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Engines of Growth: The Productivity Advance of Indian Railways, 1874–1912

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2013

Dan Bogart  and
Latika Chaudhary
Dan Bogart
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Department of Economics, University of California, Irvine, 3151 Social Science Plaza, Irvine, CA 92697-5100. E-mail: [email protected].
Latika Chaudhary
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Scripps College, 1030 Columbia Avenue, #4072, Claremont, CA 91711-3905. E-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

Railways were integral to the development of the Indian economy before World War I. This article presents new estimates of total factor productivity (TFP) for railways from 1874 to 1912, which highlight the strong performance of this key industrial sector. Railway-industry TFP growth was substantial averaging 2.3 percent per year and generating a 2.7 percent social savings for the Indian economy. A combination of factors contributed to TFP growth including greater capacity utilization, technological change, and improvements in organization and governance. Railways had higher TFP growth than most sectors in India and compared favorably with TFP growth in other countries.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 73 , Issue 2 , June 2013 , pp. 339 - 370
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2013 

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Footnotes

We thank Saumitra Jha, seminar participants at St. Andrews, Stanford, and Vanderbilt and conference participants at the All-UC Economic History Meetings in Berkeley, the Economic History Society Meetings in Cambridge, the UCLA Alumni Economics conference, the HI-POD conference on India and Great Divergence in Rajasthan, the World Economic History Congress in South Africa, and the Economic History Association Meetings in Vancouver. We thank the editor and two anonymous referees for detailed feedback. Finally, we thank the Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies for providing valuable grant money. Garrett Neiman, Shivani Pundir, Jennifer Ringoen, Nilopa Shah, and Sanjana Tandon provided excellent research assistance.

References

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