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A VAR Analysis of the Transportation Revolution in Europe

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  • Felis-Rota, Marta

    (Departamento de Análisis Económico: Teoría Económica e Historia Económica. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)

Abstract

During the second half of the 19th century transportation costs decreased sharply. Among the most notable technological advances that lead to the transportation revolution we find the arrival of the railways. This paper provides a quantitative analysis of the expansion of the railways at the time of the so-called First Globalization in European countries through a vector autoregressive analysis. Total mileage of the railways has been obtained through GIS software for every European country, via a long process of digitalization of historical atlases. Then the vector autoregressive analysis and the impulse-response functions show the interaction between railways and GDP. I find interactions going in both directions of the VAR, and that the persistence of the effects varies from country to country. Thanks to this method, we can compare differentiated patterns of development associated to idiosyncratic transportation revolutions in Europe.

Suggested Citation

  • Felis-Rota, Marta, 2014. "A VAR Analysis of the Transportation Revolution in Europe," Working Papers in Economic History 2014/01, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), Department of Economic Analysis (Economic Theory and Economic History).
    • Handle: RePEc:uam:wpapeh:201401
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    Cited by:

    1. Rui Manuel Pereira, Alfredo Marvao Pereira and William J. Hausman, 2017. "Railroad Infrastructure Investments and Economic Development in the Antebellum United States," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 42(3), pages 1-16, September.
    2. Eduard Alvarez & Mario Holzner & Stefan Jestl & Jordi Marti-Henneberg, 2016. "Introducing Railway Time in the Balkans: Economic effects of railway construction in Southeast Europe and beyond since the early 19th century until present days," wiiw Balkan Observatory Working Papers 121, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    VAR; railways; growth; comparative economic history;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C3 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables
    • N13 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • R4 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics

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