Education and household decision-making in Spanish mining communities, 1877–1924

Abstract In this paper, I use a unique micro-database of 254,000 individuals distributed in 12 Spanish mining municipalities to explore the households’ decision-making processes regarding their children’s education. This database covers living Asturias, Cantabria, Basque Country, Huelva, Almería, and Murcia from 1877 1924. Focusing on around 42,000 children between eight 18 years old, findings show that standards were key component human capital formation. Children working-class families had considerably lower literacy levels than offspring upper- middle-class families. Moreover, analysis shows there was significantly greater gender gap among working open-pit mines other or those underground miners. difference lowered wages which translated into higher burden for daughters, hampering