Research
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Connecting the Periphery: Three Papers on the Developments Caused by Spreading Transportation and Information Networks in the Nineteenth Century United States [full thesis]
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"Dense Enough To Be Brilliant: Patents, Urbanization, and Transportation in Nineteenth Century America" [chapter one] [chapter two] [appendices] [slides]
This paper examines the geographic distribution of patenting in the nineteenth century United States as it evolves in response to transportation improvements. I find a robust, statistically significant, and positive effect of increases in local transportation access on patenting. Over the twenty years following the arrival of the railroad in a county, the number of patents per capita doubles. I explore two possible mechanisms behind this increase: a) inventors responded to larger markets afforded by transportation improvements; or b) transportation improved information flows making investors more productive. I find little evidence that patenting responded positively to increased market access per se, but that local access still matters. Using digitized texts of patents, I measure whether any given patent mentions a previous, novel technology within a particular time frame. I find little evidence that the speed of arrival of these new ideas is related to transportation improvements. These results suggest that access to local transportation lowers the effective cost of patenting by forming a nexus around which local agglomerations occur.
CityLab Blog Post: The Historic Link Between Cities and Innovation
Supplements: [job market version] [patent access] [alt IV tables] [word list]
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"Who Used Postal Savings? A Description of the First Federally Insured Savings Institution" (with Matt Jaremski and Steven Sprick Schuster) [pdf]
Using novel data sets on Postal Savings depositor behavior and bank location, we provide a history of the United States Postal Savings System by measuring how depositor behavior changed over time, in response to economic shocks, demographics, and the presence of commercial banks. We describe the system's three distinct phases: pre-1929 Crash, Great Depression until WWII, and WWII through the end of the program. The characteristics of depositors changed over time, from non-farming immigrant populations in the early years towards broad nationwide use of the system after 1930. Throughout the history of the system, individuals changed their behavior following negative economic shocks by relying more heavily on Postal Savings, especially for short-term deposits. Finally, the data indicate that Postal Savings was at least a partial substitute for commercial banks.
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"Delivering the Vote: The Political Effect of Free Mail Delivery in Early Twentieth Century America" (with Steven Sprick Schuster) JEH [pdf] [online apendix] [slides]
The rollout of Rural Free Delivery (RFD) in the early twentieth century dramatically increased the frequency with which rural voters received information. This paper examines the effect of RFD on voters' and Representatives' behavior using a panel dataset and instrumental variables. Communities receiving more routes spread their votes to more parties, especially smaller parties. However, we fail to find a significant change in voter turnout. RFD shifted positions taken by Representatives to ones in line with rural communities, including increasing support for pro-temperance and anti-immigration policies. Our results are much stronger in counties with newspapers, supporting the hypothesis that information flows play a crucial role in the political process.
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"The Impact of Railroads on School Enrollment in Nineteenth Century America" (with Jeremy Atack and Robert A. Margo) [pdf]
One of the central features of nineteenth century economic development in the United States was the "Transportation Revolution," in which the speed of moving goods and people increased rapidly, and prices fell, with important economic and social effects. This paper uses a newly created panel data set matching information on transportation infrastructure to individual-level census data for the period 1850 to 1880 to study the impact of the diffusion of the railroad -- a key component of the Transportation Revolution -- on human capital investment. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that gaining access to rail transportation in a county significantly increases the likelihood of school attendance among children ages 6-16. The treatment effect of the railroad is robust to controls for demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, and location, and is also similar in magnitude for boys and girls. Causal mechanisms are explored, including the effects of rail on the supply of schools through higher property values.
Works in Progress
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"Free Mail Delivery, Sears, Roebuck & Company, and the Rural General Store" (with Steven Sprick Schuster)
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"Credit Access and Patenting Activity in Nineteenth Century America" (with Matt Jaremski)
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"Nineteenth Century Moral Laws' Impact on Innovation"
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"The Formation and Persistence of Gay San Fransisco" (with Casey Petroff)
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"Did the Telegraph Have an Independent Impact?" (with Aaron Honsowetz)