Transportation Economics in the 21st Century - Rail Data

1.  U.S. Railroad Network Shapefiles, 1826-1911

Data from the Department of Transportation’s National Atlas Database, in combination with the U.S. Geological Survey’s historical topographical maps. Shapefiles show miles of railroad linkage between points.

• Data  Provided by Jeremy Atack.

As used in:
Atack, Jeremy and Robert Margo (2011) “The Impact of Access to Rail Transportation on Agricultural Improvement: The American Midwest as a Test Case, 1850–1860,” Journal of Transportation and Land Use, 4(2).

2.  U.S. Railroad Network, 1830-1920

Decadal shapefiles containing networks for navigable rivers, constructed and proposed canals, sea/lake routes, railroads, and other transportation components, as well as historical county-county transportation costs. Built upon original data from: Atack, Jeremy, ‘‘On the Use of Geographic Information Systems in Economic History: The American Transportation Revolution Revisited,’’ Journal of Economic History, 73 (2013), 313–338.

• Data  Provided by Richard Hornbeck and Dave Donaldson.

As used in:
Donaldson, Dave and Richard Hornbeck (2016) “Railroads and American Economic Growth: A “Market Access” Approach,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 131(2), 799-858. 

• Data  Provided by Richard Hornbeck and Martin Rotemberg.

As used in:
Hornbeck, Richard and Martin Rotemberg (Forthcoming) “Growth Off the Rails: Aggregate Productivity Growth in Distorted Economies,” Journal of Political Economy.