Wed Apr 26 11:23:26 EDT 2006
ABSTRACTS IN ECONOMIC HISTORY
(c) 2006 EH.Net
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Name: Anna M. Aubanell-Jubany
Email: anna.aubanell at uab.es
Institution: Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
Co-author: none
Title: What Did Matter Electricity Rates or Capital and Labour
Prices? Electrification of the Madrilenean Industry and its
Determinants
Internet Address of abstracted work: not available
By mail:
Departament d'Economia i Historia Economica
Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
Edifici B, Campus de Bellaterra, 08193 Bellaterra
Spain
Language:
Abstract:
The first objective is to know the degree of electrification of the
industry, as the percentage of companies that used electricity. The
second objective is to analyse which were the decisive factors in the
electrification process.
The main hypothesis of this paper is that the biggest contribution
that electricity made to economic growth derived from the
mechanisation of the small companies and workshops because of the
productivity increase. In these firms the introduction of the
electricity did not mean the substitution of an energy form by
another, as it happened in the big companies, but the substitution of
labour by capital and energy. The electric motor allowed the use of
mechanical driven power for the small workshops. Under theses
premises this paper will test the hypothesis that the main factors
that influenced electrification were wages and the price of the
motor, a variable not used in previous studies, while energy prices
had a secondary role.
Bibliography: Aubanell-Jubany, Anna M.. "What Did Matter Electricity
Rates or Capital and Labour Prices? Electrification of the
Madrilenean Industry and its Determinants." Working Paper,
Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, 2006.
Subject: R
Geographical Area: 4
Country/Region: Spain
Time Period: 8
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