W Walker Hanlon
Biographic Data
| ID | 1100000 |
|---|---|
| NAME | W Walker Hanlon |
| GIVEN NAMES | W Walker |
| FAMILY NAME | Hanlon |
| SIGNATURE | HANLON W W |
| AFFILIATIONS | Northwestern University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2753-1085 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 51 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The Rise of the Engineer
How did the Industrial Revolution generate sustained economic growth? One hypothesis is that the innovation system changed. This paper provides direct quantitative evidence documenting this fundamental change in the innovation system: the emergence of a new type of inventor, the professional engineer. Using rich patent, biographical and other data, I document the emergence of the engineering profession starting in the late eighteenth century and …
London Fog
This study draws on London’s long experience with air pollution in order to improve our understanding of the overall effects of pollution exposure and how and why these effects evolve as locations develop. I compare uniquely detailed new mortality data covering 1866 to 1965 to the timing of London’s famous fog events, which trapped emissions in the city. I show that air pollution was a major contributor to mortality in London over this period and…
Historical newspaper data
History and urban economics
Temperature, Disease, and Death in London
Using novel weekly mortality data for London spanning 1866-1965, we analyze the changing relationship between temperature and mortality as the city developed. Our main results show that warm weeks led to elevated mortality in the late nineteenth century, mainly due to infant deaths from digestive diseases. However, this pattern largely disappeared after WWI as infant digestive diseases became less prevalent. The resulting change in the temperatur…
Coal Smoke, City Growth, and the Costs of the Industrial Revolution
This article provides the first rigorous estimates of how industrial air pollution from coal burning affects long-run city growth. I introduce a new theoretically grounded strategy for estimating this relationship and apply it to data from highly polluted British cities from 1851 to 1911. I show that local industrial coal use substantially reduced long-run city employment and population growth. Moreover, a counterfactual analysis suggests that pl…
Coal Smoke and Mortality in an Early Industrial Economy
Air pollution was severe in the nineteenth century, yet its health consequences are often overlooked due to a lack of pollution data. We offer a new approach for inferring local coal use levels based on local industrial structure and industry‐specific coal use intensity. This allows us to provide the first estimates of the mortality effects of British industrial coal use in 1851–60. Exploiting wind patterns for identification, we find that a one …
Skilled Immigrants and American Industrialization
In the late nineteenth century, American shipyards started building modern metal ships, a sector dominated by the British. But, they faced a challenge: a shortage of domestic workers with the skills to fabricate large metal ships. Using census of population data, this article describes how one important U.S. shipyard, Newport News Shipbuilding, overcame the shortage of skilled domestic workers to assemble an effective labor force. The results sho…
Temporary Shocks and Persistent Effects in Urban Economies
Can a temporary economic shock to an important local industry influence long-run city population? To answer this question I study the large temporary shock to British cities caused by the U.S. CivilWar (1861–1865), which reduced cotton supplies to Britain’s important cotton textile industry. I show that this event temporarily reduced the growth rate of cities specializing in cotton textile production, relative to other English cities, and led to …
Agglomeration
Do Better Monitoring Institutions Increase Leadership Quality in Community Organizations? Evidence from Uganda
We offer a framework for analyzing the impact of monitoring—a commonly recommended solution to poor leadership—on the quality of democratically elected leaders in community organizations in low‐income countries. In our model, groups may face a trade‐off between leader ability and effort. If the group's ability to monitor the leader is low, then the leader may exert too little effort. A higher level of monitoring increases leader effort, raising t…
Do Better Monitoring Institutions Increase Leadership Quality in Community Organizations? Evidence from Uganda
We offer a framework for analyzing the impact of monitoring—a commonly recommended solution to poor leadership—on the quality of democratically elected leaders in community organizations in low‐income countries. In our model, groups may face a trade‐off between leader ability and effort. If the group's ability to monitor the leader is low, then the leader may exert too little effort. A higher level of monitoring increases leader effort, raising t…
Coal Smoke and Mortality in an Early Industrial Economy
Air pollution was severe in the nineteenth century, yet its health consequences are often overlooked due to a lack of pollution data. We offer a new approach for inferring local coal use levels based on local industrial structure and industry‐specific coal use intensity. This allows us to provide the first estimates of the mortality effects of British industrial coal use in 1851–60. Exploiting wind patterns for identification, we find that a one …
Coal Smoke, City Growth, and the Costs of the Industrial Revolution
This article provides the first rigorous estimates of how industrial air pollution from coal burning affects long-run city growth. I introduce a new theoretically grounded strategy for estimating this relationship and apply it to data from highly polluted British cities from 1851 to 1911. I show that local industrial coal use substantially reduced long-run city employment and population growth. Moreover, a counterfactual analysis suggests that pl…
Agglomeration
Historical newspaper data
Temperature, Disease, and Death in London
Using novel weekly mortality data for London spanning 1866-1965, we analyze the changing relationship between temperature and mortality as the city developed. Our main results show that warm weeks led to elevated mortality in the late nineteenth century, mainly due to infant deaths from digestive diseases. However, this pattern largely disappeared after WWI as infant digestive diseases became less prevalent. The resulting change in the temperatur…
Skilled Immigrants and American Industrialization
In the late nineteenth century, American shipyards started building modern metal ships, a sector dominated by the British. But, they faced a challenge: a shortage of domestic workers with the skills to fabricate large metal ships. Using census of population data, this article describes how one important U.S. shipyard, Newport News Shipbuilding, overcame the shortage of skilled domestic workers to assemble an effective labor force. The results sho…
The Rise of the Engineer
How did the Industrial Revolution generate sustained economic growth? One hypothesis is that the innovation system changed. This paper provides direct quantitative evidence documenting this fundamental change in the innovation system: the emergence of a new type of inventor, the professional engineer. Using rich patent, biographical and other data, I document the emergence of the engineering profession starting in the late eighteenth century and …
Do Better Monitoring Institutions Increase Leadership Quality in Community Organizations? Evidence from Uganda
We offer a framework for analyzing the impact of monitoring—a commonly recommended solution to poor leadership—on the quality of democratically elected leaders in community organizations in low‐income countries. In our model, groups may face a trade‐off between leader ability and effort. If the group's ability to monitor the leader is low, then the leader may exert too little effort. A higher level of monitoring increases leader effort, raising t…
Temporary Shocks and Persistent Effects in Urban Economies
Can a temporary economic shock to an important local industry influence long-run city population? To answer this question I study the large temporary shock to British cities caused by the U.S. CivilWar (1861–1865), which reduced cotton supplies to Britain’s important cotton textile industry. I show that this event temporarily reduced the growth rate of cities specializing in cotton textile production, relative to other English cities, and led to …
Agglomeration
Coal Smoke and Mortality in an Early Industrial Economy
Air pollution was severe in the nineteenth century, yet its health consequences are often overlooked due to a lack of pollution data. We offer a new approach for inferring local coal use levels based on local industrial structure and industry‐specific coal use intensity. This allows us to provide the first estimates of the mortality effects of British industrial coal use in 1851–60. Exploiting wind patterns for identification, we find that a one …
Skilled Immigrants and American Industrialization
In the late nineteenth century, American shipyards started building modern metal ships, a sector dominated by the British. But, they faced a challenge: a shortage of domestic workers with the skills to fabricate large metal ships. Using census of population data, this article describes how one important U.S. shipyard, Newport News Shipbuilding, overcame the shortage of skilled domestic workers to assemble an effective labor force. The results sho…
Coal Smoke, City Growth, and the Costs of the Industrial Revolution
This article provides the first rigorous estimates of how industrial air pollution from coal burning affects long-run city growth. I introduce a new theoretically grounded strategy for estimating this relationship and apply it to data from highly polluted British cities from 1851 to 1911. I show that local industrial coal use substantially reduced long-run city employment and population growth. Moreover, a counterfactual analysis suggests that pl…
Temperature, Disease, and Death in London
Using novel weekly mortality data for London spanning 1866-1965, we analyze the changing relationship between temperature and mortality as the city developed. Our main results show that warm weeks led to elevated mortality in the late nineteenth century, mainly due to infant deaths from digestive diseases. However, this pattern largely disappeared after WWI as infant digestive diseases became less prevalent. The resulting change in the temperatur…
History and urban economics
Historical newspaper data
London Fog
This study draws on London’s long experience with air pollution in order to improve our understanding of the overall effects of pollution exposure and how and why these effects evolve as locations develop. I compare uniquely detailed new mortality data covering 1866 to 1965 to the timing of London’s famous fog events, which trapped emissions in the city. I show that air pollution was a major contributor to mortality in London over this period and…
The Rise of the Engineer
How did the Industrial Revolution generate sustained economic growth? One hypothesis is that the innovation system changed. This paper provides direct quantitative evidence documenting this fundamental change in the innovation system: the emergence of a new type of inventor, the professional engineer. Using rich patent, biographical and other data, I document the emergence of the engineering profession starting in the late eighteenth century and …
Economics (8 works) · Geography (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Economic growth (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis (4 works) · Air Quality and Health Impacts (3 works) · Climate Change and Health Impacts (3 works) · Demography (3 works) · Engineering (3 works)