Carl Kitchens of Florida State University reviews “Democracy in Power: A History of Electrification in the United States” by Sandeep Vaheesan. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Explores the history of public control of power systems in the United States, assessing how the United States has, at least partially, averted a net-zero oligarchy in power.”

Abstract How effective are policies aimed at integrating isolated regions? We answer this question in the context of a highway system in one of the poorest regions in the United States. With construction starting in 1965, the Appalachian Development Highway System (ADHS) ultimately consisted of over 2,500 high-grade road miles. We use a simple model of interregional trade to motivate our empirical analysis, which quantifies the relationship between market access and income. We then calibrate the model to evaluate the aggregate impact of the ADHS and compare this with alternative counterfactual proposals. We find that removing the ADHS would have reduced total income by $53.7 billion in the United States, with $22 billion of the losses in Appalachian counties. Our findings highlight the potential aggregate benefits of transportation infrastructure policies and suggest that leakage outside the targeted area may be substantial.