Big Push or Big Grab? Railways, Government Activism and Export Growth in Latin America, 1865-1913

Vincent Bignon, Rui Esteves and A. Herranz-Lonc n
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Alfonso Herranz-Loncán

Working papers from Banque de France

Abstract: Railways were one of the main engines of the Latin American trade boom before 1914. Railway construction often required financial support from local governments, which depended on their fiscal capacity. But since the main government revenues were trade-related, this generated a two-way feedback between government revenues and railways with a potential for multiple equilibria. The empirical tests in this paper support the hypothesis of a positive two-way relationship. The main implication of our analysis is that the build-up of state capacity was a necessary condition for railway expansion and, given the importance of the export sector in these economies, for economic growth and divergence in the region.

Keywords: Railways; Latin America; Export growth; Government revenues. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H54 N46 N76 O38 O54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51 pages
Date: 2013
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-pbe, nep-tre and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Big push or big grab? Railways, government activism, and export growth in Latin America, 1865–1913 (2015)
Working Paper: Big Push or Big Grab? Railways, Government Activism and Export Growth In Latin America, 1865-1913 (2015)
Working Paper: Big push or big grab? Railways, government activism and export growth in Latin America, 1865-1913 (2013)
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