Structural Change, Elite Capitalism, and the Emergence of Labour Emancipation
研究认为工业化中强制劳动制度的衰落，部分源于制造业中物质资本与有效劳动的互补性。资本精英为激励工人提供有效劳动、提高资本回报，最终选择解放工人。以19世纪普鲁士农奴解放为背景，实证发现精英拥有的物质资本越丰富，农奴解放速度越快、赎金越低。
Abstract This study argues that the decline of coercive labour institutions over the course of industrialization was partly driven by complementarity between physical capital and effective labour in manufacturing. Given the difficulty of extracting labour effort in care-intensive industrial tasks through monitoring and punishment, capital-owning elites ultimately chose to emancipate workers to induce their supply of effective labour and, thus, boost the return to physical capital. This hypothesis is empirically examined in the context of serf emancipation in nineteenth-century Prussia. Exploiting variation in proto-industrialization across Prussian counties, the analysis finds that, consistent with the proposed hypothesis, the initial abundance of elite-owned physical capital is associated with a higher pace of serf emancipation and lower redemption payments to manorial lords.