BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Transport development and urban population change in the age of st
 eam: A market access approach - Xuesheng You (Swansea)
DTSTART:20210526T120000Z
DTEND:20210526T133000Z
UID:TALK159760@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:31344
DESCRIPTION:This article takes a market access approach to study the effec
 t of a major transport development\, the introduction of steam-powered tra
 nsport\, on urban population change for 415 towns in England and Wales bet
 ween 1830 and 1911. The totality of the roads\, inland waterways\, coastal
  routes and railway networks recorded in available sources for these two d
 ates were digitised with unprecedented accuracy\, in order to build a mult
 imodal transport network accordingly. Our baseline model produces the unex
 pected result that\, on average\, improved market access had a negative ef
 fect on urban population growth. More specifically\, the elasticity of pop
 ulation change with respect to market access change was of approximately -
 0.25. We argue that this unexpected effect was due to the strong heterogen
 eous effects of market access according to initial town size. Indeed\, our
  estimates show that while market access had a significantly positive effe
 ct on population growth in large towns\, it had a significantly negative e
 ffect on small towns. We argue that this heterogeneous effect was due to t
 he fact that improved transport networks reinforced agglomeration effects 
 in large urban centres while diminished the dispersion effect that had pre
 viously protected small towns.
LOCATION:ONLINE - Details to be sent by email
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR