High-speed rail (HSR) is not a "sufficient condition" but a "necessary condition" for regional development. Understanding how to use HSR for regional development is essential. Japan's Shinkansen (bullet train) has a 50-year history, and Japan has long attempted to utilize Shinkansen for regional...

This paper exploits a short-lived cooperation program between the U.S.S.R. and China, which led to the construction of 156 "Million-Rouble plants" in the 1950s. We isolate exogenous variation in location decisions due to the relative position of allied and enemy airbases and study the long-run...

Throughout the imperial era, defensive walls surrounded Chinese cities. Although most city walls have vanished, the cities have survived. We analyze a sample of nearly 300 prefectural-level cities in China, among which about half historically had city walls. We document that cities that had...

The aim of this paper is to assess the welfare effects of food price changes on urban households' poverty and vulnerability. This is achieved by using Hicksian price Compensating Variation (CV) and compensated price elasticities, based on Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QAIDS). The study...

This paper sets out to analyse and compare the growth performances of two Chinese cities, Nanjing and Suzhou. Their growth performances have varied over time, with one city outperforming the other in some periods, and with the reverse scenario taking place in other times. In order to explain...

Based on a comparative study of New-Pudong (East Shanghai) and Old-Puxi (West Shanghai) in their respective ability to absorb rural migrants, the very essence of urbanization, this paper finds that, constrained by the current hukou (household registration) system and land tenure system, although...

Çaðdaþ dönem öncesi Ortadoðu ekonomisinin Ýslam hukukuna dayanan kilit kurumlarý, demokratik kurumlarýn geliþimini engelledi. Bu konuþma, kritik rol oynayan üç mekanizmayý tanýmlamaktadýr. Kur’an’da belirtilen vergi sistemi yönetim üzerinde kalýcý ve güvenilir...

Between the 1870s and World War II, falls in world shipping costs and Western industrialisation gave rise to export-led Southeast Asian growth and specialization in a narrow range of primary commodity exports.  A linked development was the emergence of a few dominant Southeast Asian urban...

This working paper analyzes demographic change in Southeast Asia's main cities during and soon after the World War II Japanese occupation.  We argue that two main patterns of population movements are evident.  In food-deficient areas, a search for food security typically led to large net...