IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tky/fseres/2008cf602.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Impact of Natural Disasters on Industrial Agglomeration: A Case of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake

Author

Listed:
  • Asuka Imaizumi

    (Graduate School of Economics, University of Tokyo)

  • Kaori Ito

    (Faculty of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science)

  • Tetsuji Okazaki

    (Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo)

Abstract

One of the main implications of the New Economic Geography, developed since the 1990s, is that a temporary shock can create a persistent impact on the geographic distribution of economic activities because of multiple equilibria. This paper investigates the long-run impact of a temporary shock on the geographic distribution of industries in Tokyo Prefecture, Japan, using the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 as a natural experiment. It is revealed that the temporary shock from the Great Kanto Earthquake was basically dissipated by 1936, just before the full-scale war with China broke out. On the other hand, through industry-level investigation, it is found that with respect to the machinery and metal industry, the impact was persistent and remained even in 1936. These findings suggest the importance of the industrial structure and transaction networks within industry in the mechanism determining geographic distribution of industries.

Suggested Citation

  • Asuka Imaizumi & Kaori Ito & Tetsuji Okazaki, 2008. "Impact of Natural Disasters on Industrial Agglomeration: A Case of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-602, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    • Handle: RePEc:tky:fseres:2008cf602
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.cirje.e.u-tokyo.ac.jp/research/dp/2008/2008cf602.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Evans, William N. & Garthwaite, Craig & Wei, Heng, 2008. "The impact of early discharge laws on the health of newborns," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 843-870, July.
    2. Donald R. Davis & David E. Weinstein, 2008. "A Search For Multiple Equilibria In Urban Industrial Structure," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 29-65, February.
    3. Miguel, Edward & Roland, Gérard, 2011. "The long-run impact of bombing Vietnam," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 1-15, September.
    4. Cha, Myung Soo, 2003. "Did Takahashi Korekiyo Rescue Japan from the Great Depression?," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 63(1), pages 127-144, March.
    5. Steven Brakman & Harry Garretsen & Marc Schramm, 2004. "The strategic bombing of German cities during World War II and its impact on city growth," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 4(2), pages 201-218, April.
    6. Nakajima, Kentaro, 2008. "Economic division and spatial relocation: The case of postwar Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 383-400, September.
    7. Charles H. Anderton & John R. Carter, 2001. "The Impact of War on Trade: An Interrupted Times-Series Study," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 38(4), pages 445-457, July.
    8. Bosker, Maarten & Brakman, Steven & Garretsen, Harry & Schramm, Marc, 2007. "Looking for multiple equilibria when geography matters: German city growth and the WWII shock," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 152-169, January.
    9. Okuno-Fujiwara, Masahiro & Okazaki, Tetsuji (ed.), 1999. "The Japanese Economic System and its Historical Origins," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198289012.
    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. Imaizumi, Asuka & Ito, Kaori & Okazaki, Tetsuji, 2016. "Impact of natural disasters on industrial agglomeration: The case of the Great Kantō Earthquake in 1923," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 52-68.
    2. Stephen J. Redding, 2010. "The Empirics Of New Economic Geography," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 297-311, February.
    3. Redding, Stephen, 2020. "Trade and Geography," CEPR Discussion Papers 15268, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. 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.
    5. Stephen J. Redding, 2013. "Economic Geography: A Review of the Theoretical and Empirical Literature," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Daniel Bernhofen & Rod Falvey & David Greenaway & Udo Kreickemeier (ed.), Palgrave Handbook of International Trade, chapter 16, pages 497-531, Palgrave Macmillan.
    6. Hanlon, W.Walker & Heblich, Stephan, 2022. "History and urban economics," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    7. Xu, Hangtian, 2016. "Multiple Equilibria in the Urban Spatial Structure: Evidence from the Hanshin Earthquake," MPRA Paper 75219, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Mikhailova, Tatiana (Михайлова, Татьяна), 2018. "Evacuation of Industry During the Great Patriotic War and the Growth of Russian Cities: Numerical Analysis [Эвакуация Промышленности В Годы Великой Отечественной Войны И Рост Городов России: Числен," Working Papers 031835, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
    9. Stephen J. Redding & Daniel M. Sturm & Nikolaus Wolf, 2011. "History and Industry Location: Evidence from German Airports," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(3), pages 814-831, August.
    10. Matti Sarvimäki, 2011. "Agglomeration in the Periphery," SERC Discussion Papers 0080, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    11. Siodla, James, 2017. "Clean slate: Land-use changes in San Francisco after the 1906 disaster," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 1-16.
    12. Testa, Patrick A., 2021. "Shocks and the spatial distribution of economic activity: The role of institutions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 791-810.
    13. Mikhailova, Tatiana, 2012. "Gulag, WWII and the Long-run Patterns of Soviet City Growth," EconStor Preprints 121963, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    14. Siodla, James, 2021. "Firms, fires, and firebreaks: The impact of the 1906 San Francisco disaster on business agglomeration," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    15. David Cuberes & Rafael González-Val, 2017. "The effect of the Spanish Reconquest on Iberian cities," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 58(3), pages 375-416, May.
    16. Leonardo M. Klüppel & Lamar Pierce & Jason A. Snyder, 2018. "Perspective—The Deep Historical Roots of Organization and Strategy: Traumatic Shocks, Culture, and Institutions," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 702-721, August.
    17. Christoph Eder, 2014. "Missing Men: World War II Casualties and Structural Change," NRN working papers 2014-03, The Austrian Center for Labor Economics and the Analysis of the Welfare State, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    18. Richard Hornbeck & Daniel Keniston, 2017. "Creative Destruction: Barriers to Urban Growth and the Great Boston Fire of 1872," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(6), pages 1365-1398, June.
    19. Brad J. Hershbein & Bryan A. Stuart, 2020. "Recessions and Local Labor Market Hysteresis," Upjohn Working Papers 20-325, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    20. Evgeniya Kolomak, 2020. "Spatial development of the post‐Soviet Russia: Tendencies and factors," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(4), pages 579-594, August.

    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:tky:fseres:2008cf602. 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: CIRJE administrative office (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ritokjp.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.