Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-pkt8n Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-15T21:42:46.706Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Learning by Dying: Combat Performance in the Age of Sail

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2007

Daniel K. Benjamin  and
Anca Tifrea
Daniel K. Benjamin
Affiliation:
Alumni Distinguished Professor, Department of Economics, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634-1309; and Senior Fellow, PERC, 2048 Analysis Drive, Bozeman, MT 59715. E-mail: wahoo@clemson.edu.
Anca Tifrea
Affiliation:
Senior Associate, KPMG LLP, 303 Peachtree St., Atlanta, GA 30308. E-mail: atifrea@kpmg.com.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Between 1660 and 1815 the combat fatality rate among British navy captains fell by 98 percent, even as the combat success of the British Navy rose dramatically. Both developments can be explained as a result of learning by doing among British commanders. This learning was importantly driven by the extensive wartime experience accumulated over this period, combined with the unparalleled financial incentives for combat success offered to British commanders.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 67 , Issue 4 , December 2007 , pp. 968 - 1000
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alchian, Armen A. Airframe Production Functions and Progress Curves. Econometrica 31, (October 1963): 679–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Archibald, E. H. H. The Fighting Ship of the Royal Navy, 897–1984. New York: Military Press, 1987.Google Scholar
Arrow, Kenneth J. The Economic Implications of Learning by Doing. The Review of Economic Studies 29, no. 3 (June 1962): 155–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BahkByong-Hyong, and Michael Gort Byong-Hyong, and Michael Gort. Decomposing Learning by Doing in New Plants. The Journal of Political Economy 101, no. 4 (August 1993): 561–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benjamin, Daniel K. Golden Harvest: The British Naval Prize System, 1793–1815. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Benjamin, Daniel K., and Thornberg, Christopher. Comment: Rules, Monitoring, and Incentives in the Age of Sail. Explorations in Economic History 40, no. 2 (April, 2003): 195–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benjamin, Daniel K., and Thornberg, Christopher. Organization and Incentives in the Age of Sail. Explorations in Economic History 44, issue 2 (April 2007): 317–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benjamin, Daniel K., and Cojoc, Doru. “Til Death Do Us Part”: The Economics of Combat. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Benkard, C. Lanier. Learning and Forgetting: The Dynamics of Aircraft Production. The American Economic Review 90, no. 4 (September 2000): 1034–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruijn, Jaap R. The Dutch Navy of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Byrn, John D. Jr. Crime and Punishment in the Royal Navy. Aldershot, England: Scolar Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Cameron, A. Colin, and Trivedi, Pravin K.. Regression Analysis of Count Data. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clowes, William Laird. The Royal Navy: A History from the Earliest Times to 1900. 7 vols. London: Sampson, Low, Marston and Co, 1897.Google Scholar
Creswell, John. British Admirals of the Eighteenth Century: Tactics in Battle. London: Allen Unwin, 1972.Google Scholar
David, Paul A. Learning By Doing and Tariff Protection: A Reconsideration of the Case of the Ante-Bellum States Cotton Textile Industry. This Journal 30, no. 3 (1970): 521–601.Google Scholar
Davids, Karel. Maritime Labour in the Netherlands, 1570–1870. In Those Emblems of Hell? European Sailors and the Maritime Labour Market, 1570–1870, Research in Maritime History No. 13, edited by Royen, Paul C. van, Bruijn, Jaap R., and Lucassen, Jan, 41–72. St. John's, Newfoundland: International Maritime Economic History Association, 1997.Google Scholar
Glete, Jan. Navies and Nations: Warships, Navies and State Building in Europe and America, 1500–1860. 2 vols. Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell International, 1993.Google Scholar
Harbron, John D. Trafalgar and the Spanish Navy. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Hayward, Joel S. For God and Glory: Lord Nelson and His Way of War. Annapolis, MD: United States Naval Institute, 2003.Google Scholar
Hepper, David J. British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859. East Sussex, England: Jean Boudriot Publications, 1994.Google Scholar
Hill, Richard. Prizes of War: Prize Law and the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars 1793–1815. London: Sutton, 1999.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Philip T. “Why is it that Europeans Ended Up Conquering the Rest of the Globe? Prices, the Military Revolution, and Western Europe's Comparative Advantage in Violence.” California Institute of Technology. 8 January 2005.Google Scholar
Israel, Jonathan I. The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall, 1477–1806. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.Google Scholar
James, William. Naval History of Great Britain, 1793–1830. 6 vols. London: Richard Bentley, 1838.Google Scholar
Jenkins, E. H. A History of the French Navy. London: Macdonald and Jane's, 1973.Google Scholar
Kemp, Peter. The British Sailor: A Social History of the Lower Deck. London: Dent, 1970.Google Scholar
Knight, Roger. The Pursuit of Victory: The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson. London: Penguin, 2005.Google Scholar
Lavery, Brian. The Ship of the Line. Vol. 1. The Development of the Battlefleet 1650–1850. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Lavery, Brian. Nelson's Navy: The Ships, Men and Organization, 1793–1815. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Lavery, Brian. The Line of Battle: The Sailing Warship, 1650–1840. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Lavery, Brian. Nelson and the Nile: The War against Bonaparte, 1798. London: Chatham Publishing, 1998.Google Scholar
LazearE. P., and S. Rosen E. P., and S. Rosen. Rank-Order Tournaments as Optimum Labor Contracts. Journal of Political Economy 89, no. 5 (October 1981): 841–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, Michael. The Navy of Britain. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1948.Google Scholar
Lyon, David. Sea Battle in Close-Up: The Age of Nelson. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Mahan, A. T. The Influence of Sea Power upon History: 1660–1783. Boston: Little Brown, 1890.Google Scholar
Marcus, G. J. A Naval History of Britain: The Formative Centuries. Boston: Little Brown, 1961.Google Scholar
Mühlmann, Rolf. Die Reorganisation der Spanischen Kreigsmarine im 18. Jahrhundert. Cologne and Vienna: Böhlau Verlag Köln Wien, 1975.Google Scholar
Palmer, M. A. J. The “Military Revolution” Afloat: The Era of the Anglo-Dutch Wars and the Transition to Modern Warfare at Sea. War in History 4, no. 2 (1997): 123–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palmer, M. A. J. ‘The Soul's Right Hand’: Command and Control in the Age of Fighting Sail, 1652–1827. The Journal of Military History 61, no. 4 (October 1997): 679–705.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rapping, Leonard. Learning and World War II Production Functions. The Review of Economics and Statistic 47, no. 1 (February 1965): 81–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodger, N. A. M. The Wooden World: Anatomy of the Georgian Navy. London: HarperCollins, 1986.Google Scholar
Rodger, N. A. M. The Safeguard of the Sea. A Naval History of Britain. Vol. 1. 660–1649. London: HarperCollins, 1997.Google Scholar
Rodger, N. A. M. Image and Reality in Eighteenth-Century Naval Tactics. The Mariner's Mirror 89, no. 3 (August 2003): 280–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodger, N. A. M. The Command of the Ocean. A Naval History of Britain. Vol. 2. 1650–1815. London: Penguin, 2004.Google Scholar
Rosen, S. Authority, Control, and the Distribution of Earnings. Bell Journal of Economics 13, no. 2 (Autumn 1982): 311–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosen, S. Prizes and Incentives in Elimination Tournaments. American Economic Review 76, no. 4 (September 1986): 701–15.Google Scholar
Sanderson, Michael. Sea Battles: A Reference Guide. London: David & Charles, 1975.Google Scholar
Searle, Allan D. Productivity Changes in Selected Wartime Shipbuilding Programs. Monthly Labor Review (December 1945): 1132–47.Google Scholar
Sobel, Dava. Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time. New York: Penguin, 1996.Google Scholar
Syrett, David, and DiNardo, R. L.. The Commissioned Sea Officers of the Royal Navy, 1660–1815. London: Scolar Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Tunstall, Brian. Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail: The Evolution of Fighting Tactics, 1650–1815. Edited by Tracy, Nicholas. Annapolis, MD: United States Naval Institute, 2001.Google Scholar
Wareham, Tom. The Star Captains: Frigate Command in the Napoleonic Wars. Annapolis, MD: United States Naval Institute, 2001.Google Scholar
Williamson, Jeffrey G. Embodiment, Disembodiment, Learning by Doing and Returns to Scale in Nineteenth-Century Cotton Textiles. This Journal 32, no. 3 (September 1972): 691–705.Google Scholar
Wooldridge, Jeffrey M. Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Wright, T. P. Factors Affecting the Cost of Airplanes. Journal of Aeronautical Sciences 3, no. 4 (February 1936): 122–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar