Past Seminars and Events

The Effects of World War I on Chinese Textile Industry: Was the World’s Trouble China’s Opportunity?

Publish Time:2019-06-05

Date & Time:June 5, 2019  10:00 - 11:30a.m.

Venue:SEM320 Meeting Room

Speaker:Cong Liu (Shanghai University of Finance and Economics)

Inviter:Jianfeng Xu


Abstract: 

This paper uses an unexpected trade disruption due to World War I to study how a temporary reduction of imports affected the Chinese textile industry. I construct a new transportation network and compile county-level data from 1907 to 1925 to examine the impact of this trade shock on the entry and investments of Chinese textile firms. The empirical analyses show that counties with better access to international trade before the war had greater increases in the number of textile firms during and after the war. I also find that access to finance promoted firm entry.


Speaker Biography: 

Cong Liu is an Assistant Professor in the School of Economics at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. She earned her PhD degree in Economics from the University of Arizona in 2016 and her Bachelor degree in Economics from Peking University in 2011. Her research interests include Chinese economic history, development economics, political economy, and international trade. Her work has been published on the Economic Research Journal (经济研究) and other peer-reviewed journals.