Establishment-level data are used to study capital deepening – increases in the capital-output ratio – in U. S. manufacturing from 1850 to 1880. In both nominal and real terms, the aggregate capital-output ratio rose substantially over the period. Capital deepening is shown to be especially...

Studies have shown a connection between finance and growth, but most do not consider how financial and real factors interact to put a virtuous cycle of economic development into motion. As the main transportation advance of the 19th century, railroads connected established commercial centers and...

Transportation improvements in the nineteenth century loom large in the historiography of the profession during the twentieth century. This article describes the ongoing construction of a historical geographic information systems (GIS) transportation database designed to provide new insights...