Factory Productivity and the Concession System of Incorporation in Late Imperial Russia, 1894–1908
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Amanda G. Gregg
- American Economic Review (Forthcoming)
Abstract
In Imperial Russia, incorporation required an expensive special concession, yet over four thousand Russian firms incorporated before 1914. I identify the characteristics of incorporating firms and measure the productivity gains and
growth in machine power enjoyed by corporations using newly-constructed factory-level panel data compiled from Russian
factory censuses. Factories owned by corporations were larger,
more productive, and more mechanized. Higher productivity
factories were more likely to incorporate and, after incorporating, added machine power and became even more labor productive. Russian firms sought the corporate form's full set of
advantages, not just stock markets access, to obtain scarce
long-term financing.
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