The Steam Engine and U.S. Urban Growth During the Late Nineteenth Century

Burton A. Abrams (), Jing Li and James G. Mulligan ()
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Burton A. Abrams: Department of Economics,University of Delaware
James G. Mulligan: Department of Economics,University of Delaware

No 09-06, Working Papers from University of Delaware, Department of Economics

Abstract: There is an on-going debate concerning the role that the steam engine played in fueling urban growth in the U.S. during the second half of the nineteenth century. While a consensus has been building that steam power played little or no role in affecting urban growth, we find evidence to the contrary by using previously untapped county-level data on steam power in manufacturing.

Keywords: urbanization; technology; convergence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N32 O14 O18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-fdg, nep-geo, nep-his and nep-ure
Date: 2009

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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dlw:wpaper:09-06.

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