This paper addresses whether government subsidies to two Canadian railroads built in the 1850s - the Grand Trunk and the Great Western - made economic sense. The historical literature suggests that these railroads, although privately unprofitable, were socially profitable. Through a careful study of company records, we find that the Great Western was socially profitable and that a relatively small additional subsidy would also have made it privately profitable. But the Grand Trunk was privately unprofitable and probably socially unprofitable as well. The form of the subsidy offered the railroads - loan guarantees - and the consequences, have a depressingly up-to-date ring. While the Great Western received small amounts of limited guarantees, the Grand Trunk received considerable aid. The Grand Trunk was then encouraged to issue large amounts of heavily discounted debt, which contributed to its eventual failure.
Download Info
To our knowledge, this item is not available for
download. To find whether it is available, there are three
options:
1. Check below under "Related research" whether another version of this item is available online.
2. Check on the provider's web page
whether it is in fact available.
3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be
available.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Queen's University, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number
814.