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Productivity, Extent of Markets, and Manufacturing in the Late Antebellum South and Midwest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Viken Tchakerian
Viken Tchakerian
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Economics, California State University, Northridge, CA 91330.
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Abstract

This article uses the Bateman-Weiss samples of manufacturing firms from 1850 and 1860 to estimate the labor and total factor productivity of southern and midwestern manufacturing industries in the late antebellum period. The results indicate rapid growth in productivity, especially in the South. The article also demonstrates a positive association between measured productivity, firm size, and urbanization. Differences in manufacturing performance between the South and the Midwest are shown to be crucially dependent on the extent of markets within the two regions.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 54 , Issue 3 , September 1994 , pp. 497 - 525
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1994

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