Canals and Orchards: The Impact of Transport Network Access on Agricultural Productivity in Nineteenth-century Bangkok
2019/09/03
研討會日期 : 2019-09-03
時間 : 14:30
主講人 : Professor Jessica Vechbanyongratana
主持人 : Professor Terry Cheung
地點 : Conference Room B110
演講者簡介 : Professor Vechbanyongratana received her Ph.D. in Economics from University of Colorado at Boulder in 2009. She is currently an Assistant Professor in Economics at Chulalongkorn University. Her main research fields are Economic History, Historical Political Economy, Labor Economics, and Development Economics.
演講摘要 : We assess the impact of access to Bangkok's nineteenth-century canal network on orchard productivity using a new dataset constructed from 1880s orchard land deeds. We find that properties located adjacent to canals, which were built for purposes exogenous to orchard production, had significantly higher labor productivity than those located inland. Gaining direct access to canals led to productivity improvements through better access to markets, which in turn enhanced cultivators' welfare. We conclude, based on a method developed by Oster (2019), that unobserved selection bias is negligible, allowing for the positive impact of canal access to be interpreted as causal.
