Numeracy in early modern Korea, Japan, and China: The age-heaping approach

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. This study first draws on a unique data set, hojok (household registers), to estimate numeracy levels in Korea from the period 1550–1630. We add evidence from Japan and China from the early modern period until 1800 to obtain human capital estimates for East Asia. We find that nu...

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Main Authors: Baten, J., Sohn, Kitae
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/72067
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author Baten, J.
Sohn, Kitae
author_facet Baten, J.
Sohn, Kitae
author_sort Baten, J.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description © 2017 Elsevier B.V. This study first draws on a unique data set, hojok (household registers), to estimate numeracy levels in Korea from the period 1550–1630. We add evidence from Japan and China from the early modern period until 1800 to obtain human capital estimates for East Asia. We find that numeracy was high by global standards, even considering the potential sources of upward bias inherent in the data. Therefore, the unusually high level of numeracy in East Asia in the early 21st century was already present in the early modern period, with implications for our understanding of Asian growth processes.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-720672018-12-13T09:34:21Z Numeracy in early modern Korea, Japan, and China: The age-heaping approach Baten, J. Sohn, Kitae © 2017 Elsevier B.V. This study first draws on a unique data set, hojok (household registers), to estimate numeracy levels in Korea from the period 1550–1630. We add evidence from Japan and China from the early modern period until 1800 to obtain human capital estimates for East Asia. We find that numeracy was high by global standards, even considering the potential sources of upward bias inherent in the data. Therefore, the unusually high level of numeracy in East Asia in the early 21st century was already present in the early modern period, with implications for our understanding of Asian growth processes. 2017 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/72067 10.1016/j.japwor.2017.08.001 restricted
spellingShingle Baten, J.
Sohn, Kitae
Numeracy in early modern Korea, Japan, and China: The age-heaping approach
title Numeracy in early modern Korea, Japan, and China: The age-heaping approach
title_full Numeracy in early modern Korea, Japan, and China: The age-heaping approach
title_fullStr Numeracy in early modern Korea, Japan, and China: The age-heaping approach
title_full_unstemmed Numeracy in early modern Korea, Japan, and China: The age-heaping approach
title_short Numeracy in early modern Korea, Japan, and China: The age-heaping approach
title_sort numeracy in early modern korea, japan, and china: the age-heaping approach
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/72067