https://macropaperwarehouse.com/authors/reka-juhasz/Réka JuhászHugo -- gohugo.ioen-usThu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://macropaperwarehouse.com/papers/codification-technology-absorption-and-the-globalization-of-the-industrial-revolution/Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://macropaperwarehouse.com/papers/codification-technology-absorption-and-the-globalization-of-the-industrial-revolution/<p>Research question and motivation: Why did the First Industrial Revolution (IR) spread to Meiji Japan—and to essentially no other non-Western country—during the first wave of globalization? The paper tests Mokyr&rsquo;s hypothesis that &ldquo;technical literacy,&rdquo; i.e., the codification of engineering, commercial, and industrial knowledge in the local vernacular, was a necessary condition for absorbing IR technologies. The motivating puzzle: after opening to trade (1858) and the Meiji Restoration (1868), 80% of Japanese exports were still primary products as late as ~1883 and real per capita GDP growth was only 0.6%/yr (1870-1883/85); then in a brief 13-year window (1883-1896) the manufacturing export share tripled and stabilized at around 60% of exports until WWII.</p>