Market Integration, Demand, and the Growth of Firms: Evidence From a Natural Experiment in India
利用印度喀拉拉邦造船业的自然实验，研究发现市场整合使消费者了解外地产品信息后，高质量企业市场份额增长并扩张，低质量企业退出，整体质量提升、劳动专业化增强、平均生产成本下降，消费者质量调整后价格降低。
In many developing countries, the average firm is small, does not grow, and has low productivity. Lack of market integration and limited information on non-local products often leave consumers unaware of the prices and quality of non-local firms. They therefore mostly buy locally, limiting firms’ potential market size (and competition). We explore this hypothesis using a natural experiment in the Kerala boat-building industry. As consumers learn more about non-local builders, high-quality builders gain market share and grow, while low-quality firms exit. Aggregate quality increases, as does labor specialization, and average production costs decrease. Finally, quality-adjusted consumer prices decline.