Effects of Electrification on the Production and Distribution in the Coal Industry: Evidence from 1900s Japan

Mayo Morimoto ()

No f191, ISS Discussion Paper Series (series F) from Institute of Social Science, The University of Tokyo

Abstract: This paper studies how electrification affected the economic performance and industrial relations of the Japanese coal mining industry in the 1900s. We find that electrification considerably improved productivity and increased the number of workers, but had statistically zero effects on miners’ wages and significantly declined the labor income share, using difference-in-differences estimation. We explain this phenomenon by using the “superstar firm†hypothesis, which provides a consistent explanation of the recent declines in labor income share in the US economy.

Keywords: Electrification; labor income share; productivity; industrial revolution; technological change; coal mining. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D24 L94 O13 O14 Q40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-03-22
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-ene, nep-his and nep-reg
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:itk:issdps:f191

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