Japan’s Ultimately Unaccursed Natural Resources-Financed Industrialization
Japan’s successful industrialization in the late 19th and early 20th century largely exhausted its then abundant natural resources. Rather than exemplifying rapid development in the absence of natural resources, Japan shows how laissez-faire government and successfully transplanted classical liberal institutions, including active stock markets, exorcised a natural resources curse that undermined its prior state-led industrialization strategy. Japan’s post-WWII reconstruction relied little on natural resources and more on bank financing and state direction, but was not an example of an initial industrialization.
Published Versions
Randall Morck & Masao Nakamura, 2017. "Japan's Ultimately Unaccursed Natural Resources-Financed Industrialization," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, . citation courtesy of 
Japan's Ultimately Unaccursed Natural Resources-financed Industrialization, Randall Morck, Masao Nakamura. in Corporate Governance (NBER-TCER-CEPR Conference), Allen, Fukuda, and Hoshi. 2018
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