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Diverse paths to industrial development: evidence from late-nineteenth-century Canada

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  • Kris Inwood
  • Ian Keay

Abstract

Throughout the nineteenth century, industrial development took an ever-widening diversity of forms reflecting local economic circumstances. A large collection of establishment-level micro-data from the 1871 Canadian Census of Manufacturing confirms that small, rural, seasonal, labour-intensive, and hand-powered industrial establishments had internal scale economies available for exploitation, they were technically efficient, and they made input employment decisions and technological choices well suited to the environment in which they operated. This evidence and a controlled comparison with northern US firms demonstrate that industrial development could be successful under surprisingly diverse conditions, as long as these conditions did not impede the exploitation of scale economies, technical efficiency, or technological choice. Copyright , Oxford University Press.

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  • Kris Inwood & Ian Keay, 2012. "Diverse paths to industrial development: evidence from late-nineteenth-century Canada," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 16(3), pages 311-333, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:ereveh:v:16:y:2012:i:3:p:311-333
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ereh/hes004
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Robert A. Margo, 2014. "Economies of Scale in Nineteenth-Century American Manufacturing Revisited: A Resolution of the Entrepreneurial Labor Input Problem," NBER Chapters, in: Enterprising America: Businesses, Banks, and Credit Markets in Historical Perspective, pages 215-244, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Javier Silvestre & John E. Murray, 2023. "Determinants in the adoption of a non-labor-substitution technology: mechanical ventilation in West Virginia coal mines, 1898–1907," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 17(3), pages 467-500, September.
    3. Alex W. Chernoff, 2021. "Firm heterogeneity, technology adoption and the spatial distribution of population: Theory and measurement," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(2), pages 475-521, May.
    4. Jaworski, Taylor & Keay, Ian, 2022. "Globalization and the spread of industrialization in Canada, 1871–1891," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    5. Geloso, Vincent & Kufenko, Vadim & Arsenault-Morin, Alex P., 2023. "The lesser shades of labor coercion: The impact of seigneurial tenure in nineteenth-century Quebec," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    6. Harris, Richard & Keay, Ian & Lewis, Frank, 2015. "Protecting infant industries: Canadian manufacturing and the national policy, 1870–1913," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 15-31.

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