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The British Industrial Revolution was initially characterized by a decline in the average level of skills of workers, as technological progress was unskill-biased and life expectancy stagnated despite output growth. In this paper, I rationalize these features of development in a growth model in which the skill composition of the labor force and the direction of technological progress interact, and public health investments are the result of profit-maximization of the capitalist class. I show that improvements in workers' longevity can generate a switch from unskill- to skill-biased technological progress. However, unskill-biased technological change reduces the incentives of the capitalist class to undertake public health investments and therefore delays the take-off to a regime of sustained economic growth. The simulation of the model economy replicates the episode of deskilling experienced during the industrialization process in England between 1720 and 1870.
