【Brownbag】 Industrial and Productivity Dynamics in Crude Camphor Industry of Japanese-Ruled Taiwan (1903–18)
2024/09/06
研討會日期 : 2024-09-06
時間 : 12:10
主講人 : Yi-Fan Chen （陳奕帆）
地點 : Conference Room B110
演講者簡介 : Professor Yi-Fan Chen received his PhD from National Taiwan University in 2016. He is an Assistant Professor at National University of Kaohsiung. His research fields are International Trade, Macroeconomics, Industrial Organization, Economic Development, Applied Game and Economic Theory.
演講摘要 : This study aims to establish the stylized facts regarding Japan's Camphor Monopoly System in Taiwan. We document that Japanese firms gradually entered the industry and secured more production quotas and sites, eventually dominated the industry. We find that the secular rise in Japanese firms is related to the 1908 depression in the global camphor market, as less productive firms, primarily local producers, were forced to exit by the authority. Nevertheless, such a selection process is not neutral to the ethnicity structure of firm ownership, as the surviving local producers were more productive than most of the surviving Japanese firms but consistently received less favorable policy benefits. This finding echoes with Chen and Jheng (2024), that the monopoly system selected efficient firms while exhibiting favoritism towards specific Japanese producers.
