Corruption and Reform-Lessons form America's Economic History
A National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report
Edited by Edward L. Glaeser and Claudia Goldin
The University of Chicago Press
© 2006 by the National Bureau of Economic Research
All rights reserved. Published 2006
Printed in the United States of America
14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN: 0-226-29957-0 (cloth)
Acknowledgments ix
I. C  R: D  H T
Corruption and Reform: Introduction 3
Edward L. Glaeser and Claudia Goldin
1. The Concept of Systematic Corruption in
American History 23
John Joseph Wallis
2. Limiting the Reach of the Grabbing Hand:
Graft and Growth in American Cities,
1880 to 1930 63
Rebecca Menes
3. Digging the Dirt at Public Expense:
Governance in the Building of the Erie Canal
and Other Public Works 95
Stanley L. Engerman and Kenneth L. Sokoloff
II. C  C
4. Corporate Governance and the Plight of
Minority Shareholders in the United States
before the Great Depression 125
Naomi R. Lamoreaux and
Jean-Laurent Rosenthal
5. Water, Water Everywhere: Municipal Finance
andWater Supply in American Cities 153
David Cutler and Grant Miller
III. T R  R
6. The Rise of the Fourth Estate: How Newspapers
Became Informative and Why It Mattered 187
Matthew Gentzkow, Edward L. Glaeser,
and Claudia Goldin
7. Bank Chartering and Political Corruption in
Antebellum New York: Free Banking as Reform 231
Howard Bodenhorn
8. Regime Change and Corruption: A History of
Public Utility Regulation 259
Werner Troesken
IV. R  R
9. The Irony of Reform: Did Large Employers
Subvert Workplace Safety Reform,
1869 to 1930? 285
Price V. Fishback
10. The Determinants of Progressive Era Reform:
The Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906 319
Marc T. Law and Gary D. Libecap
11. Politics, Relief, and Reform:
Roosevelt’s Efforts to Control Corruption and
Political Manipulation during the New Deal 343
John Joseph Wallis, Price V. Fishback,
and Shawn Kantor
Contributors 373
Author Index 375
Subject Index 381