Robert Gallman's capital stock project -- Gallman's core capital stock data -- The United States capital stock, 1840-1900 -- Capital and American economic growth, 1774-1980 -- Gallman's annual product series, 1834-1909 -- Investment flows and capital stocks -- Agriculture -- Mining and manufacturing -- Nonfarm real estate and trade -- Transportation -- Communication and electric utilities -- Inventories -- Consumer durables -- Wealth in the Colonial and Early National Periods -- Wrapping up.
Summary:
A nation's capital stock is widely recognized as a crucial determinant of the productivity of its workers and the standard of living of its citizens. Tracking the evolution of capital is therefore a critical input to economic history. The economist Robert E. Gallman (1926-98) gathered extensive data on US capital stock and created a legacy that has, until now, been difficult for researchers to access and appraise in its entirety. Gallman measured American capital stock from a range of perspectives, viewing it as the accumulation of income saved and invested, and as an input into the production process. He used the level and change in the capital stock as proxy measures for long-run economic performance. Analyzing data in this way, from the end of the US colonial period to the turn of the twentieth century, Gallman provided a firm empirical foundation for our knowledge of the long nineteenth century--the period during which the United States began to experience per capita income growth and became a global economic leader. Gallman's research was painstaking and his analysis meticulous, but he did not publish the material supporting his findings during his lifetime. Here Paul W. Rhode completes this project, giving permanence to a great economist's insights and endeavors. --Provided by publisher.
Series:
NBER series on long-term factors in economic development
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.