Capital Intensity and U.S. Country Population Growth during the Late Nineteenth Century

Burton Abrams, Jing Li and James Mulligan ()

No 12-02, Working Papers from University of Delaware, Department of Economics

Abstract: The United States witnessed substantial growth in manufacturing and urban populations during the last half of the nineteenth century. To date, no convincing evidence has been presented to explain the shift in population to urban areas. We find evidence that capital intensity, particularly new capital in the form of steam horsepower, played a significant role in drawing labor into counties and by inference into urban areas. This provides support for the hypothesis that the locational decisions of manufacturers and their placement of capital in urban areas fueled urban growth in the nineteenth century.

Keywords: urbanization; capital intensity; regional population growth; technological change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J61 N11 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2012
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-his and nep-ure
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