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Title: Essays on Canals, Economic Development, and Gender Gap in Antebellum America
Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis
Publication Year: 2023
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Abstract: This dissertation investigates the impact of canals on regional economic development, in- dustrialization, and labor market gender gaps in the nineteenth-century United States. In Chapter 1, the causal effect of canals on county-level population growth is examined using various empirical methods, including fixed effects modeling, difference-in-differences, and instrumental variable estimation. The findings reveal that counties with canals experienced significantly higher population growth compared to those without canals between 1820 and 1860. In Chapter 2, the role of canal networks in the transition of the antebellum American economy from agriculture to industrialization is explored. By utilizing variations in canal openings across counties, evidence is found of a canal-induced labor shift from agricul- ture to manufacturing and commercial sectors, between 1820 and 1840. The event study results of patent growth in canal counties suggest that innovations responded to a trans- portation improvement—the acquisition of canal accessibility—during the pre-Civil War period. This finding implies that the increased patent activity in canal counties reflects the region’s heightened innovation and technological progress, contributing to the broader industrialization process. Chapter 3 focuses on the labor market gender gaps during the antebellum period and uses canal accessibility as a measure of early industrial development in a county. The study challenges the notion that living on a farm confined women to household duties of food production during the early stage of industrialization in the American economy. Instead, it highlights that women’s reproductive and child-caring responsibilities played a significant role in explaining the gender gap in labor force participation between regions with different levels of industrialization. The presence of children exacerbates this gender-industrialization gap, while individuals without children experience a narrowing of the disparity. Addition- ally, digitized data from the 1860 Census of Manufacturing (ICPSR 4048) is used to explore the gender wage differences between steam-powered factories and non-steam-powered ones. This dissertation provides valuable insights into the impact of canals on economic de- velopment, industrialization, and gender disparities in labor market during the early years of American history. The research sheds light on the role of nineteenth-century Ameri- can canals, the most important transportation network before the railroad era, in shaping regional economies and social dynamics during this crucial period
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Authors: Chang, Jinyan
Institution: Clark University
Department: Department of Economics
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Pages: 1-141
Data Collections: IPUMS USA, IPUMS NHGIS
Topics: Gender, Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Land Use/Urban Organization
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