Pollution havens and the trade in toxic chemicals: evidence from U.S. trade flows

National registries of toxic chemical emissions and facilities are increasingly used to raise public awareness of potential health hazards in local areas, but an unintended consequence may be the offshoring of production to less regulated countries. Using disaggregated U.S. trade data, this study examines the impact of registry listing on subsequent bilateral trade flows. Estimates from a difference-in-differences model indicate a significant shift toward imports from poorer countries following registry listing. Assuming that environmental protection is a normal good, this result suggests the emergence of pollution havens due to more stringent U.S. environmental regulation

Technological Leadership and Late Development: Evidence from Meiji Japan, 1868-1912

Large family-owned conglomerates known as zaibatsu have long been credited with leading Japanese industrialization during the Meiji Period (1868-1912), despite a lack of empirical analysis. I develop a new dataset collected from corporate genealogies and estimate the likelihood of a firm being an industry pioneer with discrete choice econometric methods. I find that certain characteristics associated with zaibatsu increase the likelihood of leading entry into new industries. In particular, first entry probabilities increase with industry diversification and private ownership, which may provide internal financing and risk-sharing. Nevertheless, the costs of excessive diversification may deter additional pioneering, which may account for the loss of zaibatsu technological leadership by the turn of the century

A tale of two SICs: Japanese and American industrialisation in historical perspective

Late-developing countries often adopt best practice technologies pioneered abroad, facilitating convergence toward leading economies. Meiji Japan (1868–1912) is one successful example of industrial convergence, but much of the evidence relies on national aggregates or selected industries. Using historical industry data, this paper examines whether Japan adopted new technologies faster compared to the United States. Contrary to conventional wisdom, new sectors did not appear relatively sooner in Japan, however, they did grow to economic significance faster

The engine and the reaper: industrialization and mortality in late nineteenth century Japan

Economic development improves long-run health outcomes through access to medical treatment, sanitation, and higher income. Short run impacts, however, may be ambiguous given disease exposure from market integration. Using a panel dataset of Japanese vital statistics and multiple estimation methods, I find that railroad network expansion is associated with a six percent increase in gross mortality rates among newly integrated regions. Communicable diseases accounted for most of the rail-associated mortality, which indicate railways behaved as transmission vectors. At the same time, market integration facilitated by railways corresponded with an eighteen percent increase in total capital investment nationwide over ten years

Measurement of teicoplanin by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry:development of a novel method

Teicoplanin is an antibiotic used for the treatment of endocarditis, osteomyelitis, septic arthritis and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Teicoplanin is emerging as a suitable alternative antibiotic to vancomycin, where their trough serum levels are monitored by immunoassay routinely. This is the first report detailing the development of a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for measuring teicoplanin in patients' serum

The Samurai Bond: Credit Supply and Economic Growth in Pre-War Japan

While credit supply growth is associated with exacerbating financial crises, its impact on long-run development is unclear. Using bond payments to samurai in nineteenth century Japan as a quasi-natural experiment and exploiting regional variation, we find that bond payments are associated with persistent redistributive effects between regions and sectors. Areas with early railway access and higher bond value per capita experienced faster income growth in the tertiary sector and slower growth in the primary, with analogous effects for sectoral labor shares. Our interpretation is that the interaction between credit supply and productivity-enhancing technologies facilitated economic development and structural transformation

Banks, credit supply, and the life cycle of firms: Evidence from late nineteenth century Japan

How does local credit supply affect economic dynamism? Using an exogenous bond shock in historical Japan and new genealogical firm-level data, we empirically examine the effects of credit availability on firm life cycles. We find that the lifespan of firms decreases with bank capital and that capital-abundant regions have more firm creation and destruction. These effects are amplified for manufacturing, while service sector firms experience no change in longevity and have less creation. Our results suggest that samurai bonds were conducive to the emergence of banking, which eased firms' financial constraints and led to more capital-intensive investment and economic dynamism

The Samurai Bond: Credit Supply, Market Access, and Structural Transformation in Pre-War Japan

While credit supply growth is associated with exacerbating financial crises, its impact on long-run growth is unclear. Market access similarly has ambiguous economic effects over time. Using regional variation in bond payments to samurai and the introduction of railways in nineteenth century Japan, we find that together they are associated with persistent redistributive effects between regions and sectors. Areas with higher bond value and railway access experienced tertiary sector growth and primary sector shrinkage, with analogous results in sectoral labor shares. This interaction between credit supply and market access facilitated structural transformation but had little long-run net growth impact