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Railroads and American Economic Growth

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  • Nerlove, Marc

Abstract

In his classic paper on the significance of railroads to American economic development, Leland Jenks distinguished three principal avenues of influence: (1) The railroad was what Jenks called an “innovating idea” with important psychological impact “manifested in a wave-like profusion of new enterprise of many sorts.” (2) The railroad and railway construction and maintenance were a stimulus to the industrial and financial sectors of the economy. The railroad not only stimulated the iron and steel, timber, and other industries directly but “encouraged innovations in financial enterprise.” (3) Finally, the railroad contributed directly to the generation of national income through the rendering of transportation services. Although on this last point Jenks despaired that, “There appears to be no satisfactory technique for giving a precise measure to the extent of this contribution.”

Suggested Citation

  • Nerlove, Marc, 1966. "Railroads and American Economic Growth," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(1), pages 107-115, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:26:y:1966:i:01:p:107-115_06
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    Cited by:

    1. Claude Diebolt & Michael Haupert, 2018. "A cliometric counterfactual: what if there had been neither Fogel nor North?," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 12(3), pages 407-434, September.
    2. Mohmand, Yasir Tariq & Mehmood, Fahad & Mughal, Khurrum Shahzad & Aslam, Faheem, 2021. "Investigating the causal relationship between transport infrastructure, economic growth and transport emissions in Pakistan," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    3. Swisher IV, S. N., 2017. "Reassessing Railroads and Growth: Accounting for Transport Network Endogeneity," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1718, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.

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