Transport costs and the geography of arbitrage in eighteenth-century China
成果类型：
Article
署名作者：
Shiue, CH
署名单位：
University of Texas System; University of Texas Austin
刊物名称：
AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
ISSN/ISSBN：
0002-8282
DOI：
10.1257/000282802762024566
发表日期：
2002
页码：
1406-1419
关键词：
摘要：
Trade has been considered a condition for growth and development, a view that might have merits in explaining the rise of the Western world. I use a new data set from archival sources of eighteenth-century China to revisit this question. This analysis suggests previous studies of market integration, which attribute much growth to a reduction in transport costs, have overestimated these effects. I find the overall level of market integration in China was higher than previously thought, and, intertemporal effects are important substitutes for trade. Both factors reduce the importance of trade as a unique explanation for subsequent growth.