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Openness to Trade and the Spread of Industrialization: Evidence from Canada during the First Era of Globalization

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  • Taylor Jaworski
  • Ian Keay

Abstract

We use new data on manufacturing in Canada to quantify the impact of globalization on the growth and composition of industrialization in the second half of the nineteenth century. We find that industries and regions more exposed to international trade experienced faster growth. Consistent with the literature on economic development in Canada, we find that scale economies, government policy decisions, and domestic market expansion also played an important role in manufacturing growth. However, after controlling for these factors, we find that greater exposure to globalization shaped the pattern of regional industrialization in a way not appreciated in Canadian historiography.

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  • Taylor Jaworski & Ian Keay, 2020. "Openness to Trade and the Spread of Industrialization: Evidence from Canada during the First Era of Globalization," NBER Working Papers 27716, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27716
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    2. 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).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F63 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Economic Development
    • N11 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
    • N71 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology

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