Using a nevply developed geographic information system transportation database, me study the impact of gaining access to rail transportation on changes in population density and the rate oj urbanization between 1850 and ¡860 in the American Midwest. Difjerences-in-dißhences and instrumental variable analysis of a balanced panel of 278 counties reveals only a small positive effect of rail access on population density but a large positive impact on urbanization ¡is measured by the fraction of people living in incorporated areas of 2,500 or more. Our estimates imply thai ove-halfor more of the growth in urbanization in the Midwest in the late antebellum period may be attributable to the spread of the rail network.
In the 1960s many American cities experienced violent, race-related civil disturbances. This article examines census data from 1950 to 1980 to measure the riots' impact on the value of central-city residential property, and especially on black-owned property. Both OLS and IV estimates indicate that the riots depressed the median value of black-owned property between 1960 and 1970, with little or no rebound in the 1970s. Census tract data for a small number of cities suggest relative losses of population and property value in tracts that were directly affected by riots compared to other tracts in the same cities.
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