Total factor productivity growth on Britain's railways, 1852-1912: a reappraisal of the evidence

Crafts, Nicholas, Mills, Terence C. and Mulatu, Abay (2005) Total factor productivity growth on Britain's railways, 1852-1912: a reappraisal of the evidence. Working papers in large-scale technological change (07/05). Department of Economic History, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

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Abstract

This paper revisits the issue of the productivity performance of pre-World War I Britain’s railway system with an improved dataset and with modern time-series econometrics. We find a slowdown in TFP growth between 1850 and 1870, after which it stabilized at about 1.1%. An analysis of company-level productivity rejects the claims that there was a regulation-induced revival of productivity performance in the railway sector after 1900 but, on the other hand, it supports the claim that there was some managerial failure during the period.

Item Type:	Monograph (Working Paper)
Official URL:	http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/economicHistory/
Additional Information:	© 2005 Nicholas Crafts
Divisions:	Economic History
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions T Technology > TF Railroad engineering and operation D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D204 Modern History D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain
Date Deposited:	05 Feb 2009 14:51
Last Modified:	13 Sep 2024 19:56
Projects:	R000239536
Funders:	Economic and Social Research Council
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/22553

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