IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/80097.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Exploring the Influence of Colonial Railways on Java's Economic Geography

Author

Listed:
  • Brata, Aloysius Gunadi

Abstract

This study explores the impact on Java’s economic geography of railways built by the Dutch colonial government. Pre-1940 Dutch railway construction affords an historical experiment on the spatial distribution of economic activities across urban Java both before and after 1940. Using city data for over 100 years, the study finds that the railways had a short-term impact on the distribution of population, but that in the long run colonial railway investment lost its advantages. Until 1930, the railways substituted for the Great Mail Road. Between 1930 and 2010, however, the Great Mail Road regained an earlier importance in shaping urban Javanese patterns. The study also draws important lessons for recent Indonesian infrastructure development in Indonesia, notably in regard to the railway system itself.

Suggested Citation

  • Brata, Aloysius Gunadi, 2017. "Exploring the Influence of Colonial Railways on Java's Economic Geography," MPRA Paper 80097, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:80097
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/80097/1/MPRA_paper_80097.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nathan Nunn, 2009. "The Importance of History for Economic Development," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 65-92, May.
    2. Remi Jedwab & Alexander Moradi, 2016. "The Permanent Effects of Transportation Revolutions in Poor Countries: Evidence from Africa," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 98(2), pages 268-284, May.
    3. Gregg Huff, 2012. "Gateway cities and urbanisation in southeast asia before world war II," Oxford University Economic and Social History Series _096, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
    4. María Ayuda & Fernando Collantes & Vicente Pinilla, 2010. "From locational fundamentals to increasing returns: the spatial concentration of population in Spain, 1787–2000," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 25-50, March.
    5. John Luke Gallup & Jeffrey D. Sachs & Andrew Mellinger, 1999. "Geography and Economic Development," CID Working Papers 1, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    6. Remi Jedwab & Edward Kerby & Alexander Moradi, 2017. "History, Path Dependence and Development: Evidence from Colonial Railways, Settlers and Cities in Kenya," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(603), pages 1467-1494, August.
    7. Gallup, John L. & Sachs, Jeffrey D. & Mellinger, Andrew, "undated". "Geography and Economic Development," Instructional Stata datasets for econometrics geodata, Boston College Department of Economics.
    8. Howard Dick, 2000. "Representations of Development in 19th and 20th Century indonesia: A Transport History Perspective," Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(1), pages 185-207.
    9. Gregg Huff, 2012. "Export-led Growth, Gateway Cities and Urban Systems Development in Pre-World War II Southeast Asia," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(10), pages 1431-1452, October.
    10. Pierre van der Eng, 2006. "Surplus mobilisation in farm agriculture: A comparison of Java and Japan, 1870-1940," Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(1), pages 35-58.
    11. Gallup, J.L. & Sachs, J.D. & Mullinger, A., 1999. "Geography and Economic Development," Papers 1, Chicago - Graduate School of Business.
    12. Remi Jedwab & Edward Kerby & Alexander Moradi, 2017. "History, Path Dependence and Development: Evidence from Colonial Railways, Settlers and Cities in Kenya," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(603), pages 1467-1494, August.
    13. Gregg Huff, 2012. "Gateway Cities and Urbanisation in Southeast Asia Before World War II," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _096, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    14. Gallup, John & Sachs, Jeffrey, 1999. "Geography and Economic Development," Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) Papers 294434, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government.
    15. Berger, Thor & Enflo, Kerstin, 2017. "Locomotives of local growth: The short- and long-term impact of railroads in Sweden," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 124-138.
    16. Peter McCawley, 2015. "Infrastructure Policy In Indonesia, 1965-2015: A Survey," Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(2), pages 263-285, August.
    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. Aloysius Gunadi BRATA, 2021. "The Influence Of Colonial Railways On Java Economic Geography," Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management, Research Centre in Public Administration and Public Services, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 16(2), pages 39-54, May.
    2. Flückiger, Matthias & Ludwig, Markus, 2020. "Malaria suitability, urbanization and subnational development in sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    3. Frederik Wild & David Stadelmann, 2022. "Coastal proximity and individual living standards: Econometric evidence from georeferenced household surveys in sub‐Saharan Africa," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 1883-1901, November.
    4. Roessler, Philip & Pengl, Yannick I. & Marty, Robert & Titlow, Kyle Sorlie & van de Walle, Nicolas, 2022. "The cash crop revolution, colonialism and economic reorganization in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    5. Alpino,Matteo & Hammersmark,Eivind Moe, 2020. "The Role of Historical Christian Missions in the Location of World Bank Aid in Africa," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9146, The World Bank.
    6. Lin, Jeffrey & Rauch, Ferdinand, 2022. "What future for history dependence in spatial economics?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    7. Trung V. Vu, 2021. "Climate, diseases, and the origins of corruption," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(4), pages 621-649, October.
    8. C. Cook, 2014. "The role of lactase persistence in precolonial development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 369-406, December.
    9. Valentinyi, Akos & Bluedorn, John & Vlassopoulos, Michael, 2009. "The Long-Lived Effects of Historic Climate on the Wealth of Nations," CEPR Discussion Papers 7572, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Matthew H Bonds & Andrew P Dobson & Donald C Keenan, 2012. "Disease Ecology, Biodiversity, and the Latitudinal Gradient in Income," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(12), pages 1-12, December.
    11. Williamson, Claudia R., 2012. "Dignity and development," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 763-771.
    12. Jasmin Katrin Gröschl, 2013. "Gravity Model Applications and Macroeconomic Perspectives," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 48.
    13. Naritomi, Joana & Soares, Rodrigo R. & Assunção, Juliano J., 2012. "Institutional Development and Colonial Heritage within Brazil," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 72(2), pages 393-422, May.
    14. Mario F Carillo, 2021. "Agricultural Policy and Long-Run Development: Evidence from Mussolini's Battle for Grain," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(634), pages 566-597.
    15. L. DeBenedictis & Am Pinna, 2015. "Islands as 'Bad Geography'. Insularity, Connectedness, Trade Costs and Trade," Working Paper CRENoS 201504, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    16. Flückiger, Matthias & Ludwig, Markus, 2017. "Malaria suitability, urbanization and persistence: Evidence from China over more than 2000 years," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 146-160.
    17. Natkhov, T. & Polishchuk, L., 2017. "Political Economy of Institutions and Development: The Importance of Being Inclusive. Reflection on "Why Nations Fail" by D. Acemoglu and J. Robinson. Part I. Institutions and Economic Devel," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 34(2), pages 12-38.
    18. Glawe, Linda & Wagner, Helmut, 2017. "The Deep Determinants of the Middle-Income Trap," CEAMeS Discussion Paper Series 10/2017, University of Hagen, Center for East Asia Macro-economic Studies (CEAMeS), revised 2017.
    19. Hlavac, Marek, 2010. "Economic Development in Pre-Independence Botswana, 1820-1966: Historical Trends, Contributing and Countervailing Factors," MPRA Paper 26026, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Ploeckl, Florian, 2012. "Endowments and market access; the size of towns in historical perspective: Saxony, 1550–1834," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 607-618.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    colonial railways; history; economic geography; Java;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N75 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services - - - Asia including Middle East
    • N95 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History - - - Asia including Middle East
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

    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:pra:mprapa:80097. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.