"Networks of Change: Infrastructure and the Spread of Steam Power in 19th century France" by Sara Savini (joint with Charlotte Le Chapelain and Claude Diebolt)

Topic

This paper revisits debates on France’s industrialisation, challenging the view of it as unusually slow. Focusing on the spread of steam power across departments from 1840 to 1911, it explores how railways, canals, and roads shaped regional adoption patterns. Instead of emphasising prices and macroeconomic conditions, the study takes a spatial perspective, using diffusion models on new departmental data to track variation in timing and speed of adoption. Preliminary results show that early access to transport networks accelerated diffusion, suggesting infrastructure was central to industrial growth. Econometric analyses support these findings and point to the rise of an industrial core in 19th-century France.