This paper explores inequality levels within the construction sector in Mexico City between the 1780s and the 1850s examining new microdata of daily wages that discriminate skill levels and individual variations. We study the evolution of skill premiums (foremen, masons, and laborers), and build a Theil inequality index of the entire distribution. We find a clear discontinuity in the trends taking place around 1814, when the wage level of unskilled laborers increased, and inequality decreased. An opposite change took place circa 1840 when inequality bounced back and approached its late colonial levels. We hypothesize that institutional change, namely the abolition of guilds (1814), shifts in the relative power of elites and manual laborers, and the cycle of urban growth in Mexico City are behind these trends.
Who managed large corporations during the first half century of their emergence? How did modernizing firms navigate periods of rapid technological change such as those that swept the U.S. economy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? What role did engineers play in the management of large corporations? This paper draws on an original database of tens of thousands of mining and metallurgical engineers who graduated from universities during this period, examining patterns in their employment records, job descriptions, and career trajectories, matching our data on individual engineers with a linked database of mining and metallurgical corporations. We trace two distinct phases in engineers’ managerial role that corresponded to periods of rapid technological change and technological quiescence in the industry. We argue that explaining the rise of the modern corporation and the historical dynamics of corporate management requires a better understanding of technical expertise in management.
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