As the first to use an archival data set on historical land values of Berlin, Germany, from 1890 to 1936, we exploit exogenous variation in transport technology in order to test the validity of the monocentric city model. Endogenously determining the CBD, we conduct cross-section and...

We investigate the impact of transport innovations on the productivity of urban locations in 1890-1936 Berlin, Germany. We find an increase in land value of up to 2.5% per 100 m decline in distance to urban railway station.