Aidt, T., M. Daunton, and J. Dutta (2010). The retrenchment hypothesis and the extension of the Franchise in England and Wales. The Economic Journal 120 (547), 990–1020.
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- Baseline infant mortality (1881-86) is measured by linking each town to a registration sub-district (RSD) using information reported in the 1881 census, Vol II and adjusting for post-census boundary changes. Post-treatment infant mortality (1904–1911) is measured by linking each town to relevant registration subdistricts using annual reports of the Registrar General. Descriptive statistics
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Beach, B., W. Troesken, and N. Tynan (2016). Who should own and control urban water systems? Historical evidence from England and Wales. Technical report, National Bureau of Economic Research.
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Brown, J. C. (1988). Coping with crisis? The diffusion of waterworks in late nineteenth-century German towns. Journal of Economic History 48 (2), 307–318.
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- Census information: Information regarding town population and area is drawn from the reports of the decennial census between 1851 and 1911. Information for the years 1851–1901 was collected directly. For the 1911 census I use the parish-level data stored at the UK data archive. Intercensal population was estimated using geometric interpolation, adjusting for boundary changes identified in the census reports. Mortality data: Mortality data for deaths in registration sub-districts was reported by quarter: I use the third quarter in each year. Infant mortality is measured as number of deaths for those aged under 1 divided by number of births.
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Chapman, J. (2018). Does democratic reform lead to lower infrastructure investment? Evidence from nineteenth-century England. Quarterly Journal of Political Science 13 (4), 363–404.
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Cutler, D. and G. Miller (2005). The role of public health improvements in health advances: the twentiethcentury United States. Demography 42 (1), 1–22.
- Data Sources and Variable Definitions Data from Local Taxation Returns (“LTRs”): From 1873 the LTRs contain annual accounts for the urban sanitary authorities set up under the 1872 Public Health Act. Municipal boroughs (incorporated towns) also reported separate accounts relating to their activities as a borough and as a sanitary authority: I combine the two. The following details the definition of each variable used in the regressions. The precise item headings vary over time in the accounts, requiring some categories to be reconstituted: here I give example headings to convey the main items contained in each variable.
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- Ferrie, J. P. and W. Troesken (2008). Water and Chicago’s mortality transition, 1850–1925. Explorations in Economic History 45 (1), 1–16.
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- Homer, S. and R. E. Sylla (1996). A History of Interest Rates. Rutgers University Press.
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- I distinguish between grants targeted for road maintenance and other grants. To do so, I estimate transfers for roads as either those for main roads (where available) or as “other” receipts from County Councils after 1890. Unfortunately from 1898 receipts from County Councils are not disaggregated in this way for non-municipal boroughs. As such, I estimate this variable by assuming that the percentage of the total receipts from the County Council accounted for by the “Other” category remains constant for each town after this point.
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- Millward, R. (2000). The political economy of urban utilities. The Cambridge urban history of Britain 3, 1840–1950.
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- Millward, R. (2004). The economic development and impact of the urban infrastructure in Victorian Britain. In P. H. Andrea Giuntini and G. Nũnez (Eds.), Urban Growth on Two Continents in the XIX and XX Centuries: Technology, Networks, Finance and Public Regulation, pp. 31–48. Granada.
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Millward, R. and S. Sheard (1995). The urban fiscal problem, 1870-1914: Government expenditure and finance in England and Wales. Economic History Review 48 (3), 501–535.
- Mitchell, B. R. (1971). Abstract of British historical statistics. CUP Archive.
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- Page, H. (1985). Local authority borrowing: past, present, and future. Unwin Hyman.
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- Prior to 1890, payments from other local authorities include “Receipts from other authorities” and “County Authority Contribution for Main Roads”. After 1890, the transfers discussed in the previous paragraphs were received via County Councils under the “Exchequer Account”. In addition, a further category of “From County Councils: Other receipts” is listed—predominantly consisting of payments for main roads.
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- PWLB data: I collect information on PWLB loans to urban authorities from the annual accounts of the PWLB. The two variables used as instruments are defined as follows: % PWLB loans1882: The The proportion of a town’s loans outstanding owed to the PWLB in 1882. Towns with no loans outstanding are coded as 0%.
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- PWLB loan1882-1886: Binary variable, equaling one if any loan was taken from the PWLB between 1882 and 1886.
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- Szreter, S. (2005). Health and Wealth: Studies in History and Policy. Rochester University Press.
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- Transfers: This category consists of payments from both central government and other local authorities. Payments from central government include i) “Treasury Subventions and Payments”, which includes items such “Pay and Clothing of Police”, “Prosecutions, Maintenance, and Conveyance of Prisoners, etc”, and “Maintenance of Lunatics chargeable to the Borough” (after 1890, these items were distributed via county councils – see below) ii) (from 1898 onward) “Grants under the 1896 Agricultural Rates Act”, which allowed agricultural land to be rated at half its value for poor rates and a quarter for district rates—with the central government making up any shortfall. In addition, after 1890 county boroughs received money directly from the “Exchequer Contribution Account”– money that other councils would receive via county councils.
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Troesken, W. (2002). The limits of Jim Crow: race and the provision of water and sewerage services in American cities, 1880-1925. Journal of Economic History 62 (3), 734–772.
Troesken, W. (2015). The pox of liberty: how the constitution left Americans rich, free, and prone to infection. University of Chicago Press.
Troesken, W., N. Tynan, and Y. Yang (2021). What are the health benefits of a constant water supply? Evidence from London, 1860-1910. Explorations in Economic History.
- Waller, P. J. (1983). Town, city, and nation: England 1850–1914. Oxford University Press Oxford.
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- Webb, S. and B. Webb (1929). English Poor Law History, Part II: The Last Hundred Years. Longmans, Green & Co.
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Webster, I. (2018). The Public Works Loan Board and the growth of the state in nineteenth-century England. The Economic History Review 71 (3), 887–908.
- Webster, I. (2021). Making the municipal capital market in nineteenth-century England. The Economic History Review.
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Wilson, J. F. (1997). The finance of municipal capital expenditure in England and Wales, 1870–1914. Financial History Review 4 (01), 31–50.
- Wohl, A. (1983). Endangered lives: public health in Victorian Britain. JM Dent and Sons Ltd.
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- Young, A. (2019). Consistency without inference: Instrumental variables in practical application, Unpublished manuscript. DATA APPENDIX This appendix provides additional details of the construction of the dataset, and reports descriptive statistics for the regression sample.
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