Endowments, Market Potential, and Industrial Location: Evidence from Interwar Poland (1918-1939)

Nikolaus Wolf

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: The paper explores the determinants of industry location across interwar Poland. After more than 120 years ofpolitical and economic separation, Poland was reunified at the end of 1918. In consequence, its industry facedmassive structural changes: the removal of internal tariff barriers and improved infrastructure strengthened thedomestic market, while foreign market relations were cut off. Similarly, the geographical dispersion of factorendowments was changed through internal migration and new institutional arrangements (education system,patent laws, etc.). How did these forces interact to determine the location of industry? Did a new interregionaldivision of labour emerge after unification? We survey the dynamics of industrial location between 1925 and1937 and estimate a specification that nests market potential and comparative advantage to quantify theirrespective impact over time. The results point to a role for both, comparative advantage and market potential,but there was a dominating and ever increasing impact of the availability of skilled labour.

Keywords: Industrial Location; Endowments; Market Potential; Interwar Poland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F10 F11 F12 F14 F15 N74 R3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp0609.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Endowments, market potential, and industrial location: evidence from interwar Poland (1918-1939) (2004)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp0609

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().