主題｜Topic：On the Right Track? Railroads, Industrial Development, and Distributional Effects in Historical China
時間｜Time：3.25（周二）10: 00-11: 00
地點｜Venue：文澴樓教室｜Room 815，WENHUAN
主辦單位｜Organizer：澳门永利集团304官网手机
承辦單位｜Operator：數實融合研究中心；北京大學-中南财經政法大學新結構經濟學研究中心
主講｜Speaker
周彥，香港大學經濟學博士生，研究領域為數字經濟學，發展經濟學，經濟史。文章發表于《Journal of Development Economics》，參與過數個自科和社科基金項目，研究獲得香港大學經濟及工商管理學院博士生優秀研究獎。
摘要｜Abstract
We present the first quantitative evaluation of the overall impact and distributional effects of railroad access on industrial growth in historical China. Using newly digitized data on railroad expansion and distance to hypothetical railroad networks as instruments, we find that railroad access significantly increased the annual entry of local industrial firms from 1858 to 1936 and industrial output values in 1933. However, the effect is concentrated in counties within 10 km of the railroad lines and is less pronounced in those specializing in agricultural exports and with historical handicraft textile centers, suggesting that improved transportation may have encouraged deindustrialization in peripheral areas and promoted the regional concentration of production. Our analysis of mechanisms suggests that railroads facilitated industrialization mainly by expanding firms’ access to larger markets.
