Roman roads to prosperity: Persistence and non-persistence of public infrastructure
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
In this paper, we explore the link between public transport infrastructure investments made during antiquity and the presence of infrastructure today; as well as the link between early infrastructure and economic activity, both in the past and in the present. We examine the territory under dominion of the Roman Empire at the zenith of its geographical extension (117 CE), and find a remarkable pattern of persistence showing that greater Roman road density goes along with (a) greater modern road density, (b) greater settlement formation in 500 CE, and (c) greater economic activity in 2010–2020. Exploiting a natural experiment, we find that persistence in road density and the strong link between early road density and contemporary economic development weaken to the point of insignificance in areas where the use of wheeled vehicles was abandoned and caravan trade routes replaced road-based trade from the first millennium CE until the late modern period. Studying channels of persistence, we identify the emergence of market towns during the early medieval period and the modern era as a robust mechanism sustaining the persistent effects of the Roman roads network. Our results contribute to a deeper understanding of the channels through which persistence in comparative development comes about.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal of Comparative Economics |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Pages (from-to) | 896-916 |
| ISSN | 0147-5967 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:
We are grateful for useful comments on various versions of the paper from seminar participants at ASSA in Atlanta, Belfast, Bergen, Brown University, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, London School of Economics, Manchester, Moscow, Sheffield, Tokyo, and Zurich. We also thank Davide Cantoni and Noam Yuchtman for kindly providing us with their data. Pablo Selaya would like to further thank the Independent Research Fund Denmark - Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond (DFF) for funding a research visit to Harvard University, which contributed to this research (Independent Research Fund Denmark - Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond, DFF, Sapere Aude Grant No. 11-119834). The usual disclaimer applies.
Funding Information:
We are grateful for useful comments on various versions of the paper from seminar participants at ASSA in Atlanta, Belfast, Bergen, Brown University, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, London School of Economics, Manchester, Moscow, Sheffield, Tokyo, and Zurich. We also thank Davide Cantoni and Noam Yuchtman for kindly providing us with their data. Pablo Selaya would like to further thank the Independent Research Fund Denmark - Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond (DFF) for funding a research visit to Harvard University, which contributed to this research (Independent Research Fund Denmark - Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond, DFF, Sapere Aude Grant No. 11-119834 ). The usual disclaimer applies.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Association for Comparative Economic Studies
- Persistence, Public infrastructure, Roman empire, Roman roads
Research areas
ID: 312828377