Railroads in Meiji Japan are credited with facilitating factor mobility as well as access to human and financial capital, but the impact on firms is unclear. Using a newly developed firm-level dataset and a difference-in-differences model that exploits the temporal and spatial variation of...

Was nineteenth century Japan an example of finance-led growth? Using a new panel dataset of firms from the Meiji Period (1868-1912), this paper tests whether financial sector development influenced extensive firm activity across industries and locations. Results from a two-stage least squares...

The question of why more African Americans did not migrate earlier out of the stagnant and repressive South after emancipation remains open. Previous work has highlighted the role of demand and supply conditions. At the time, though, there was much concern about the role of emigrant agents who...