This dissertation consists of three essays on topics in economic history. The first two chapters focus on historical place-based policies in the United States. Chapter One studies the United States Army's role in shaping the spatial distribution of the population. Chapter Two studies the construction of the Interstate Highway System (IHS) in the city of Detroit. Chapter Three examines mechanisms for financing creativity in the British publishing industry.
In Chapter One, I link the location of US Army forts to spatial patterns in population density across counties on the American frontier. Fort establishment predicts initial increases in density, indicative of their role as man-made factors in explaining the origins of local spatial patterns. Long after fort abandonment, increased density persists at fort locations, indicating path dependence. Long-run persistence is driven by if, and when, a fort county was connected to the nineteenth century railroad network.
Chapter Two studies the political economy behind site selection for urban segments of the IHS and measures effects of construction on neighborhoods in Detroit. Using variation at the census-tract level, I show that interstates were routed through neighborhoods with low property value to minimize land acquisition costs and future losses to the city's tax base. Following construction, interstates led to short-run declines in property values, population density, and the percentage of a neighborhood's black residents. In the long run, property values declined further in tracts with an interstate, and tracts closest to construction remained less dense with lower shares of black residents.
Chapter Three uses book-level data on Romantic Period English literature to investigate crowdfunding as a mechanism for financing creativity in the publishing industry. We show that new authors and female authors faced substantially greater demand uncertainty in the industry, compared to both established and male authors, and these authors are more likely to crowdfund their works. Subsequently,
while crowdfunded works have lower average payoffs, crowdfunded titles written by females, and targeting a female audience, are relatively more successful than their traditionally-published counterparts, consistent with demand in excess of expectations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/41831 |
| Date | 21 December 2020 |
| Creators | Carter, Chelsea E. |
| Contributors | Margo, Robert A. |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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