Publications
Publications
- 2023
- 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 U.S. Postal Service's expansion in the late 1800s on entrepreneurship and firm performance. Exploiting novel data constructed from digitized archives on historic business establishments, post office locations, and road network characteristics in California, we find a positive relationship between the expansion of the postal service and entrepreneurship. To address endogeneity concerns, we exploit an unexpected change in the Californian postal service route network. In addition, we examine feasible channels through which the U.S. Mail promoted firm entry highlighting the importance of diffusing specialized knowledge. While increasing competition given new entry exerted downward pressure on many incumbents, actors relying on specialized knowledge inputs, such as seeds, were able to benefit from access to the U.S. 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. (Revised September 2023.)