全球智库信息集成服务系统(G2TT): DP11976 Spatial Competition, Innovation and Institutions: The Industrial Revolution and the Great Divergence

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来源类型	Discussion paper
规范类型	论文
来源ID	DP11976
	DP11976 Spatial Competition, Innovation and Institutions: The Industrial Revolution and the Great Divergence
	Klaus Desmet; Avner Greif; Stephen Parente
发表日期	2017-04-19
出版年	2017
语种	英语
摘要	Why do some countries industrialize much earlier than others? One widely-accepted answer is that markets need to be large enough for producers to find it profitable to bear the fixed cost of introducing modern technologies. This insight, however, has limited explanatory power, as illustrated by England having industrialized nearly two centuries before China. This paper argues that a market-size-only theory is insufficient because it ignores that many of the modern technologies associated with the Industrial Revolution were fiercely resisted by skilled craftsmen who expected a reduction in earnings. Once we take into account the incentives to resist by factor suppliers' organizations such as craft guilds, we theoretically show that industrialization no longer depends on market size, but on the degree of spatial competition between the guilds' jurisdictions. We substantiate the relevance of our theory for the timing of industrialization in England and China (i) by providing historical and empirical evidence on the relation between spatial competition, craft guilds and innovation, and (ii) by showing that a model of our theory calibrated to historical data on spatial competition correctly predicts the timing of industrialization in both countries. The theory can therefore account for both the Industrial Revolution and the Great Divergence.
主题	Economic History ; International Trade and Regional Economics ; Macroeconomics and Growth
关键词	Industrial revolution Great divergence Craft guilds Spatial competition Inter-city competition Market size Endogenous institutions Innovation Adoption of technology
URL	https://cepr.org/publications/dp11976
来源智库	Centre for Economic Policy Research (United Kingdom)
资源类型	智库出版物
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.153/handle/2XGU8XDN/540787
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Klaus Desmet,Avner Greif,Stephen Parente. DP11976 Spatial Competition, Innovation and Institutions: The Industrial Revolution and the Great Divergence. 2017.