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Borders, market access and urban growth; the case of Saxon towns and the Zollverein

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  • Florian Ploeckl

    (University of Oxford)

Abstract

The Zollverein, the 1834 customs union between independent German states, removed all internal borders. This paper investigates its economic impact focussing on urban population growth in the state of Saxony. Implications from a economic geography model are tested with a data set on town populations and location characteristics as well as an improved distance measure created with GIS techniques to include geography and infrastructure. Saxony's Zollverein membership led to significantly higher growth for towns close to the liberalized border. The effect depended on a town's size, was reinforced through neighboring markets and worked through influencing migration and natural increase.

Suggested Citation

  • Florian Ploeckl, 2010. "Borders, market access and urban growth; the case of Saxon towns and the Zollverein," Working Papers 2010/42, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    • Handle: RePEc:ieb:wpaper:doc2010-42
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Florian Ploeckl, 2012. "Market Access and Information Technology Adoption: Historical Evidence from the Telephone in Bavaria," Economics Series Working Papers 620, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
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    4. A’Hearn, Brian & Rueda, Valeria, 2023. "Internal Borders and Population Geography in the Unification of Italy," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 83(3), pages 747-785, September.
    5. Ploeckl, Florian, 2021. "The next town over: On the clustering of towns and settlements before modern economic growth," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic geography; market access; customs union; GIS;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N93 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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