"The construction of municipal water systems was a major event in the history of American cities--bringing relief from disease, providing resources to combat fires, attracting business investment, and promoting development generally. Although the first large-scale municipal water system in the...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Bibliographische Detailangaben

Hauptverfasser:	Cutler, David M. 1965- (VerfasserIn), Miller, Grant (VerfasserIn)
Format:	Buch
Sprache:	English
Veröffentlicht:	Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2005
Schriftenreihe:	National Bureau of Economic Research <Cambridge, Mass.>: NBER working paper series 11096
Schlagworte:	Geschichte Ökonometrisches Modell Municipal water supply > United States > Econometric models Municipal water supply > United States > History Water Supply > economics > United States Water Supply > history > United States USA
Online-Zugang:	Volltext
Zusammenfassung:	"The construction of municipal water systems was a major event in the history of American cities--bringing relief from disease, providing resources to combat fires, attracting business investment, and promoting development generally. Although the first large-scale municipal water system in the United States was completed in 1801, many American cities lacked waterworks until the turn of the twentieth century. This paper investigates the reason for the century-long delay and the subsequent frenzy of waterworks construction from 1890 through the 1920s. We propose an explanation that emphasizes the development of local public finance. Specifically, we highlight the importance of municipal bond market growth as a facilitator of debt finance. We argue that this explanation is superior to others put forward in the literature, including disease knowledge, the presence of externalities, municipal population density, natural monopoly, contracting difficulties, corruption costs, and growth in the supply of civil engineers"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Beschreibung:	31, [14] S. graph. Darst.