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Railroads, American Growth, and the New Economic History: A Critique

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  • McClelland, Peter D.

Abstract

Robert Fogel and Albert Fishlow have attempted in recent studies to measure the net contribution of the railroad to American economic growth in two specific years: 1890 and 1859. Both their methods and conclusions have confused, if not dismayed, more conventional historians. This article has two objectives: The first is to provide a simplified guide to the analytical framework underlying their calculations and the second is to suggest to both old and new economic historians that the measurements employed by Fogel and Fishlow bear no direct relationship to what they claim to measure—the benefits to the nineteenth-century economy from the existence of the railroad.

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  • McClelland, Peter D., 1968. "Railroads, American Growth, and the New Economic History: A Critique," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(1), pages 102-123, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:28:y:1968:i:01:p:102-123_07
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    Cited by:

    1. Börjesson, Maria & Jonsson, R. Daniel & Lundberg, Mattias, 2014. "An ex-post CBA for the Stockholm Metro," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 135-148.
    2. Börjesson, Maria & Jonsson, Daniel & Lundberg , Mattias, 2013. "An ex-post CBA for the Stockholm Metro," Working papers in Transport Economics 2013:34, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    3. Swisher IV, S. N., 2017. "Reassessing Railroads and Growth: Accounting for Transport Network Endogeneity," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1718, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.

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