Locomotives of local growth: The short- and long-term impact of railroads in Sweden
Berger, Thor LU and Enflo, Kerstin LU
(2017)
In Journal of Urban Economics
98.
p.124-138
- Abstract
- This paper studies the impact of railroads on 150 years of urban growth in Sweden, identifying the short- and long-term effects of a first wave of railroad construction. Difference-in-differences and instrumental variable estimates show that towns that gained access experienced substantial relative increases in population, though such growth mainly reflected a relocation of economic activity. Over the twentieth century, we find little evidence of convergence in town populations, despite the railroad network expanding further to connect nearly all towns. Evidence on historical investments and present-day factors is consistent with the idea that the transitory shock of the first railroads gave rise to path dependence in the location of... (More)
- This paper studies the impact of railroads on 150 years of urban growth in Sweden, identifying the short- and long-term effects of a first wave of railroad construction. Difference-in-differences and instrumental variable estimates show that towns that gained access experienced substantial relative increases in population, though such growth mainly reflected a relocation of economic activity. Over the twentieth century, we find little evidence of convergence in town populations, despite the railroad network expanding further to connect nearly all towns. Evidence on historical investments and present-day factors is consistent with the idea that the transitory shock of the first railroads gave rise to path dependence in the location of economic activity. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/8257882
- author
- Berger, Thor
LU
and Enflo, Kerstin
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2017-03
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Urban growth, Transport infrastructure, Railroads, Path dependence
- in
- Journal of Urban Economics
- volume
- 98
- pages
- 15 pages
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85017141928
- wos:000398742100008
- ISSN
- 1095-9068
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jue.2015.09.001
- project
- Swedish Regional Economic Growth in a European Perspective
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- b7b56a77-ff9d-4560-beca-3734fff8d79f (old id 8257882)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 11:00:10
- date last changed
- 2022-04-28 03:36:28
@article{b7b56a77-ff9d-4560-beca-3734fff8d79f,
abstract = {{This paper studies the impact of railroads on 150 years of urban growth in Sweden, identifying the short- and long-term effects of a first wave of railroad construction. Difference-in-differences and instrumental variable estimates show that towns that gained access experienced substantial relative increases in population, though such growth mainly reflected a relocation of economic activity. Over the twentieth century, we find little evidence of convergence in town populations, despite the railroad network expanding further to connect nearly all towns. Evidence on historical investments and present-day factors is consistent with the idea that the transitory shock of the first railroads gave rise to path dependence in the location of economic activity.}},
author = {{Berger, Thor and Enflo, Kerstin}},
issn = {{1095-9068}},
keywords = {{Urban growth; Transport infrastructure; Railroads; Path dependence}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{124--138}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Journal of Urban Economics}},
title = {{Locomotives of local growth: The short- and long-term impact of railroads in Sweden}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2015.09.001}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.jue.2015.09.001}},
volume = {{98}},
year = {{2017}},
}