IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bos/iedwpr/dp-318.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Community Origins of Industrial Entrepreneurship in Pre-Independence India

Author

Listed:
  • Bishnupriya Gupta

    (University of Wawick)

  • Dilip Mookherjee

    (Boston University)

  • Kaivan Munshi

    (University of Cambridge)

  • Mario Sanclemente

    (University of Warwick)

Abstract

We argue that community networks played an important role in the emergence of Indian entrepreneurship in the early stages of the cotton textile and jute industry in the late 19th and early 20th century respectively, overcoming the lack of market institutions and government support. From business registers, we construct a yearly panel dataset of entrepreneurs in these two industries. We find no evidence of entry patterns being affected by price shocks or pre-industrial accumulation of wealth or experience in trading in the corresponding upstream sector. Firm directors exhibited a high degree of clustering of entrepreneurs by community. The dynamics of entry is consistent with a model of network-based dynamics.

Suggested Citation

  • Bishnupriya Gupta & Dilip Mookherjee & Kaivan Munshi & Mario Sanclemente, 2018. "Community Origins of Industrial Entrepreneurship in Pre-Independence India," Boston University - Department of Economics - The Institute for Economic Development Working Papers Series dp-318, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:bos:iedwpr:dp-318
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://people.bu.edu/dilipm/wkpap/CottonEntrDec2018v4.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gupta, Bishnupriya, 2014. "Discrimination or Social Networks? Industrial Investment in Colonial India," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(1), pages 141-168, March.
    2. Roy, Tirthankar & Swamy, Anand V., 2016. "Law and the Economy in Colonial India," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226387642, December.
    3. Lori Beaman & Jeremy Magruder, 2012. "Who Gets the Job Referral? Evidence from a Social Networks Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(7), pages 3574-3593, December.
    4. Morris, Morris David, 1983. "The Cambridge Economic History of India. Volume 1: c. 1200-c. 1750. Edited by Tapan Raychaudhuri and Irfan Habib. (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1982. xvi + 543 pp. $79.50.)," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 57(4), pages 616-619, January.
    5. Greif,Avner, 2006. "Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521480444, September.
    6. Harvey, David, 2005. "The New Imperialism," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199278084.
    7. Banerjee, Abhijit V & Newman, Andrew F, 1993. "Occupational Choice and the Process of Development," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(2), pages 274-298, April.
    8. Irwin, Douglas A., 2007. "Tariff Incidence in America's Gilded Age," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 67(3), pages 582-607, September.
    9. Kaivan Munshi, 2003. "Networks in the Modern Economy: Mexican Migrants in the U. S. Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(2), pages 549-599.
    10. Kaivan Munshi, 2011. "Strength in Numbers: Networks as a Solution to Occupational Traps," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 78(3), pages 1069-1101.
    11. Kranton, Rachel E. & Swamy, Anand V., 1999. "The hazards of piecemeal reform: british civil courts and the credit market in colonial India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 1-24, February.
    12. Abhijit Banerjee & Kaivan Munshi, 2004. "How Efficiently is Capital Allocated? Evidence from the Knitted Garment Industry in Tirupur," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 71(1), pages 19-42.
    13. Dan Bogart & Gary Richardson, 2011. "Property Rights and Parliament in Industrializing Britain," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(2), pages 241-274.
    14. Ashok V. Desai, 1968. "The Origins of Parsi Enterprise," The Indian Economic & Social History Review, , vol. 5(4), pages 307-317, December.
    15. Allen,Robert C., 2009. "The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521868273.
    16. Webb, Steven B., 1980. "Tariffs, Cartels, Technology, and Growth in the German Steel Industry, 1879 to 1914," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(2), pages 309-330, June.
    17. Kahan, Arcadius, 1967. "Government Policies and the Industrialization of Russia," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(4), pages 460-477, December.
    18. James E. Rauch & Vitor Trindade, 2002. "Ethnic Chinese Networks In International Trade," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(1), pages 116-130, February.
    19. Omkar Goswami, 1985. "Then came the Marwaris: Some aspects of the changes in the pattern of industrial control in Eastern India," The Indian Economic & Social History Review, , vol. 22(3), pages 225-249, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gupta, Bishnupriya & Mookherjee, Dilip & Munshi, Kaivan & Sanclemente, Mario, 2022. "Community origins of industrial entrepreneurship in colonial India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    2. Anandi Mani & Emma Riley, 2019. "Social networks, role models, peer effects, and aspirations," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-120, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Kaivan Munshi, 2014. "Community Networks and the Process of Development," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 28(4), pages 49-76, Fall.
    4. Chakraborty, Tanika & Mukherjee, Anirban & Saha, Sarani & Shukla, Divya, 2023. "Caste, courts and business," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 333-365.
    5. Chakraborty, Tanika & Mukherjee, Anirban & Saha, Sarani & Shukla, Divya, 2021. "Caste, Courts and Business," GLO Discussion Paper Series 935, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    6. Ruochen Dai & Dilip Mookherjee & Kaivan Munshi & Xiaobo Zhang, 2024. "Community Networks, Entrepreneurship and the Process of Economic Development," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2406, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    7. Hanson, Gordon H., 2010. "International Migration and the Developing World," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4363-4414, Elsevier.
    8. Deepti Goel & Kevin Lang, 2019. "Social Ties and the Job Search of Recent Immigrants," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 72(2), pages 355-381, March.
    9. Magnus Hatlebakk, 2013. "Intergenerational determinants of occupational choice: The case of international labor migration from Nepal," CMI Working Papers 2, CMI (Chr. Michelsen Institute), Bergen, Norway.
    10. Belloc Marianna, 2009. "Cross-Cultural Trade and Institutional Stability," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-25, October.
    11. Munshi, K., 2017. "Caste and the Indian Economy," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1759, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    12. Esteves, Rui & Geisler Mesevage, Gabriel, 2019. "Social Networks in Economic History: Opportunities and Challenges," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    13. Kaivan Munshi, 2007. "From Farming to International Business: The Social Auspices of Entrepreneurship in a Growing Economy," NBER Working Papers 13065, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Anthony Briant & Pierre-Philippe Combes & Miren Lafourcade, 2014. "Product Complexity, Quality of Institutions and the Protrade Effect of Immigrants," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(1), pages 63-85, January.
    15. Bramoullé, Yann & Goyal, Sanjeev, 2016. "Favoritism," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 16-27.
    16. Boken, Johannes & Gadenne, Lucie & Nandi, Tushar & Santamaria. Marta, 2022. "Community Networks and Trade," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1442, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    17. Javorcik, Beata S. & Özden, Çaglar & Spatareanu, Mariana & Neagu, Cristina, 2011. "Migrant networks and foreign direct investment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 231-241, March.
    18. Alan de Brauw & John Giles, 2017. "Migrant Opportunity and the Educational Attainment of Youth in Rural China," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(1), pages 272-311.
    19. Priebe, Jan & Rudolf, Robert, 2015. "Does the Chinese Diaspora Speed Up Growth in Host Countries?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 249-262.
    20. Frédéric Docquier & Hillel Rapoport, 2012. "Globalization, Brain Drain, and Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(3), pages 681-730, September.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:bos:iedwpr:dp-318. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Program Coordinator (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/decbuus.html .

    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.