How much did the telegraph improve market integration in imperial China? We exploit differences in the timing of telegraph construction in different prefectures in the late 19th to the early 20th centuries to show that telegraph presence in both prefectures decreased the monthly grain price...

The Ottoman Empire underwent a process of integration with the global economy during the second half of the Nineteenth Century. This paper explores one aspect of this process, examining the linkages established between the cotton industries in Egypt and Western Anatolia, which we consider as...

This paper challenges established claims of comparable degrees of market integration in Europe and China on the eve of industrialization. Our empirical strategy focuses on the dynamics of price convergence and accounts for general equilibrium effects arising from common shocks and network...