 Resetting the urban network: 117-2012Guy Michaels and Ferdinand Rauch LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library Abstract: Do fixed geographic features such as coastlines and rivers determine town locations, or can historical events trap towns in unfavourable locations for centuries? We examine the effects on town locations of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, which temporarily ended urbanization in Britain, but not in France. As urbanization recovered, medieval towns were more often found in Roman-era town locations in France than in Britain, and this difference persists today. The resetting of Britain’s urban network gave it better access to natural navigable waterways when this was important, while many French towns remained without such access. We show that towns without coastal access grew more slowly in both Britain and France from 1200-1800, suggesting that towns that remained in locations without coastal access missed out on growth opportunities. Keywords: economic geography; economic history; path dependence; transportation. (search for similar items in EconPapers) Published in The Economic Journal, 24, May, 2017, 128(608), pp. 378 - 412. ISSN: 0013-0133 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:67408 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC. |
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