Productivity Improvement in the Specialized Industrial Clusters: The Case of the Japanese Silk-Reeling Industry

Yutaka Arimoto, Kentaro Nakajima and Tetsuji Okazaki

No 16, PRIMCED Discussion Paper Series from Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University

Abstract: We examine two sources of productivity improvement in the specialized industrial clusters. Agglomeration improves the productivity of each plant through positive externalities, shifting plant-level productivity distribution to the right. Selection expels less productive plants through competition, truncating distribution on the left. By analyzing the data of the early twentieth century Japanese silk-reeling industry, we find no evidence confirming a right shift in the distribution in clusters or that agglomeration promotes faster productivity growth. These findings imply that the plant-selection effect was the source of higher productivity in the Japanese silk-reeling clusters.

Keywords: Economic geography; Heterogeneous firms; Selection; Productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L10 O18 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2011-12
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Downloads: (external link)
https://hermes-ir.lib.hit-u.ac.jp/hermes/ir/re/22181/No16-dp.pdf

Related works:
Working Paper: Agglomeration or Selection? The Case of the Japanese Silk-Reeling Clusters, 1908-1915 (2011)
Working Paper: Productivity Improvement in the Specialized Industrial Clusters: The Case of the Japanese Silk-Reeling Industry (2011)
Working Paper: Agglomeration or Selection? The Case of the Japanese Silk-Reeling Clusters, 1908-1915 (2011)
Working Paper: Agglomeration or Selection? The Case of the Japanese Silk-reeling Industry, 1909-1916 (2010)
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