Creative Destruction of Industries: Yokohama City in the Great Kanto Earthquake, 1923

Tetsuji Okazaki, Toshihiro Okubo and Eric Strobl ()
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Tetsuji Okazaki: Graduate School of Economics, University of Tokyo

No 2017-021, Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series from Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University

Abstract: The Great Kanto Earthquake occurred on September 1st, 1923 and inflicted serious damage on Yokohama City as well as Tokyo City. For example, about 90% of the factories in Yokohama City were burnt down. However, these manufacturing industries appear to have recovered from the damage swiftly. This paper investigates the existence of creative destruction due to the Great Kanto Earthquake. Using firm-level data on capital (horsepower of motors) before and after the earthquake, we find substantial creative destruction in Yokohama city. Larger firms tend to increase their capital more in seriously damaged areas.

Keywords: natural disaster; Great Kanto Earthquake; creative destruction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N95 Q54 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 54 pages
Date: 2017-06-26
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Creative Destruction of Industries: Yokohama City in the Great Kanto Earthquake, 1923 (2019)
Working Paper: Creative Destruction of Industries: Yokohama City in the Great Kanto Earthquake, 1923 (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:keo:dpaper:2017-021

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