Locomotives of Local Growth: The Short- and Long-Term Impact of Railroads in Sweden
(2014) In Lund Papers in Economic History. General Issues- Abstract
- This paper studies the impact of railroads on town-level growth in Sweden over 150 years. Our analysis builds on the fact that railroads historically were extended quasi-randomly across towns. Towns that gained access to a rail connection grew larger relative to other
towns, with large negative spillovers on unconnected nearby towns. Over the 20th century, we find little adjustment to the initial shock in town populations, despite a sharp reversal in relative connectivity. Evidence on historical investments and present-day factors is consistent with this temporary shock giving rise to path dependence in the location of economic activity.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/7868946
- author
- Berger, Thor
LU
and Enflo, Kerstin
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2014
- type
- Working paper/Preprint
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Path Dependence, Urban Growth, Transport Infrastructure
- in
- Lund Papers in Economic History. General Issues
- issue
- 132
- pages
- 47 pages
- publisher
- Department of Economic History, Lund University
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- cc6dcdf0-4521-4ae4-8470-250f23278414 (old id 7868946)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 11:58:51
- date last changed
- 2021-10-01 02:19:57
@misc{cc6dcdf0-4521-4ae4-8470-250f23278414, abstract = {{This paper studies the impact of railroads on town-level growth in Sweden over 150 years. Our analysis builds on the fact that railroads historically were extended quasi-randomly across towns. Towns that gained access to a rail connection grew larger relative to other<br/><br> towns, with large negative spillovers on unconnected nearby towns. Over the 20th century, we find little adjustment to the initial shock in town populations, despite a sharp reversal in relative connectivity. Evidence on historical investments and present-day factors is consistent with this temporary shock giving rise to path dependence in the location of economic activity.}}, author = {{Berger, Thor and Enflo, Kerstin}}, keywords = {{Path Dependence; Urban Growth; Transport Infrastructure}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Working Paper}}, number = {{132}}, publisher = {{Department of Economic History, Lund University}}, series = {{Lund Papers in Economic History. General Issues}}, title = {{Locomotives of Local Growth: The Short- and Long-Term Impact of Railroads in Sweden}}, url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/5899588/7868956}}, year = {{2014}}, }