An Overview of the U.S. Economy: --Population Growth Dynamics --Income Growth --Changes in Education and Literacy By Farley Grubb Economics Department University of Delaware

Newark, DE 19716 grubbf@lerner.udel.edu http://myprofile.cos.com/grubbf16

Graph and Table Sources: Figure 1: Rate of Growth of the U.S. Population. Atack and Passell, p. 213. Figure 2: Immigration into the U.S. Atack and Passell, p. 233. Figure 3: The Natural Rate of Population Increase (Births – Deaths). Fogel, p. 124. Figure 4: U.S. Birthrates. Atack and Passell, p. 215. Figure 5: U.S. Life Expectancy. Atack and Passell, p. 226. Figure 6: Urbanization of the U.S. Over Time. Atack and Passell, p. 243. Figure 7: Population Density in the U.S. 1790 and 1850. Atack and Passell, p. 240. Figure 8: Population Density in the U.S. 1900. Atack and Passell, p. 241. Figure 9: Growth in U.S. per capita Income (Table). Atack and Passell, p. 4. Figure 10: Interpretations of American Economic Growth. Atack and Passell, p. 9. Figure 11: Growth in Commercial Banking. Atack and Passell, p. 89. Figure 12: U.S. Exports and Imports. Atack and Passell, p. 117. Figure 13: Colonial Adult Literacy Rates. Grubb (1990), p. 453. Figure 14: Colonial Adult Male Literacy Rates. Grubb (1990), p. 454. Figure 15: European Adult Male Literacy Rates. Grubb (1990), p. 456. Figure 16: European Adult Male Literacy Rates. Grubb (1990), p. 457. Figure 17: Types and Amount of Education by Age, 1787-1804. Grubb (1992), p. 372. Figure 18: Growth in Population versus Published Imprints. Soltow and Stevens, p. 41. Figure 19: Rates of U.S. Illiteracy, 1799-1894. Soltow and Stevens, p. 53. Figure 20: Wealth and Book Ownership. Soltow and Stevens, p. 70. Figure 21: Growth in Newspaper Circulation per Person. Soltow and Stevens, p. 76. Figure 22: Schooling Enrollment Rates. Soltow and Stevens, p. 121.

Figure 23: Illiteracy Rates for Married Women, 1860-1870. Soltow and Stevens, p. 158. Figure 24: The Geographic Variation in Illiteracy, 1870. Soltow and Stevens, p. 168. References: Jeremy Atack and Peter Passell, A New Economics View of American History (New York: W. W. Norton, 1994, 2nd Edn.). Robert William Fogel, Without Consent or Contract (New York: W. W. Norton, 1989). Farley Grubb, “Growth of Literacy in Colonial America: Longitudinal Patterns, Economic Models, and the Direction of Future Research,” Social Science History, vol. 14, no. 4 (Winter 1990), pp. 451-482. Farley Grubb, “Educational Choice in the Era Before Free Public Schooling: Evidence from German Immigrant Children in Pennsylvania, 1771-1817,” Journal of Economic History, vol. 52, no. 2 (June 1992), pp. 363-375. Lee Soltow and Edward Stevens, The Rise of Literacy and the Common School in the United States (Chicago: university of Chicago Press, 1981). See also the standard economic history texts: Jonathan Hughes and Louis P. Cain, American Economic History. Gary M. Walton and Hugh Rockoff, History of the American Economy.