Pollution and human capital accumulation in modern Japan

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K13754
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 07070:Economic history-related
• Research Institution: Tokyo Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Ogasawara Kota 東京工業大学, 工学院, 准教授 (00733544)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 人的資本 / 工業化 / 公害 / 人口動態

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Industrialization promotes the long-term accumulation of human capital and the historical development of each country's economy. In recent years, economic history studies have begun to quantitatively reassess the negative effects of industrialization on human capital accumulation. In this research project, I newly digitized the static and vital statistics and population census of Japan issued in the 1920s and 1930s. I proposed an identification strategy to evaluate the impacts of the resource extraction and estimated those of mines on local population growth and regional structural shifts.

Free Research Field

経済史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

工業化の過程で発達する鉱業が地域経済に与える影響を明らかにすること。これは、実証経済学における研究課題としてだけでなく、現実の社会経済においても重要な課題である。このような課題にたいして、本研究から得られた成果は、鉱物資源採掘が地域経済の人口動態や産業構造の変化に与える影響について、一定の定量的証拠を提供するものである。