A General-Purpose Technology at Work: The Corliss Steam Engine in the Late-Nineteenth-Century United States
研究了科利斯蒸汽机这一蒸汽动力改进设计如何通过促进工业向大城市迁移，推动19世纪末美国经济增长和人口集聚。
The contribution to growth from the steam engine—Industrial Revolution icon and prime example of a “General Purpose Technology”—has remained unclear. This article examines the role that a particular design improvement in steam power, embodied in the Corliss engine, played in the growth of the U.S. economy in the late nineteenth century. Using detailed data on the location of Corliss engines and waterwheels and a two-stage estimation strategy, we show that the deployment of Corliss engines served as a catalyst for the industry's massive relocation into large urban centers, thus fueling agglomeration economies and further population growth.