IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jhecon/v56y2017icp145-162.html

The Engine And The Reaper: Industrialization And Mortality In Late Nineteenth Century Japan

Author

Listed:
  • Tang, John P.

Abstract

Economic development improves long-run health outcomes through access to medical treatment, sanitation, and higher income. Short run impacts, however, may be ambiguous given disease exposure from market integration. Using a panel dataset of Japanese vital statistics and multiple estimation methods, I find that railroad network expansion is associated with a six percent increase in gross mortality rates among newly integrated regions. Communicable diseases accounted for most of the rail-associated mortality, which indicate railways behaved as transmission vectors. At the same time, market integration facilitated by railways corresponded with an eighteen percent increase in total capital investment nationwide over ten years.

Suggested Citation

  • Tang, John P., 2017. "The Engine And The Reaper: Industrialization And Mortality In Late Nineteenth Century Japan," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 145-162.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:56:y:2017:i:c:p:145-162
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2017.09.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167629617308305
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2017.09.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kota Ogasawara & Ian Gazeley & Eric B. Schneider, 2020. "Nutrition, Crowding, And Disease Among Low‐Income Households In Tokyo In 1930," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(1), pages 73-104, March.
    2. Bogart, Dan, 2022. "Infrastructure and institutions: Lessons from history," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    3. Arthi, Vellore & Parman, John, 2021. "Disease, downturns, and wellbeing: Economic history and the long-run impacts of COVID-19," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    4. Ilan Noy & Toshihiro Okubo & Eric Strobl, 2023. "The Japanese textile sector and the influenza pandemic of 1918–1920," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(5), pages 1192-1227, November.
    5. Chaudhary, Latika & Fenske, James, 2020. "Did railways affect literacy? Evidence from India," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1320, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    6. Wan, Liyang & Wan, Qian, 2022. "High-speed railway and the intercity transmission of epidemics: Evidence from COVID-19 in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    7. Yamasaki, Junichi, 2025. "Railroads and technology adoption in Meiji Japan," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    8. Ciccarelli, Carlo & Fenske, James & Martí Henneberg, Jordi, 2023. "Railways and the European Fertility Transition," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 686, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    9. Andrew Seltzer & Martin Shanahan & Claire Wright, 2025. "The Rise and Fall and Rise (?) of Economic History in Australia," Frontiers in Economic History, in: Claude Diebolt & Michael Haupert (ed.), The State of Economic History, pages 111-138, Springer.
    10. Marina Gindelsky & Remi Jedwab, 2023. "Killer cities and industrious cities? New data and evidence on 250 years of urban growth," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(1), pages 179-208.
    11. Kota Ogasawara, 2021. "Technology, Institution, and Regional Growth: Evidence from Mineral Mining Industry in Industrializing Japan," Papers 2112.14514, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2024.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I15 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Economic Development
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • N75 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services - - - Asia including Middle East
    • O24 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Trade Policy; Factor Movement; Foreign Exchange Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:56:y:2017:i:c:p:145-162. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505560 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.