Seminar by Prof. Raphael Franck, organized by the CEAPS Research Center – 21.10

On October 20-22, Prof. Raphael Franck (University of Stuttgart, CEPR, CESifo & GLO), the current President of the European Public Choice Society, will visit the Faculty of Economic Sciences. Prof. Franck has published in the American Political Science Review, Econometrica, The Economic Journal, Journal of Monetary Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, among others. His research interests focus on political economy and macroeconomics.

During the seminar on October 21, Prof. Raphael Franck will deliver a lecture entitled „Safety Last? Political Supervision of Bureaucratic Performance and Worker Safety in French Mines during the Industrial Revolution". The event will take place in Room A409 at 17:00. If you are unable to attend in person, please contact Prof. Katarzyna Metelska-Szaniawska via e-mail at: xUt5Sbo-X^*W|GsJKT7dkew]#[dCZ*5Ocs6u|FbPiBT6vZtVd (by October 20).

Additionally, you are  welcome to take advantage of the opportunity to meet with Prof. Franck individually or in small working groups between October 20 and 22. Meetings will last 30-60 minutes. To confirm your participation and preferred time, please email Prof. Metelska-Szaniawska at: xUt5Sbo-X^*W|GsJKT7dkew]#[dCZ*5Ocs6u|FbPiBT6vZtVd.

Below, we present an abstract of the presentation.

---

This study analyzes whether democracy changes the career incentives of civil servants. By focusing on the promotion of the engineers who worked in the mining administration in France between 1865-1913, where mines were privately owned and managed but production and safety were supervised by the State because of tax purposes, the results show that democracy has no impact on the number of deaths or the death rate per worker but adds one element to the promotion of engineers, besides seniority: the death rate per worker become a major determinant of promotion after 1875, when democracy was finally established. This effect is explained by two factors. First, promotions are driven by the timing of the elections to the lower house of Parliament. Second, the occupations, but not the ideology, of the politicians explain the post-1875 effect. In particular, Catholic and Protestant clergymen in both the lower and upper houses of Parliament have a negative effect on the promotion of engineers who supervise local mines with many mortal accidents.