Assessing market (dis)integration in early modern China and Europe

Markus Eberhardt, Daniel Bernhofen (), Stephen Morgan and Jianan Li

No 11288, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: This paper challenges established claims of comparable degrees of market integration in Europe and China on the eve of industrialization. Our empirical strategy focuses on the dynamics of price convergence and accounts for general equilibrium effects arising from common shocks and network effects. Using monthly grain prices for 1740-1820, our analysis uncovers a secular process of market disintegration in 221 prefectures of Qing China. Comparing our results with those for grain price panels from Western Europe we conclude that in terms of market integration the Great Divergence was well under way decades before the start of the 19th century.

Keywords: market integration; Price convergence; China; Europe; The great divergence; Common factor model; Cross-section dependence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 F15 L11 N75 O10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP11288 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Assessing Market (Dis)Integration in Early Modern China and Europe (2015)
Working Paper: Assessing Market (Dis)Integration in Early Modern China and Europe (2015)
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:cpr:ceprdp:11288

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP11288

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CEPR ().