Publications
Publications
- 2022
- HBS Working Paper Series
You've Got Mail! The Late 19th Century U.S. Postal Service Expansion, Entrepreneurship, and Firm Performance
By: Astrid Marinoni and Maria P. Roche
Abstract
We analyze the impact of the US Postal Service's western expansion in the late 19th century, a major institutional innovation, on entrepreneurship and its heterogeneous influence on firm performance. Exploiting a novel dataset constructed from digitized archival information on historic business establishments, post office locations, and road network characteristics in the state of California, we find a positive relationship between the expansion of the postal service and entrepreneurship. To address omitted variable concerns we use information on early settlement pathways and weather variation and further examine feasible channels through which the US Mail may have promoted firm entry: by providing access to monetary distribution centers, government services, communication channels, and specialized knowledge. Our results support the latter. The implications for firm performance are nuanced. While increasing competition given new entry exerts downward pressure on many incumbents, actors relying on specialized knowledge inputs are able to benefit from access to the US Mail.
Keywords
Entrepreneurship; Institutional Innovation; Knowledge Exchange; US Postal Service; Firm Performance; Infrastructure; Expansion; Government Administration; Communication; Business History; Public Administration Industry; California
Citation
Marinoni, Astrid, and Maria P. Roche. "You've Got Mail! The Late 19th Century U.S. Postal Service Expansion, Entrepreneurship, and Firm Performance." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 23-022, October 2022.