The Role of Transportation in U.S. Economic Development: 1840–1860*

Abstract

We return to two questions concerning the 19th century U.S. transportation revolution. First, to what extent were transportation improvements responsible for the large changes in the regional distribution of population in the United States and, within regions, for the changes in industry structure? Second, how important were transportation improvements for welfare gains? We find that transport improvements were the key factor driving where people lived and what industry they worked in. We also find that transport improvements were important for welfare gains: Gains over 1840–1860 would have been only half as large if there had been no transportation improvements.

Railroads, Technology Adoption, and Modern Economic Development: Evidence from Japan

“…This paper contributes to the literature on infrastructure, technology adoption, structural change, population dynamics and urbanization, as well as the economic history of Japan and the industrial revolution. In terms of the effects of railroads, 5 recent studies such as Atack et al (2008b), Atack et al (2010), Burgess and Donaldson (2010), Herrendorf et al (2012), Duranton and Turner (2012), Jedwab and Moradi (2013), and Fajgelbaum and Redding (2014), Donaldson and Hornbeck (2016), Donaldson (2017) investigate the effect of railroads on the number of factories, 6 price equalization, famine, the price of agriculture land, specialization, structural change, and the urban population. 7 Authors such as Baum-Snow (2007), Duflo and Pande (2007), Jensen (2007), Michaels (2008), Goyal (2010), Dinkelman (2011), Rud (2012), Duranton et al (2014)f, Lipscomb et al (2013), Kline and Moretti (2014), Faber (2014), and Agrawal et al (2016) study other types of infrastructure, such as highways, dams, electricity, regional development plans and mobile phones.…”

Transport corridors and their wider economic benefits: A quantitative review of the literature

“…16 Historically, extensive national railway networks were constructed in both the United States and India in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The evaluation of these networks has been the subject of several papers (Atack & Margo, 2011;Donaldson, 2018;Donaldson & Hornbeck, 2016;Haines & Margo, 2006;Herrendorf, Schmitz, & Teixeira, 2012). Crucially, these evaluations have been facilitated by the existence of high-quality historical data on both the networks themselves and relevant outcome variables.…”

The Role of Productivity, Transportation Costs, and Barriers to Intersectoral Mobility in Structural Transformation

“…The first of these emphasizes the role played by barriers to goods mobility, such as transportation costs for the movement of labor out of agriculture. Herrendorf et al (2012) study the effect of the construction of railroads in the US during 1840-1860, and find that the associated reduction in transportation costs lead to settlement of the most fertile land in the Midwest, and a reduction in the agricultural labor force. Adamopoulos (2011) shows that transportation costs can lead to low aggregate output per worker, by reducing productivity within sectors and distorting allocation of resources across locations and between sectors.…”