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Protection Against a Capricious State: French Investment and Spanish Railroads, 1845–1875

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  • Keefer, Philip

Abstract

Infrastructure construction is often associated with excessive, even corrupt, profits. This article argues that construction profits earned in Spanish railroads in the mid-nineteenth century were a response to the lack of credibility of the Spanish state. It also makes the first attempt to document excess construction profits in Spanish railroads by demonstrating, for example, financial links between railroad stockholders and the providers of construction goods and services and by directly estimating construction profits. The estimated excess construction profits only provided railroad entrepreneurs with a normal rate of return to their entire railroad-related investments.

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  • Keefer, Philip, 1996. "Protection Against a Capricious State: French Investment and Spanish Railroads, 1845–1875," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 56(1), pages 170-192, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:56:y:1996:i:01:p:170-192_01
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    Cited by:

    1. Alfonso Herranz Loncán, 2004. "La dotación de infraestructuras en España, (1844-1935)," Estudios de Historia Económica, Banco de España, number 45, November.
    2. Damir AGIC & Nico GROVE, 2012. "Role of the state in infrastructure provisioning from 1880s to World War I: telecommunications infrastructure in Europe," Departmental Working Papers 2012-12, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    3. Farzana Chowdhury & David B. Audretsch, 2021. "Do corruption and regulations matter for home country nascent international entrepreneurship?," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 720-759, June.
    4. Keefer, Philip & Knack, Stephen, 2002. "Boondoogles and expropriation : rent-sseking and policy distortion when property rights are insecure," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2910, The World Bank.

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