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<p>This article examines how transport innovations can generate adverse health externalities by studying the expansion of the railway network in nineteenth-century England and Wales. Using detailed infant mortality and cause- and age-specific death rates, I show that railway access can account for one-third of the aggregate rise of infant mortality over a fifty-year period (1850–1900). The effect is concentrated in infectious diseases and dissipated once network coverage became nearly universal. To address problems of endogeneity, I exploit a least-cost path instrument between major centers, along with an event-study design, measures of market access, and matching methods. The findings reveal that transport connectivity accelerated disease transmission, delaying improvements in health despite rising incomes.</p>

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Quantifying the mortality impact of the railway in England and Wales: an epidemiological framework

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年12月27日

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  • Gregori Galofré-Vilà

摘要

This article examines how transport innovations can generate adverse health externalities by studying the expansion of the railway network in nineteenth-century England and Wales. Using detailed infant mortality and cause- and age-specific death rates, I show that railway access can account for one-third of the aggregate rise of infant mortality over a fifty-year period (1850–1900). The effect is concentrated in infectious diseases and dissipated once network coverage became nearly universal. To address problems of endogeneity, I exploit a least-cost path instrument between major centers, along with an event-study design, measures of market access, and matching methods. The findings reveal that transport connectivity accelerated disease transmission, delaying improvements in health despite rising incomes.