Abstract
During the first half of the twentieth century, Puerto Rico saw rapid progress in expanding primary education. However, as elsewhere in Latin America, there were pronounced regional differences in the rates of increased schooling. Due to its varied crop suitability and detailed records from the US colonial government, Puerto Rico is an ideal setting to explore the role of agriculture in explaining regional variation in the growth of education. This chapter presents a newly constructed panel dataset of enrollment and attendance rates by counties between 1907 and 1943. It finds that differing agricultural production technologies, alongside policy decisions and rates of urbanization, help explain why the growth rate of education varied across regions. JEL: N16, N56, O15. We benefited from comments and suggestions from Francisco Eslava, Felipe Grosso, Maria Camila Jimenez, Brian Marein, Chris Meissner, Felipe Valencia, and participants at U. del Rosario Econ Workshop and the UC Davis Economic History coffee hour.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Roots of Underdevelopment A New Economic and Political History of Latin America and the Caribbean : a new economic and political history of Latin America and the Caribbean |
| Editors | Felipe Valencia Caicedo |
| Place of Publication | Cham |
| Publisher | Springer |
| Publication date | 2023 |
| Pages | 523-553 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-3-031-38722-7 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-3-031-38723-4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2023 |