Professor Ripley on American Railroads

Railroads and American Law

Railroads and American Economic Growth : A

This paper examines the historical impact of railroads on the American economy, with a focus on quantifying the aggregate impact in the agricultural sector in 1890. Expansion of the railroad network may have affected all counties directly or indirectly — an econometric challenge that arises in many empirical settings. However, the total impact on each county is captured by changes in that count...

American Studies 207: American Cultural Landscapes Professor

An Unattainable Salvation Dirt, Danger & Domesticity in Old New York It was 1832, and in the Five Points area of New York, a great street excavation was under way. What would cause such a flurry over the cobbles? Here, shovels plied the earth decades before the subway tunneled beneath the crowded streets. Electrical poles and telegraph lines had yet to become a nuisance worthy of inhumation. No...

Railroads and American Economic Growth: a " Market Access " Approach *

This paper examines the historical impact of railroads on the American economy. Expansion of the railroad network and decreased trade costs may affect all counties directly or indirectly, an econometric challenge in many empirical settings. However, the total impact on each county can be summarized by changes in that county’s “market access,” a reduced-form expression derived from general equil...

Railroads and American Economic Growth: New Data and Theory∗

This paper examines the impact of railroads on American economic growth. Drawing on general equilibrium trade theory, changes in counties’ “market access” captures the aggregate impact of local changes in railroads. Using a new spatial network of freight transportation routes, we calculate county-to-county lowest transportation costs and counties’ implied market access. As railroads expanded fr...