A Tale of Two Sics: Japanese and American Industrialization in Historical Perspective

John Tang

No 45, CEH Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University

Abstract: Late developing countries are able to adopt best practice technologies pioneered abroad, allowing more rapid convergence toward leading economies. Meiji Japan (1868-­-1912) is considered a successful example of industrial convergence, but much of the evidence relies on national aggregates or selected industries. Using historical industry data, this paper examines whether Japan adopted new technologies faster compared to the United States. Contrary to conventional wisdom, duration analysis indicates that new sectors did not appear relatively sooner in Japan; however, they did grow to economic significance faster. Higher firm capitalization and capital intensity are also associated with earlier entry for Japanese sectors.

Keywords: convergence; industry classification; survival analysis; technology adoption and diffusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N11 N15 O14 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://cbe.anu.edu.au/researchpapers/CEH/WP201602.pdf

Related works:
Journal Article: A tale of two SICs: Japanese and American industrialisation in historical perspective (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:auu:hpaper:045

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