Technological change and the Age-Earnings Profile: Evidence from the International Merchant Marine
Peter Thompson
The data are taken from CDs created by The Maritime History Archive, Memorial University of Newfoundland. The file is a zipped, tab-delimited text file. The first row contains the series names.
WAGE_1900: Monthly wage in constant 1900 G.B. pounds sterling. All mariners in the sample were also given provisions.
AGE: Age in years of the mariner.
BARK: Technology indicator variable equal to 1 if the vessel was a barque or barquentine, and zero otherwise.
STEAM: Technology indicator variable equal to 1 if the vessel was asteamship, and zero otherwise.
Note: If Bark=Steam=0, then the vessel was a square-rigged ship or brig.
CONTRACT_YEAR: Year the mariner embarked on the voyage.
LITERATE: Crude literacy indicator: equal to one if the mariner signed his own name, 0 if a X was used.
COMPLETE: Equal to one if the mariner completed the contract length before leaving the vessel, zero otherwise. Early departure may be the result of desertion or mutual agreement.
CURRENCY: Equal to one if payment was made in US dollars, zero if payment was made in pounds sterling.
GROSS_TONS: Registered gross tonnage of vessel, in thosuands.
YEAR_CONSTRUCTED: Year vessel was launched.
Dummy variables for locations of port of embarkation:
Baseline: Canada
PJ1=1: USA
PJ2=1: Great Britain
PJ3=1: Ireland
PJ4=1: Scandinavia
PJ5=1: Other Europe
PJ6=1: Latin America and Caribbean
PJ7=1: Africa
PJ8=1: Asia/Pacific/Oceania.
Dummy variables for geographic voyage destinations:
Baseline: North Atlantic (specific destination not given—usually multiple European destinations))
V1=1: USA (East Coast, Gulf Coast, and Caribbean)
V2=1: Europe (specific country destination)
V3:=1: South America, USA (west coast)
V4=1: Other (Africa, Asia, Oceania, world voyages)
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