This replication package contains data for a study on the relationship between borrowing costs and sanitation infrastructure investment in late 19th-century Britain. The analysis uses annual panel data from more than 800 town councils between 1887 and 1903. It was authored by Jonathan Chapman for a paper in the Journal of Economic History.
Use Cases
- Replicate panel regressions analyzing the association between interest rates and infrastructure investment levels across towns.
- Conduct instrumental variable analysis to estimate the causal effect of falling interest rates on infant mortality decline.
- Examine temporal and cross-sectional variation in interest rates, investment, and mortality outcomes for over 800 town councils.
Strengths
- Data underpins a peer-reviewed study accepted for publication in the Journal of Economic History.
- Panel structure with annual observations for more than 800 distinct town councils.
- Covers a 17-year period (1887-1903) of significant infrastructure development in Britain.
Limitations
- The dataset is a replication package; its internal structure, column definitions, and row count are not described.
- Geographic scope is limited to England and Wales, limiting generalizability to other regions.
- Data is historical and may not reflect modern economic or public health relationships.
Provenance
- Source
- Jonathan Chapman, via ICPSR Harvested Dataverse.
- Collection Method
- Archival data compiled for academic research, likely from historical records of the Public Works Loan Board and town councils.
- Time Range
- 1887 to 1903.
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- Town councils in England and Wales.