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Party Connections, Interest Groups and the Slow Diffusion of Infrastructure: Evidence from Britain's First Transport Revolution

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  • Dan Bogart

Abstract

Economic and political interests often block or delay infrastructure improvements. This article examines their effects by studying Britain's river navigation improvements in the early 1700s – a subject of intense lobbying in parliament. It shows that stronger party connections and influence in neighbouring areas likely to oppose or support projects affected whether a town got a river navigation act. Their estimated effects are comparable to geography and town economic characteristics in magnitude and help explain whether towns were blocked from getting navigation improvements. The findings address institutions following the Glorious Revolution and broader issues concerning infrastructure, technology diffusion and political connections.

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  • Dan Bogart, 2018. "Party Connections, Interest Groups and the Slow Diffusion of Infrastructure: Evidence from Britain's First Transport Revolution," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(609), pages 541-575, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:econjl:v:128:y:2018:i:609:p:541-575
    DOI: 10.1111/ecoj.12432
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    Cited by:

    1. Roberto Bonfatti & Giovanni Facchini & Alexander Tarasov & Gian Luca Tedeschi & Cecilia Testa, 2021. "Pork, infrastructure and growth: Evidence from the Italian railway expansion," Discussion Papers 2021-04, Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP).
    2. Veselov, Dmitry & Yarkin, Alexander, 2024. "Lobbying for Industrialization: Theory and Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 17045, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Eric Melander, 2020. "Transportation Technology, Individual Mobility and Social Mobilisation," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 471, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    4. Helmut Farbmacher & Harald Tauchmann, 2023. "Linear fixed-effects estimation with nonrepeated outcomes," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(8), pages 635-654, September.
    5. Bogart, Dan, 2022. "Infrastructure and institutions: Lessons from history," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    6. Garcia, Alberto & Heilmayr, Robert, 2024. "Impact evaluation with nonrepeatable outcomes: The case of forest conservation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    7. Tauchmann, Harald, 2019. "Fixed-effects estimation of the linear discrete-time hazard model: An adjusted first-differences estimator," FAU Discussion Papers in Economics 09/2019, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute for Economics.

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