Replication files for Interest Rates, Sanitation Infrastructure, and Mortality Decline in Nineteenth-Century England and Wales
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Jonathan Chapman, New York University Abu Dhabi
Version: View help for Version V1
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application/zip | 4.9 MB | 11/19/2021 11:24:PM |
Project Citation:
Chapman, Jonathan. Replication files for Interest Rates, Sanitation Infrastructure, and Mortality Decline in Nineteenth-Century England and Wales. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-11-20. https://doi.org/10.3886/E155081V1
Project Description
Summary:
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This depository includes the replication package for Interest Rates, Sanitation
Infrastructure, and Mortality Decline in Nineteenth-Century England and Wales, to be published in the Journal of Economic History in March 2022.
Abstract: This paper investigates whether high borrowing costs deterred investment in sanitation infrastructure in late nineteenth-century Britain. Town councils had to borrow to fund investment, with considerable variation in interest rates across towns and over time. Panel regressions, using annual data from more than 800 town councils, indicate that higher interest rates were associated with lower levels of infrastructure investment between 1887 and 1903. Instrumental variable regressions show that falling interest rates after 1887 stimulated investment and led to lower infant mortality. These findings suggest that Parliament could have expedited mortality decline by subsidizing loans or facilitating private borrowing.
Abstract: This paper investigates whether high borrowing costs deterred investment in sanitation infrastructure in late nineteenth-century Britain. Town councils had to borrow to fund investment, with considerable variation in interest rates across towns and over time. Panel regressions, using annual data from more than 800 town councils, indicate that higher interest rates were associated with lower levels of infrastructure investment between 1887 and 1903. Instrumental variable regressions show that falling interest rates after 1887 stimulated investment and led to lower infant mortality. These findings suggest that Parliament could have expedited mortality decline by subsidizing loans or facilitating private borrowing.
Funding Sources:
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National Science Foundation. Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (1357995);
Institute for New Economic Thinking
Scope of Project
Subject Terms:
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Sanitation;
Capital Markets;
Public Works Loan Board;
Urban Infrastructure;
Britain;
Nineteenth Century
Geographic Coverage:
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England and Wales
Time Period(s):
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1875 – 1910
Methodology
Data Source:
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British Parliamentary Papers
Unit(s) of Observation:
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Towns in England and Wales
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Published Versions
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