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Natural resources, electrification and economic growth from the end of the nineteenth century until World War II*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2010

Concha Betrán
Concha Betrán
Affiliation:
Universidad de Valenciaa
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Abstract

The impact that the new energy source, electricity, had on the economic growth of a number of countries –USA, UK, France, Italy, Spain and Canada– characterised by their different coal endowments is the principal objective of this article. The new energy, amongst its other advantages, reduced the dependence on natural resources of coal as it could be generated out of different primary energies: namely water or coal. In order to assess the importance of this reduced dependence, a coal-and-electricity energy database is presented for all six countries. We show that the relative prices electricity-coal were low in countries with poor coal endowments, and we find that there was a negative relationship between relative prices electricity-coal and economic growth. Moreover, there was a relationship between the industrial electrification process in countries with no coal deposits and their investment process, their labour productivity increase, their economic and manufacturing industry growth, and the structural change they underwent.

Resumen

Las repercusiones de la nueva rúente de energía, electricidad, en el crecimiento económico de una muestra de países –Estados Unidos, Reino Unido, Francia, Italia, España y Canadá- caracterizados por sus diferentes dotaciones de recursos carboníferos es el principal objetivo de este artículo. La nueva energía, entre otras ventajas, redujo la dependencia de los recursos naturales de carbón al poder generarse a partir de diferentes energías primarias: agua o carbón. Con el fin de valorar la importancia de esta reducción de la dependencia del carbón, se presenta una base de datos de los recursos energéticos para los seis países, se muestra que los precios relativos de la electricidad frente al carbón fueron bajos en los países con mala dotación del segundo, y se detecta una relación negativa entre el precio relativo electricidad-carbón y el crecimiento económico. Además hubo una relación entre el ritmo de la electrificación industrial en los países sin dotación de carbón, su tasa de inversión, el aumento de la productividad del trabajo, el crecimiento económico y del sector manufacturero, y el cambio estructural.

Keywords

recursos carboníferoselectricidadprecios relativos electricidad-carbónelectrificacióncrecimiento económicocoal resourceselectricityrelative prices electricity-coalelectrificationeconomic growth

JEL classification

N70: General, International, or Comparative N50: General, International, or Comparative
Type
Artículos
Information
Revista de Historia Economica - Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , March 2005 , pp. 47 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © Instituto Figuerola de Historia y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 2005

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