On the Origins of Modern East Asia: Knowledge and the Economic Transformation of Japan and China in the late 19th century

Debin Ma, Jared Rubin and Weiwen Yin
Additional contact information
Debin Ma: Fudan University
Jared Rubin: Chapman University
Weiwen Yin: University of Macau

Working Papers from Chapman University, Economic Science Institute

Abstract: This paper revisits the old thesis of the contrasting paths of modernization between Japan and China. It develops a new analytical framework regarding the role of knowledge acquisition (propositional vs. prescriptive) and political centralization as the key drivers behind these contrasting paths. Our model and historical data highlight how the introduction of these elements contributed to Meiji Japan’s decisive turn towards the West and Qing China’s lethargic response to Western imperialism. Our analytical framework, developed from a comparative historical narrative and quantitative data, sheds new light on the importance of knowledge acquisition in enabling developing countries to reach the world’s economic frontier.

Keywords: propositional knowledge; prescriptive knowledge; China; Japan; economic development; economic divergence; Meiji Reform; centralization; decentralization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N40 N45 P52 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hpe and nep-sea
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/esi_working_papers/435/

Related works:
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:chu:wpaper:26-04

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Chapman University, Economic Science Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Megan Luetje ().