Industrial clusters in the long run: Evidence from Million-Rouble plants in China

Stephan Heblich, Marlon Seror, Hao Xu and Yanos Zylberberg

Bristol Economics Discussion Papers from School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK

Abstract: This paper exploits a short-lived cooperation program between the U.S.S.R. and China, which led to the construction of 156 "Million-Rouble plants" in the 1950s. We isolate exogenous variation in location decisions due to the relative position of allied and enemy airbases and study the long-run impact of these factories on local economic activity. While the "156" program accelerated industrialization in treated counties until the end of the command-economy era, this significant productivity advantage fully eroded in the subsequent period. We explore the nature of local spillovers responsible for this pattern, and provide evidence that treated counties are overspecialized and far less innovative. There is a large concentration of establishments along the production chain of the Million-Rouble plants, which limits technological spillovers across industries.

Keywords: USSR; China; million-rouble plants. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-05-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-geo, nep-his, nep-ind, nep-tra and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Industrial Clusters in the Long Run: Evidence from Million-Rouble Plants in China (2022)
Working Paper: Industrial clusters in the long run: evidence from Million-Rouble plants in China (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bri:uobdis:19/712

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