The session focuses on the accumulation of human capital and “productive” skills, which is one of the salient features of the process of modern economic growth. This process is coupled with wage differentials between skilled and unskilled workers (skill premium) and it is characterized in terms of a “race” between education and technology as described by Goldin and Katz (2008) in their seminal book. The first paper looks at France during the XIX century by testing if the introduction of steam engines was skill and labour saving. The other two papers focus on Italy since the mid-XIX century up to WWI and analysing respectively the effect of institutions of pre-unification regional states on the human capital formation of the new Kingdom of Italy (paper 2) and on the of the level of skill premium during the Liberal age (paper 3). All papers are empirical grounded and presenting new data.

1. Alexandra de Pleijt (Queen’s University Belfast and University of Oxford), Leonardo Ridolfi (Sant’Anna Schools of Advanced Studies) and Jacob Weisdorf (University of Southern Denmark and CEPR), Is general purpose technology skill- and labour-saving? Evidence from the use of steam engines
2. Monica Bozzano (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) and Gabriele Cappelli (University of Siena), The legacy of history or the outcome of reforms? Primary education and literacy in Liberal Italy (1871-1911)
3. Giovanni Federico (University of Pisa), Alessandro Nuvolari (Sant’Anna Schools of Advanced Studies), Leonardo Ridolfi (Sant’Anna Schools of Advanced Studies) and Michelangelo Vasta (University of Siena), The race between the snail and the tortoise: skill premium and early industrialization in Italy (1861-1913)