The Economic Consequences of Political Hierarchy: Evidence from Regime Changes in China, AD1000-2000 / Ying Bai, Ruixue Jia.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bai, Ying.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Jia, Ruixue.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w26652.

NBER working paper series no. w26652

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Economic Consequences of Political Hierarchy

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2020.

Summary:

We argue that China, with its long history, a relatively stable political system, and multiple regime changes, provides us an opportunity to investigate the political economy of administrative hierarchy. Using prefecture-level panel data and exploiting regime changes during AD1000-2000, we find that gaining and losing importance in the political hierarchy led to the rise and decline of different prefectures (measured by population density and urbanization). Moreover, political hierarchy shapes regional development via both political and market channels (reflected by public employment and transportation networks). More broadly, our study serves as new evidence on how politics shapes economic geography and offers a context to understand changes in economic activity location in the long run.

Notes:

Print version record

January 2020.