The growth contribution of colonial Indian railways in comparative perspective

IF 1.4 1区 历史学 Q3 ECONOMICS
Dan Bogart, Latika Chaudhary, Alfonso Herranz-Loncán
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Abstract

Railways were an important driver of global economic growth in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Whilst their role is well documented in industrial economies, we know less about their macro-economic impact in developing countries. In this paper, we first estimate the aggregate growth impact of Indian railways, one of the largest networks in the world in the early twentieth century. Then, we compare their impact in India to four emerging Latin American economies (Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Uruguay) and the Cape colony. Using growth accounting techniques common to the cross-country estimates, we argue that the aggregate growth impact of Indian railways was significant, increasing Indian gross domestic product (GDP) per capita by 13.5 per cent by 1912. We also find that the growth impact of Indian railways was similar to Brazil and Mexico, but smaller than Argentina and the Cape. Compared with the latter, India had a smaller size of railway freight revenues in the economy and lower wages to fares leading to lower passenger time savings. Railways were the most important infrastructure driver of economic growth in India during the first era of globalization from 1860 to 1912, but they contributed less than in richer and more dynamic developing economies.

Abstract Image

从比较角度看印度殖民时期铁路对经济增长的贡献
铁路是十九世纪和二十世纪初全球经济增长的重要推动力。虽然铁路在工业经济中的作用有据可查,但我们对其在发展中国家的宏观经济影响却知之甚少。在本文中,我们首先估算了二十世纪初世界上最大的铁路网络之一--印度铁路对经济增长的总体影响。然后,我们将其对印度的影响与四个新兴拉美经济体(阿根廷、巴西、墨西哥和乌拉圭)以及开普殖民地进行比较。利用跨国估算中常用的增长核算技术,我们认为印度铁路对总体增长的影响是显著的,到 1912 年,印度人均国内生产总值(GDP)增长了 13.5%。我们还发现,印度铁路对经济增长的影响与巴西和墨西哥相似,但小于阿根廷和开普省。与后者相比,印度经济中的铁路货运收入规模较小,票价工资较低,导致乘客节省的时间较少。在 1860 年至 1912 年的第一个全球化时代,铁路是推动印度经济增长的最重要的基础设施,但与更富裕、更有活力的发展中经济体相比,铁路的贡献较小。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
3.60
自引率
27.30%
发文量
84
期刊介绍: The Economic History Review is published quarterly and each volume contains over 800 pages. It is an invaluable source of information and is available free to members of the Economic History Society. Publishing reviews of books, periodicals and information technology, The Review will keep anyone interested in economic and social history abreast of current developments in the subject. It aims at broad coverage of themes of economic and social change, including the intellectual, political and cultural implications of these changes.
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