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The Effect of Transport Infrastructure on Home Production Activity: Evidence from Rural New York, 1825-1845
Abstract
This paper examines the home production activities of newly formed and long established households in rural New York over a twenty year period after the Erie Canal was built. It shows that newly established households had lower home production activities than long-established households resident in the same area, conditional on the size, age, and land-owning characteristics of the households. Thus some of the decline in aggregate production was due to the arrival of new, differently behaving households, rather than changing behavior of established households. However, long-established households eventually copied their new neighbors, reducing their home production activities to similar levels.
Citation
Coleman, Andrew. 2009. "The Effect of Transport Infrastructure on Home Production Activity: Evidence from Rural New York, 1825-1845," Motu Manuscript, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, Wellington.
Motu code: MEL0397
JEL codes: N71; O33