Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/246976 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
EHES Working Papers in Economic History No. 45
Publisher: 
European Historical Economics Society (EHES), s.l.
Abstract: 
We examine the geography of cotton textiles in Britain in 1838 to test claims about why the industry came to be so heavily concentrated in Lancashire. Our analysis considers both first and second nature aspects of geography including the availability of water power, humidity, coal prices, market access and sunk costs. We show that some of these characteristics have substantial explanatory power. Moreover, we exploit the change from water to steam power to show that the persistent effect of first nature characteristics on industry location can be explained by a combination of sunk costs and agglomeration effects.
Subjects: 
agglomeration
cotton textiles
geography
industry location
JEL: 
N63
N93
R12
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.