Income Distribution, Market Size, and Industrialization

S-Tier
Journal: Quarterly Journal of Economics
Year: 1989
Volume: 104
Issue: 3
Pages: 537-564

Authors (3)

Kevin M. Murphy (not in RePEc) Andrei Shleifer (Harvard University) Robert Vishny (not in RePEc)

Score contribution per author:

2.681 = (α=2.01 / 3 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

When world trade is costly, a country can profitably industrialize only if its domestic markets are large enough. In such a country, for increasing returns technologies to break even, sales must be high enough to cover fixed setup costs. We suggest two conditions conducive to industrialization. First, a leading sector, such as agriculture or exports, must grow and provide the source of autonomous demand for manufactures. Second, income generated by this leading sector must be broadly enough distributed that it materializes as demand for a broad range of domestic manufactures. These conditions have been important in several historical growth episodes.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:oup:qjecon:v:104:y:1989:i:3:p:537-564.
Journal Field
General
Author Count
3
Added to Database
2026-01-29