Creative Destruction of Industries: Yokohama City in the Great Kanto Earthquake, 1923

Okazaki, Tetsuji; Okubo, Toshihiro; Strobl, Eric (2019). Creative Destruction of Industries: Yokohama City in the Great Kanto Earthquake, 1923. The journal of economic history, 79(1), pp. 1-31. Cambridge University Press 10.1017/S0022050718000748

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The Great Kanto Earthquake occurred on 1 September 1923 and inflicted serious damage on Yokohama City. About 90 percent of the factories in Yokohama City were burnt down or completely destroyed. However, these manufacturing industries appear to have swiftly recovered in the aftermath of the damage. This article investigates the role of creative destruction due to the Great Kanto Earthquake. Using firm-level data on capital (horsepower of motors) before and after the earthquake, we find substantial creative destruction, that is, upgrade of machine technology and/or survival of efficient firms. We find further collaborating evidence of this at the prefecture level.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Department of Economics
03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Department of Economics > Institute of Economics

UniBE Contributor:

Strobl, Eric Albert

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 330 Economics

ISSN:

0022-0507

Publisher:

Cambridge University Press

Language:

English

Submitter:

Dino Collalti

Date Deposited:

13 Aug 2019 10:11

Last Modified:

16 Mar 2024 00:25

Publisher DOI:

10.1017/S0022050718000748

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.129886

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/129886

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