EFFECTS OF ELECTRIFICATION ON THE COAL INDUSTRY’S PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION: EVIDENCE FROM 1900S JAPAN

Mayo Morimoto ()
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Mayo Morimoto: Institute of Social Science, The University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan

The Singapore Economic Review (SER), 2023, vol. 68, issue 06, 1917-1942

Abstract: This study examines how electrification affected the economic performance of the Japanese coal mining industry in the 1900s. Using difference-in-differences estimation, we find that electrification considerably improved labor productivity and increased the number of workers, but had statistically zero effects on miners’ wages and caused a significant decline in the labor income share. 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: 2023
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DOI: 10.1142/S0217590820500526

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