Year: 2019
Type: report
Abstract: We examine impacts of market integration on the development of American manufacturing, as railroads expanded through the latter half of the 19th century.Using new county-by-industry data from the Census of Manufactures, we estimate substantial impacts on manufacturing productivity from relative increases in county market access as railroads expanded.In particular, the railroads increased economic activity in marginally productive counties.Allowing for the presence of factor misallocation generates much larger aggregate economic gains from the railroads than previous estimates.Our estimates highlight how broadly-used infrastructure or technologies can have much larger economic impacts when there are inefficiencies in the economy.
DOI: 10.3386/w26594
Authors: Richard Hornbeck, Martin Rotemberg
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: Collaborative Research: Railroads and the Growth of American Manufacturing: Evidence from Complete Counts of the Census of Manufacturing in 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880, Collaborative Research: Railroads and the Growth of American Manufacturing: Evidence from Complete Counts of the Census of Manufacturing in 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880
OpenAlex ID: W2997257672