Sprouting Cities: How Rural America Industrialized

Fabian Eckert, John Juneau and Michael Peters

No 30874, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We study the joint process of urbanization and industrialization in the US economy between 1880 and 1940. We show that only a small share of aggregate industrialization is accounted for by the relocation of workers from remote rural areas to industrial hubs like Chicago or New York City. Instead, most sectoral shifts occurred within rural counties, dramatically transforming their sectoral structure. Most industrialization within counties occurred through the emergence of new "factory" cities with notably higher manufacturing shares rather than the expansion of incumbent cities. In contrast, today's shift towards services seems to benefit large incumbent cities the most.

JEL-codes: E0 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-his and nep-ure
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Published as Fabian Eckert & John Juneau & Michael Peters, 2023. "Sprouting Cities: How Rural America Industrialized," AEA Papers and Proceedings, vol 113, pages 87-92.

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Journal Article: Sprouting Cities: How Rural America Industrialized (2023)
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