Interest Rates and Sanitation Infrastructure in Nineteenth-Century England and Wales

This replication package contains data for a study on the relationship between borrowing costs and sanitation investment in late 19th-century Britain. The analysis uses annual panel data from more than 800 town councils between 1887 and 1903. It investigates how interest rate variation impacted infrastructure investment and subsequent infant mortality decline.

Use Cases

• Replicate panel regressions analyzing the association between town-level interest rates and sanitation infrastructure investment levels.
• Conduct instrumental variable analysis to estimate the causal effect of falling interest rates after 1887 on infant mortality outcomes.
• Analyze temporal and cross-sectional variation in borrowing costs across more than 800 town councils over a 17-year period.
• Study the economic determinants of public health improvements, specifically the link between infrastructure investment and mortality decline.

Strengths

• Data underpins a peer-reviewed study accepted for publication in the Journal of Economic History.
• Panel structure with annual observations from more than 800 distinct town councils.
• Covers a 17-year time period (1887-1903) critical for British public health and infrastructure development.

Limitations

• The dataset is a replication package; the underlying raw data sources and their collection methods are not fully described.
• Geographic scope is limited to England and Wales, limiting generalizability to other regions.
• Temporal coverage is specific to the late Victorian and Edwardian era, potentially limiting contemporary applications.

Provenance

Source

Jonathan Chapman, via ICPSR Harvested Dataverse.

Collection Method

Compiled for academic research, likely from historical records of the Public Works Loan Board and town council reports.

Time Range

1887 to 1903.

Freshness

Last updated on the platform in February 2026, though the underlying historical data is from the 19th century.

Geography

Town councils in England and Wales.