Human Capital of US the Deaf Population from 1850 to 1910

Abstract

We present the first modern economic and statistical analysis of historical deaf populations in the United States. We also provide the first 19th century annual deaf population estimates for the US. Unlike many subpopulations, deaf persons are uniquely characterized by a feature of their human capital: the absence of hearing. We provide evidence to address whether deaf people invested in adequate alternative human capital to compensate for deafness, or merely persisted throughout life with less human capital. We use probit and ordinary least squares models with historical census data and compare deaf and hearing populations by school attendance, literacy, employment status, and occupational scores. We find little evidence of compensating differentials in human capital investment among the deaf. We provide additional evidence from Martha’s Vineyard – where most people were bilingual in sign language and English, to exclude the language barrier and animus discrimination as the primary causes of lower economic achievement by the deaf.