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Railroads and rural industrialization : Evidence from a historical policy experiment

Berger, Thor LU (2019) In Explorations in Economic History 74.
Abstract

This paper studies the impact of railroads on growth and structural transformation in 19th-century Sweden. To establish causality, the analysis exploits that the main state-owned lines of the network traversed rural communities that were not directly targeted by planners. Areas “accidentally” traversed by one of these trunk lines experienced substantially more rapid population growth and structural transformation over the next 50 years. These findings suggest that investments in transportation networks can spur industrial development and that the railroad is an important factor to account for Sweden's rapid catch-up with the leading European industrializers.

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author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Industrialization, Railroads, Structural transformation, Transport infrastructure
in
Explorations in Economic History
volume
74
article number
101277
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85070500674
ISSN
0014-4983
DOI
10.1016/j.eeh.2019.06.002
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
0cc3e791-8f66-4df7-b082-7151f1530c94
date added to LUP
2019-08-23 13:20:48
date last changed
2022-04-26 03:36:42
@article{0cc3e791-8f66-4df7-b082-7151f1530c94,
  abstract     = {{<p>This paper studies the impact of railroads on growth and structural transformation in 19th-century Sweden. To establish causality, the analysis exploits that the main state-owned lines of the network traversed rural communities that were not directly targeted by planners. Areas “accidentally” traversed by one of these trunk lines experienced substantially more rapid population growth and structural transformation over the next 50 years. These findings suggest that investments in transportation networks can spur industrial development and that the railroad is an important factor to account for Sweden's rapid catch-up with the leading European industrializers.</p>}},
  author       = {{Berger, Thor}},
  issn         = {{0014-4983}},
  keywords     = {{Industrialization; Railroads; Structural transformation; Transport infrastructure}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Explorations in Economic History}},
  title        = {{Railroads and rural industrialization : Evidence from a historical policy experiment}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2019.06.002}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.eeh.2019.06.002}},
  volume       = {{74}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}