Nineteenth-Century U.S. Industrial Development through the Eyes of the Census of Manufactures a New Resource for Historical Research

Atack, Jeremy; Bateman, Fred

doi:10.1080/01615449909598939

Cited by 68 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…15 10 See United States (1872), pp 20 and 384. 11 For example see Atack (1985), pp 49-55 and Walsh (1970Walsh ( , 1971. 12 There are no visible indications of US influence, although Canadian census staff had the opportunity to learn from their US counterparts.…”

Section: Using Manuscript Census Datamentioning

confidence: 97%

“…4 The enumeration of industrial establishments was part of the larger framework of a census of population, commodity production, and property and wealth. 5 The design of the Canadian 2 For a detailed description see Atack (1985), Atack andBateman (1999), andInwood (1995). 3 Baily and Solow (2001) argue that in addition to data issues, the use of establishment specific information is desirable because it dramatically increases the feasible assessment dimensions.…”

Section: Using Manuscript Census Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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The devil is in the details: assessing early industrial performance across international borders using late nineteenth century North American manufacturers as a case study

Inwood

Keay

2007

Cliometrica

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Was the average late nineteenth century Canadian manufacturer a hopelessly inefficient laggard when compared to his American counterparts just on the other side of the international border? Could it have been that Canadian producers were really productivity leaders so early in their industrialization process? To answer these fundamental questions about the performance of a small open economy at a key juncture in its industrial development we need a quantitative comparison of Canadian relative to US productivity. Unfortunately, the approach we adopt with respect to data compilation, methodological choice, and the identification of inputs, outputs, input weights, and prices has both quantitative and qualitative effects on any performance assessment we may undertake. To illustrate the severity of these effects we use manuscript census data from 1870/1871 to derive a series of total factor productivity (TFP) comparisons for a sample of manufacturing establishments located immediately to the north and south of the Canada-US border. Even with some of the most common and defensible variable definitions, we find dramatic differences between the most optimistic and most pessimistic assessments of late nineteenth century Canadian performance. Our case study suggests to us that those interested in the assessment of long run performance differentials should appreciate the sensitivity of these assessments and they should carefully consider the approach that has been taken toward data preparation, methodological choice, and variable definitions in their construction.JEL codes D2 Á L6 Á N6

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Section: Using Manuscript Census Datamentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Using Manuscript Census Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

The devil is in the details: assessing early industrial performance across international borders using late nineteenth century North American manufacturers as a case study

Inwood

Keay

2007

Cliometrica

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Mokyr (1990) and Chandler (1990) give detailed accounts of technological innovations 6 The 19th century U.S. censuses of manufacturing made available by Atack and Bateman (1999) support the narrative history. 10 Most manufacturers were still small-scale, with the median establishment employing just three workers in 1850, but the larger means indicate some larger scale producers in 1850.…”

Section: Large Scale Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…), and Locay's (1990) view that more customized activities are produced in the household. 4 An existing theoretical literature (e.g., Murphy, Shleifer, and Vishny, 1989a, 1989b, Matsuyama, 1992, and Banerjee and Newman, 1993) has examined the role of scale in development, but in a different context. They showed how fixed costs involved with large scale technologies can lead to poverty traps in the presence of frictions, but focused on a single modern sector.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Instead, we model a transition from stagnation to modern growth as in Galor (2005), Galor and Weil (2000), Gollin, Parente, and Rogerson (2007), and Hansen and Prescott (2005). 4 Statistical agencies uses various categories to group industries according to their type of products. For example, according to the NIPA "goods are tangible products that can be stored or inventoried, services are products that cannot be stored and are consumed at the place and time of their purchase."…”

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confidence: 99%

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