Doctoral Research Webinar: Imports and Industrialization in China, 1876-1936
Doctoral Research Webinar: Imports and Industrialization in China, 1876-1936
Xinhao Li, Research PhD Candidate of HKU Business School, examines the impact of import penetration in 1876-1892 on subsequent industrial development in China from 1896 to 1936. He collects import values for Chinese inland prefectures from the annual trade reports at each port of the Chinese Maritime Customs. Matching the imports with industrial establishments at the prefecture level, he finds that prefectures with greater import values had more industrial firms established thereafter. For causal identification, he exploits the role of the silver-copper exchange ratio in shifting the relative price of foreign goods in the domestic market and construct a shift-share-like instrument for the import distribution. Through decomposing the imports by sectors, he finds that high-tech manufactures are more beneficial to industrial development relative to low-tech ones. The high-tech manufacturers were also associated with a higher level of public interest in manufacturing and scientific knowledge. During this Quantitative History Doctoral Research Webinar, he will further provide evidence that import trade facilitated China’s industrialization by empowering Chinese business elites as pioneering industrialists.
Date: October 2, 2025
Time: 16:00 – 17:30
16:00 (Hong Kong/Beijing/Singapore)
04:00 (New York)|01:00 (Los Angeles)|09:00 (London)|17:00 (Tokyo)|18:00 (Sydney)
Venue: Zoom Webinar
Language: English
The Quantitative History (QH) Webinar Series aims to provide researchers, teachers, and students with an online intellectual platform to keep up to date with the latest research in the field, promoting the dissemination of research findings and interdisciplinary use of quantitative methods in historical research. The QH Webinar Series, now entering its fifth year, is co-organized by the Centre for Quantitative History at the HKU Business School and the International Society for Quantitative History in partnership with the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences. The Series is now substantially supported by the Areas of Excellence (AoE) Scheme from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. [AoE/B-704/22-R]).
量化歷史網上講座系列由香港大學陳志武和馬馳騁教授聯合發起，旨在介紹前沿量化歷史研究成果、促進同仁交流，推廣量化方法在歷史研究中的應用。本系列講座由香港大學經管學院量化歷史研究中心和國際量化歷史學會承辦，及香港人文社會研究所全力支持。從2023年開始，系列得到中國香港特別行政區研究資助局卓越學科領域計劃的重要資助 (項目編號[AoE/B-704/22-R])。
Conveners:
Zhiwu Chen
Chicheng Ma
