equally ‘Bad’ French and English Farmers of Quebec: New TFP Measures from the 1831 Census.” Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History Vol. 50, no. 3 (2017): 170–189.
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