Replication data for: Creative Destruction: Barriers to Urban Growth and the Great Boston Fire of 1872

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Richard Hornbeck; Daniel Keniston

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
Replication_Fire_AER-2014-1707			10/12/2019 03:13:AM
LICENSE.txt	text/plain	14.6 KB	10/11/2019 11:13:PM

Project Citation:

Hornbeck, Richard, and Keniston, Daniel. Replication data for: Creative Destruction: Barriers to Urban Growth and the Great Boston Fire of 1872. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2017. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-10-12. https://doi.org/10.3886/E113027V1

Project Description

Summary: Urban growth requires the replacement of outdated buildings, yet growth may be restricted when landowners do not internalize positive spillover effects from their own reconstruction. The Boston Fire of 1872 created an opportunity for widespread simultaneous reconstruction, initiating a virtuous circle in which building upgrades encouraged further upgrades of nearby buildings. Land values increased substantially among burned plots and nearby unburned plots, capitalizing economic gains comparable to the prior value of burned buildings. Boston had grown rapidly prior to the Fire, but negative spillovers from outdated durable buildings had substantially constrained its growth by dampening reconstruction incentives.

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:
      H76 State and Local Government: Other Expenditure Categories
      N91 Regional and Urban History: U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
      R11 Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
      R52 Regional Government Analysis: Land Use and Other Regulations
      R58 Regional Development Planning and Policy

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Published Versions

V1 [2019-10-12]

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