Table of Contents
Abstract
In this Quantitative History Webinar, Wanda Wang of HKU Business School will present research on whether goods-market integration can expand finance. He examines China’s 1931 abolition of likin, an internal checkpoint-tax system, using prereform station counts across 272 prefectures. Chinese bank offices and industrial entry grew most in places where local exposure to the reform and gains in external market access were both high. To address the possibility that station placement was endogenous, the study uses an instrument based on historical military networks.
Banking expansion occurred mainly through branches of existing banks, while industrial entry was concentrated in transport-dependent sectors. Borrowing-rate gaps also narrowed among nearby prefecture pairs with greater prereform station exposure, consistent with regional credit-market integration. The findings suggest that abolishing internal trade barriers can deepen finance by expanding the economic base served by financial intermediaries.
About the Quantitative History Webinar Series
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 sixth 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: Professors Zhiwu Chen & Chicheng Ma (HKU Business School)
