Small firms dominated the American economy in the nineteenth century, and they still dominate in many developing economies today. This paper tests whether geographic market segmentation due to underdeveloped intracity transportation technology precludes the emergence of large retail/wholesale stores. I exploit the natural experiment of Boston’s rapid electrification from its previous horse-drawn streetcar system, which occurred between 1889 and 1896. Analyzing newly digitized data, I find that rail-connected locations experienced a sharp decline in the share of sole proprietorships among food retail/wholesale establishments after the electrification relative to off-rail locations. Changes in market access due to streetcar electrification can explain this effect. (JEL L25, L81, L92, N71, N91, R41)

中文翻译：

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速度经济学：1885-1905 年波士顿有轨电车系统的电气化和夫妻店的衰落

小公司在 19 世纪主导了美国经济，如今它们仍然在许多发展中经济体中占据主导地位。本文测试了由于城市内交通技术不发达而导致的地理市场分割是否会阻止大型零售/批发商店的出现。我利用波士顿在 1889 年至 1896 年间发生的以前的马拉有轨电车系统的快速电气化的自然实验。分析新的数字化数据，我发现与铁路相连的地点在食品零售中的独资企业份额急剧下降/电气化后相对于非铁路地点的批发机构。有轨电车电气化导致的市场准入变化可以解释这种影响。(JEL L25, L81, L92, N71, N91, R41)