Orchard Land Deeds and Canal Access in 1880s Bangkok

This dataset supports a study on the impact of canal network access on agricultural productivity in nineteenth-century Bangkok, using 1880s orchard land deeds. The analysis finds that properties adjacent to canals had higher labor productivity, with the effect interpreted as causal based on a method developed by Oster (2019).

Use Cases

• Analyze the relationship between canal adjacency and labor productivity metrics from 1880s orchard land deeds.
• Assess the impact of transport network access on agricultural productivity using historical property data.
• Apply the Oster (2019) method to evaluate potential selection bias in the observed productivity effects of canal access.

Strengths

• Data is constructed from primary historical sources (1880s orchard land deeds).
• The study applies a modern econometric method (Oster, 2019) to assess causality.
• Focuses on a specific, well-defined historical context (19th-century Bangkok canal network).

Limitations

• The dataset size, row count, and specific variables are unknown.
• Geographic scope is limited to a single historical city (Bangkok).
• Data may be subject to the inherent limitations and biases of historical records.

Provenance

Source

Thanyaporn Chankrajang, ICPSR Harvested Dataverse.

Collection Method

Constructed from 1880s orchard land deeds for a historical economic study.

Time Range

1880s.

Freshness

Last updated on 2026-02-23.

Geography

Bangkok, Thailand.