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Lowell Johnson's dissertation, ESSAYS ON PUBLIC GOODS AND EXTERNALITIES
WITH PRIVATE INFORMATION (Rutgers 1997) has an interesting chapter on
lighthouses in early America. American lighthouses, if I remember
correctly, were financed from the
beginning by government from general revenues, perhaps because the long
coastlines made a
system based on port fees inefficient. Until reforms in the
1850s, however, the administration of the lighthouses was marred by
the failure to adopt new technologies, and excessive influence from
special interests, especially the evil whale-oil lobby.
Hugh Rockoff, Rutgers University
Hugh Rockoff
Professor of Economics
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of Economics
Rutgers University
Room 102
New Jersey Hall
75 Hamilton Street
New Brunswick NJ
08901-1248
732-932-7857 (office)
732-932-7363 (department)
732-932-7416 (fax)
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