Chris Minns
Biographic Data
| ID | 323628 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Chris Minns |
| GIVEN NAMES | Chris |
| FAMILY NAME | Minns |
| SIGNATURE | MINNS C |
| AFFILIATIONS | London School of Economics and Political Science |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1685-7757 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 134 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Mobility and marriage
This article develops a methodology to create a longitudinal historical database of women by linking Ontario marriage records 1859-1938 to complete count Canadian census data between 1871 and 1921. We assess link quality using tests that provide insight into the trade-offs between sample size and allowing more potential false positives into the universe of accepted links. The results of these tests provide guidance on practical considerations in …
Explaining Gender Differences in Migrant Sorting
Note on Biographic and Bibliographic Information
The Booksellers' Bill involved the interests of four different professions: authors, booksellers, lawyers and politicians. The bibliographic details of most of the characters involved are well known and easily accessible. Accordingly, all that has been provided here is the key bibliographical dates and an asterisk ( * ) where there is an entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 1 a dagger ( ) where the person was a member of parliame…
Intergenerational Mobility in a Mid-Atlantic Economy
This article uses new linked full-count census data for Canada to document intergenerational occupational mobility from 1871 to 1901. We find significant differences among Canadian regions and language groups, with linguistic minorities experiencing notably lower rates of intergenerational mobility. International comparisons place Canada midway between other economies in the Americas and the most mobile European societies. Decompositions of overa…
Selection Bias Encountered in the Systematic Linking of Historical Census Records
Linked historical records typically are unrepresentative of the population from which they are drawn even if the method of linking is restricted to time-invariant matching criteria. An example drawn from Canadian census records illustrates the nature of bias that may afflict even a carefully linked sample. The use of potentially time-varying match criteria doubles the size of a linked sample at a modest cost in terms of additional bias. This trad…
Occupational income scores and immigrant assimilation. Evidence from the Canadian census
Guilds in the transition to modernity
One important aspect of the transition to modernity is the survival of elements of the Old Regime beyond the French Revolution. It has been claimed that this can explain why in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries some Western countries adopted national corporatist structures while others transformed into liberal market economies. One of those elements is the persistence or absence of guild traditions. This is usually analyzed in a n…
Institutions, history and wage bargaining outcomes
This article uses international evidence to assess the impact of tripartism and other forms of government involvement in bargaining on wage moderation and wage dispersion. We find that government involvement in wage bargaining leads to a modest increase in wage moderation and reduction in wage dispersion. Historic differences in bargaining institutions between countries have greater moderating effects
Oxford City Apprentices, 1513–1602
Alan Crossley, ed. Oxford City Apprentices, 1513–1602. Oxford Historical Society New Series 44. Oxford: Oxford Historical Society, 2012. lix + 366 pp. + 5 b/w pls. $60. ISBN: 978-0-904107-25-8. - Volume 67 Issue 3
Empire and Globalisation
Reviewed by: Empire and Globalisation: Networks of People, Goods and Capital in the British World, c. 1850–1914 by Gary B. Magee, Andrew S. Thompson Chris Minns (bio) Empire and Globalisation: Networks of People, Goods and Capital in the British World, c. 1850–1914, by Gary B. Magee and Andrew S. Thompson; pp. xxi + 291. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010, £50.00, £18.99 paper, $85.00, $33.00 paper. Recent scholarship has re…
The price of human capital in a pre-industrial economy
Rules and reality
This article uses recently digitized samples of apprentices and masters in London and Bristol to quantify the practice of apprenticeship in the late seventeenth century. Apprenticeship appears much more fluid than is traditionally understood. Many apprentices did not complete their terms of indenture; late arrival and early departure from the master's household were widespread. Other apprentices appear to have been absent temporarily, returning t…
Networks in the Premodern Economy
We examine the role of social and geographical networks in structuring entry into premodern London's skilled occupations. Newly digitized apprenticeship indenture records for 1600–1749 offer little evidence that personal ties strongly shaped apprentice recruitment. The typical London apprentices had no identifiable tie to their master through kin or place of origin. Migrant apprentices' fathers were generally outside the craft sector. The apprent…
Leaving home and entering service
Leaving home and entering service was a key transition in early modern England. This article presents evidence on the age of apprenticeship in London. Using a new sample of 22,156 apprentices bound between 1575 and 1810, we find that apprentices became younger (from 17.4 to 14.7 years) and more homogeneous in age, irrespective of background. We examine the effect of region of origin, parental occupation, Company entered and paternal mortality on …
Mass migration under sail
The times they are not changin’
Conspicuous by their Absence
The failure of French Canadians to settle the Canadian west before 1900, when substantial numbers of anglophones and Europeans were migrating, is a long-standing puzzle. Historians have relied mainly on cultural explanations. Using new data, we demonstrate that anglophones and francophones had very different personal characteristics, so that movement to the west was rarely economically attractive for francophones. However, large-scale migration i…
The spirit of capitalism? Ethnicity, religion, and self-employment in early 20th century Canada
Immigration and American Unionism
Dominion or Republic? Migrants to North America from the United Kingdom, 1870-1910
Late nineteenth-century Canada attracted a large number of immigrants from the UK, despite far lower average income per head there than in the US. While urban labour markets in the northern US were much larger than those in Canada, differences in outcomes between UK immigrants in Canadian and in northern US cities were small. Average annual real earnings by occupation group were only 10 to 15 per cent lower in Canadian cities. Individual-level ce…
Issues in the Economics of Immigration
The United States is now admitting nearly one million legal immigrants per year, while the flow of illegal aliens into the country continues to increase steadily. The debate over immigration policy has typically focused on three fundamental questions: How do immigrants perform economically relative to others? What effects do immigrants have on the employment opportunities of other workers? What kind of immigration policy is most beneficial to the…
Income, Cohort Effects, and Occupational Mobility
The times they are not changin’
Income, Cohort Effects, and Occupational Mobility
Occupational income scores and immigrant assimilation. Evidence from the Canadian census
The price of human capital in a pre-industrial economy
Networks in the Premodern Economy
We examine the role of social and geographical networks in structuring entry into premodern London's skilled occupations. Newly digitized apprenticeship indenture records for 1600–1749 offer little evidence that personal ties strongly shaped apprentice recruitment. The typical London apprentices had no identifiable tie to their master through kin or place of origin. Migrant apprentices' fathers were generally outside the craft sector. The apprent…
Selection Bias Encountered in the Systematic Linking of Historical Census Records
Linked historical records typically are unrepresentative of the population from which they are drawn even if the method of linking is restricted to time-invariant matching criteria. An example drawn from Canadian census records illustrates the nature of bias that may afflict even a carefully linked sample. The use of potentially time-varying match criteria doubles the size of a linked sample at a modest cost in terms of additional bias. This trad…
Intergenerational Mobility in a Mid-Atlantic Economy
This article uses new linked full-count census data for Canada to document intergenerational occupational mobility from 1871 to 1901. We find significant differences among Canadian regions and language groups, with linguistic minorities experiencing notably lower rates of intergenerational mobility. International comparisons place Canada midway between other economies in the Americas and the most mobile European societies. Decompositions of overa…
Rules and reality
This article uses recently digitized samples of apprentices and masters in London and Bristol to quantify the practice of apprenticeship in the late seventeenth century. Apprenticeship appears much more fluid than is traditionally understood. Many apprentices did not complete their terms of indenture; late arrival and early departure from the master's household were widespread. Other apprentices appear to have been absent temporarily, returning t…
The spirit of capitalism? Ethnicity, religion, and self-employment in early 20th century Canada
Dominion or Republic? Migrants to North America from the United Kingdom, 1870-1910
Late nineteenth-century Canada attracted a large number of immigrants from the UK, despite far lower average income per head there than in the US. While urban labour markets in the northern US were much larger than those in Canada, differences in outcomes between UK immigrants in Canadian and in northern US cities were small. Average annual real earnings by occupation group were only 10 to 15 per cent lower in Canadian cities. Individual-level ce…
Leaving home and entering service
Leaving home and entering service was a key transition in early modern England. This article presents evidence on the age of apprenticeship in London. Using a new sample of 22,156 apprentices bound between 1575 and 1810, we find that apprentices became younger (from 17.4 to 14.7 years) and more homogeneous in age, irrespective of background. We examine the effect of region of origin, parental occupation, Company entered and paternal mortality on …
Conspicuous by their Absence
The failure of French Canadians to settle the Canadian west before 1900, when substantial numbers of anglophones and Europeans were migrating, is a long-standing puzzle. Historians have relied mainly on cultural explanations. Using new data, we demonstrate that anglophones and francophones had very different personal characteristics, so that movement to the west was rarely economically attractive for francophones. However, large-scale migration i…
Income, Cohort Effects, and Occupational Mobility
Issues in the Economics of Immigration
The United States is now admitting nearly one million legal immigrants per year, while the flow of illegal aliens into the country continues to increase steadily. The debate over immigration policy has typically focused on three fundamental questions: How do immigrants perform economically relative to others? What effects do immigrants have on the employment opportunities of other workers? What kind of immigration policy is most beneficial to the…
Dominion or Republic? Migrants to North America from the United Kingdom, 1870-1910
Late nineteenth-century Canada attracted a large number of immigrants from the UK, despite far lower average income per head there than in the US. While urban labour markets in the northern US were much larger than those in Canada, differences in outcomes between UK immigrants in Canadian and in northern US cities were small. Average annual real earnings by occupation group were only 10 to 15 per cent lower in Canadian cities. Individual-level ce…
Immigration and American Unionism
Conspicuous by their Absence
The failure of French Canadians to settle the Canadian west before 1900, when substantial numbers of anglophones and Europeans were migrating, is a long-standing puzzle. Historians have relied mainly on cultural explanations. Using new data, we demonstrate that anglophones and francophones had very different personal characteristics, so that movement to the west was rarely economically attractive for francophones. However, large-scale migration i…
The spirit of capitalism? Ethnicity, religion, and self-employment in early 20th century Canada
The times they are not changin’
Mass migration under sail
Leaving home and entering service
Leaving home and entering service was a key transition in early modern England. This article presents evidence on the age of apprenticeship in London. Using a new sample of 22,156 apprentices bound between 1575 and 1810, we find that apprentices became younger (from 17.4 to 14.7 years) and more homogeneous in age, irrespective of background. We examine the effect of region of origin, parental occupation, Company entered and paternal mortality on …
Networks in the Premodern Economy
We examine the role of social and geographical networks in structuring entry into premodern London's skilled occupations. Newly digitized apprenticeship indenture records for 1600–1749 offer little evidence that personal ties strongly shaped apprentice recruitment. The typical London apprentices had no identifiable tie to their master through kin or place of origin. Migrant apprentices' fathers were generally outside the craft sector. The apprent…
Rules and reality
This article uses recently digitized samples of apprentices and masters in London and Bristol to quantify the practice of apprenticeship in the late seventeenth century. Apprenticeship appears much more fluid than is traditionally understood. Many apprentices did not complete their terms of indenture; late arrival and early departure from the master's household were widespread. Other apprentices appear to have been absent temporarily, returning t…
Empire and Globalisation
Reviewed by: Empire and Globalisation: Networks of People, Goods and Capital in the British World, c. 1850–1914 by Gary B. Magee, Andrew S. Thompson Chris Minns (bio) Empire and Globalisation: Networks of People, Goods and Capital in the British World, c. 1850–1914, by Gary B. Magee and Andrew S. Thompson; pp. xxi + 291. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010, £50.00, £18.99 paper, $85.00, $33.00 paper. Recent scholarship has re…
The price of human capital in a pre-industrial economy
Oxford City Apprentices, 1513–1602
Alan Crossley, ed. Oxford City Apprentices, 1513–1602. Oxford Historical Society New Series 44. Oxford: Oxford Historical Society, 2012. lix + 366 pp. + 5 b/w pls. $60. ISBN: 978-0-904107-25-8. - Volume 67 Issue 3
Institutions, history and wage bargaining outcomes
This article uses international evidence to assess the impact of tripartism and other forms of government involvement in bargaining on wage moderation and wage dispersion. We find that government involvement in wage bargaining leads to a modest increase in wage moderation and reduction in wage dispersion. Historic differences in bargaining institutions between countries have greater moderating effects
Guilds in the transition to modernity
One important aspect of the transition to modernity is the survival of elements of the Old Regime beyond the French Revolution. It has been claimed that this can explain why in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries some Western countries adopted national corporatist structures while others transformed into liberal market economies. One of those elements is the persistence or absence of guild traditions. This is usually analyzed in a n…
Occupational income scores and immigrant assimilation. Evidence from the Canadian census
Selection Bias Encountered in the Systematic Linking of Historical Census Records
Linked historical records typically are unrepresentative of the population from which they are drawn even if the method of linking is restricted to time-invariant matching criteria. An example drawn from Canadian census records illustrates the nature of bias that may afflict even a carefully linked sample. The use of potentially time-varying match criteria doubles the size of a linked sample at a modest cost in terms of additional bias. This trad…
Note on Biographic and Bibliographic Information
The Booksellers' Bill involved the interests of four different professions: authors, booksellers, lawyers and politicians. The bibliographic details of most of the characters involved are well known and easily accessible. Accordingly, all that has been provided here is the key bibliographical dates and an asterisk ( * ) where there is an entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 1 a dagger ( ) where the person was a member of parliame…
Intergenerational Mobility in a Mid-Atlantic Economy
This article uses new linked full-count census data for Canada to document intergenerational occupational mobility from 1871 to 1901. We find significant differences among Canadian regions and language groups, with linguistic minorities experiencing notably lower rates of intergenerational mobility. International comparisons place Canada midway between other economies in the Americas and the most mobile European societies. Decompositions of overa…
Explaining Gender Differences in Migrant Sorting
Mobility and marriage
This article develops a methodology to create a longitudinal historical database of women by linking Ontario marriage records 1859-1938 to complete count Canadian census data between 1871 and 1921. We assess link quality using tests that provide insight into the trade-offs between sample size and allowing more potential false positives into the universe of accepted links. The results of these tests provide guidance on practical considerations in …
Economics (16 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Political science (12 works) · Demographic economics (11 works) · Historical Economic and Social Studies (11 works) · Geography (8 works) · Immigration (8 works) · Labour economics (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Demography (7 works)