Did Steam Engines Fuel Urban Growth in the Late Nineteenth Century? Less Sanguine Results

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

No 07-12, Working Papers from University of Delaware, Department of Economics

Abstract: There exists general agreement that the steam engine’s rise in importance occurred at the same time as large increases in firm size and growing urbanization, but no consensus concerning the degree to which the steam engine served as an exogenous force fueling urban growth. We reexamine the hypothesis that a leading brand of steam engine made by the Corliss Company fueled urbanization in the late nineteenth century. Using previously untapped county-level data on steam power in manufacturing, we show that there is little convincing evidence that either the Corliss engine or even steam power in general was the driving force behind urbanization.

Keywords: urbanization; technology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O14 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 15 pages
Date: 2007-08
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Published in Journal of Economic History, December, 2008.

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