Twenty-year Period Research Articles

An Overview of Cross-Border Acquisitions: A Study on Turkish Companies in the Period 1998-2018

Sınır ötesi gerçekleştirilen şirket satın alma faaliyetleri tüm dünyada olduğu gibi Türk şirketlerinin de ilgisini çekmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı ise, hedef ya da alıcı şirketlerden birinin Türk diğerinin yabancı olduğu satın alma faaliyetlerini incelemek ve genel bir çerçeve sunmaktır. Bu çalışmada kullanılan veriler Zephyr isimli veri tabanından elde edilmiştir. 1998-2018 yılları arası yirmi yıllık dönem içerisinde gerçekleştirilen Türklerin yurt dışında yaptığı 275 işlem ile yabancı firmaların Türkiye’de gerçekleştirdiği 883 satın alma işlemi araştırmanın kapsamını oluşturmuştur. Yapılan analizlerin sonucu satın alma işlemlerinin genellikle Avrupalı firmalarla gerçekleştirildiğini göstermiştir. İşlem sayısı ve işlem hacmi yıllar itibariyle değişkenlik göstermektedir. En fazla satın alma faaliyetinin gerçekleştirildiği sektörler finans ve imalat sektörleri olarak dikkat çekmektedir. Genel olarak yatay olmayan satın alma işlemlerinin yatay satın alma işlemlerine göre daha fazla sayıda olduğu görülmüştür.

Party Competition, Personal Votes, and Strategic Disloyalty in the U.S. States

Legislators will sometimes vote against their party’s position on roll-call votes to differentiate themselves from the party mainstream and to accrue a “personal vote.” Research suggests that the use of rebellion to generate a personal vote is more common (1) among majority party members and (2) among ideological extremists. But these majority party extremists only have a strong incentive to rebel in situations where the accrual of a personal vote is electorally useful. In this manuscript, we evaluate variation in rebellion rates of state legislators in the United States conditional on ideological extremism and majority control. Using donation-based measures of ideology and roll call–based measures of party loyalty over a twenty-year period across more than 30,000 legislators, we find that when legislators have little incentive to differentiate themselves from their parties, this “strategic” party disloyalty among majority party ideological extremists is limited. However, when legislators have strong incentives to craft a personal vote, ideological extremists defect from their party more often than their moderate counterparts. In particular, we find greater evidence for this type of strategic party disloyalty in states with high intra-party competition and low inter-party competition and less evidence in states with high inter-party competition.

Restoration of Thoracic Kyphosis in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Over a Twenty-year Period: Are We Getting Better?

A multicenter, prospectively collected database of 20 years of operatively treated adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) was utilized to retrospectively examine pre- and postoperative thoracic kyphosis at 2-year follow-up. To determine if the adoption of advanced three-dimensional correction techniques has led to improved thoracic kyphosis correction in AIS. Over the past 20 years, there has been an evolution of operative treatment for AIS, with more emphasis on sagittal and axial planes. Thoracic hypokyphosis was well treated with an anterior approach, but this was not addressed sufficiently in early posterior approaches. We hypothesized that patients with preoperative thoracic hypokyphosis prior to 2000 would have superior thoracic kyphosis restoration, but the learning curve with pedicle screws would reflect initially inferior restoration and eventual improvement. From 1995 to 2015, 1063 patients with preoperative thoracic hypokyphosis (<10°) were identified. A validated formula for assessing three-dimensional sagittal alignment using two-dimensional kyphosis and thoracic Cobb angle was applied. Patients were divided into 1995-2000 (Period 1, primarily anterior), 2001-2009 (Period 2, early thoracic pedicle screws), and 2010-2015 (Period 3, modern posterior) cohorts. Two-way repeated measures analysis of variance and post-hoc Bonferroni corrections were utilized with P < 0.05 considered significant. Significant differences were demonstrated. Period 1 had excellent restoration of thoracic kyphosis, which worsened in Period 2 and improved to near Period 1 levels during Period 3. Period 3 had superior thoracic kyphosis restoration compared with Period 2. Although the shift from anterior to posterior approaches in AIS was initially associated with worse thoracic kyphosis restoration, this improved with time. The proportion of patients restored to >20° kyphosis with a contemporary posterior approach has steadily improved to that of the era when anterior approaches were more common. 3.

Main indicators of morbidity and expected long life of the population of the northern region of Russia

This article analyzes the main indicators of the incidence and life expectancy of the population of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) over a twenty-year period. An increase in the incidence rate of the population was revealed that exceeded the average for the country and the Far Eastern Federal District, including for oncological diseases, the level of which increased several times in the republic. The value of the indicator of life expectancy in the republic approached the average Russian level, while 20 years ago a much lower indicator was determined. In the dynamics of indicators of the morbidity of the population and life expectancy over a twenty-year period, a polynomial trend has been outlined. For example, the incidence of neoplasms and diseases of the circulatory system showed a sharp increase in 2004, followed by a decrease, for diseases of the digestive system - similarly, an increase in 2001 and a subsequent decrease. This aspect requires an additional detailed study of the causes of such changes in order to be able to predict them in the future.

Map of Anthropogenic Soil Erosion of Russia

The last map of anthropogenic soil erosion in Russia was compiled more than 20 years ago on a scale of 1 : 5 000 000. In recent years, additional data on soil erosion have been accumulated. New mapping approaches have appeared that enable us to present more detailed digital data at the country level. The geometric part of the Unified State Register of Soil Resources of Russia (on the initial scale of 1 : 2 500 000) (USRSRR) was used as the basis for map updating. Information on soil erosion was read from the old erosion map for each delineated soil area of the USRSRR. Then it was expertly analyzed and corrected, using the data on soil properties in each soil mapping unit. After that, the information on anthropogenic soil erosion was corrected based on the soil plowing map of Russia and the map of pastures. At the last stage, additional data obtained over the past twenty-year period were entered into the database. The updated map is presented in a GIS format (shapefile). The map contains information on the distribution of soils disturbed as a result of water and anthropogenic erosion.

Relinquish or Rejuvenate? How Firms Treat Inventions after Inventor Departure

Knowledge worker mobility is often considered as detrimental to knowledge creation and retention for sourcing firms. Integrating insights from the knowledge-based view of the firm and the innovative search literature, we propose that knowledge worker mobility has a dual impact: the loss of tacit knowledge associated with mobility is both a threat to invention value and an opportunity for knowledge rejuvenation. Analyzing a matched sample of over 23,000 inventors and their patented inventions granted during a twenty-year period, we find that firms are less likely to maintain inventions if their inventors leave. However, if maintained, left-behind inventions generate more novel recombination in later development. The dual impact of inventor mobility is further contingent on inventor collaboration networks and knowledge complexity. Our findings show that the tacit knowledge possessed by inventors is a double-edged sword, with implications for research on knowledge worker mobility and knowledge management practice.

Impact of Alliance Partner Diversity on Level and Reliability of Firm Performance

Management researchers emphasize the prevalence and importance of firms’ strategic alliance portfolios in determining various firm outcomes. We extend this literature by examining and empirically testing how different aspects of alliance portfolio partner diversity (defined here as industry and organizational type diversity) affect both the level and reliability of firm performance. Using the multiplicative heteroscedasticity estimation technique on a sample of 178 of the largest multinational firms in the automobile and telecommunications industries across the twenty-year time period (1995 to 2014), we demonstrate that firms with greater partner industry diversity in their strategic alliance portfolios enjoy greater levels of performance coupled with greater reliability. In contrast, firms with greater partner organizational type diversity in their strategic alliance portfolios have lower levels and lower reliability of performance.

Thilly Weissenborn: Photographer of the Netherlands East Indies

Thilly Weissenborn (1883–1964) was one of Indonesia’s first woman photographers of significance. She was born in Java but schooled, like most Netherlands colonials, in The Hague. At the age of eighteen, Thilly returned to Java where she trained in the famous Atelier Kurkdjian before opening her own studio in the province of Preanger. For more than two decades, she supplied the colonial government’s tourist bureau with photographs featuring Java’s exotic-looking scenery and Balinese temples and dancers. She also supplied Dutch dignitaries, colonial officials and wealthy Dutch families with souvenir albums featuring scenic photographs and Bali’s governors and royalty. I argue that although her growing obsession with light was a feature shared by many contemporary American photographers, her photographs differed from theirs by dint of their connection to Netherlands colonialism. I further argue that this is most evident in their focus on the beauty of the landscape and the seeming tranquillity of life under colonial rule, but also their strong allusions to the Mooi Indië style of paintings popular among Dutch settlers. In the twenty-year period leading up to Japan’s invasion of Indonesia, Weissenborn’s images were widely sought after and reproduced by the Dutch East Indies Tourist Bureau; however, their strong connection to Netherlands colonialism means that they are today not just regarded ambivalently by photographic historians, but are frequently overlooked.

Economic foundation of a modern family (regional aspect)

The subject of this research is family as an element of economic relations. The object is the economic foundation of a modern family in the Republic of Khakassia. The author examines the economic foundation of a modern family on the national and regional levels (based on the materials of the Republic of Khakassia). Special attention is paid to micro-enterprises, which are the backbone of economic structure of a family. Emphasis is made on promising avenues of development of family enterprises. Empirical framework of this research is comprised of the statistical data of the Russian Federal State Statistics Service (2002, 2010), Regional Federal State Statistics Service (2016, 2020), and other sources. The following conclusions were made: 1) Over the recent twenty-year period, national economy has undergone transformation in the structure of small and medium sized enterprises: the portion of small and medium businesses was reduced, while the portion of micro-enterprises was increased; the lowest structure of self-employed is established. This would allow solving the economic problems of a full, extended family, and society. 2) Regional specificity of the research manifests in the context of economic vector of a family &amp;ndash; the upcoming five years mark preservation of the portion of medium and decrease of small and micro-enterprises. In the nearest future, the promising vectors in development of family enterprises in the Republic of Khakassia would become manufacturing and processing of products, as well as rendering information and tourism services. The author&amp;rsquo;s special contribution consists in covering the problems of development of the family types of economic structure of the society. The scientific novelty lies in examination of the regional component.

Between Berlin and Moscow: Polish Western Thought in the Twenty-Year Interwar Period

This article deals with the professional discussion about the so-called “difficult questions” of Russian history that involves historians and teachers in the now independent republics of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Block. Both academic publications and teaching books are used as primary sources for the study. In the first section, the author studies several problems connected with the origin of Russian statehood, the Varangian question, and civilizational characteristics of East Slavic nations. The second section is devoted to the Russian imperial past and especially to the discourse on colonialism, which is often used as an explanatory model for the imperial period by historians and textbook authors in some of the post-Soviet countries. The third section is concerned with the conception of the 1917 revolution. The author emphasizes the fact that the conception of a continuous revolutionary process (1917–1922) has yet to be accepted by Russian secondary schools. In this part, the author considers several other factors significant for understanding the revolutionary process including issues such as the origins of the First World War and the developmental level of the Russian Empire in the early twentieth century. In the fourth section, the article discusses the conception of the 1930s Soviet modernization along with negative opinions about the Soviet period given by scholars of different former Soviet republics. In the fifth section, the author briefly observes contemporary studies of culture and everyday life. It is concluded that the history of culture is not represented well in Russian school textbooks, and it is also found that the studies on everyday life are often lacking in depth. Discussing various “difficult questions” of Russian history, the author highlights controversial historical ideas and opinions, formulated in the post-Soviet countries during the last decades.

Preventive Detention and Habeas Corpus: An Institutional Failure of the Supreme Court

Based on a study of all reported habeas corpus judgments of the Supreme Court in the twenty-year period from 2000 to 2019, this article presents an empirical analysis of the delay in adjudication of habeas corpus petitions in preventive detention cases. Three indicators are used for the study: first, the total time spent between the date of detention order and the date of final disposal by the Supreme Court; second, the time spent at the Supreme Court level alone; and third, the time spent in actual detention till the matter was finally disposed of by the Supreme Court (including an analysis of the extent to which Supreme Court was responsible for the delay). A more sharpened analysis of only ‘successful’ habeas corpus petitions – i.e. the twenty cases where the Supreme Court was the relief-granting court – is also presented. It is suggested that habeas corpus is reduced to a meaningless remedy in many cases.

Time Series Modelling of The Volume of Overland Timber Export in The Bolgatanga Municipality

Aims/ Objectives: This research was carried out with the intention of using time series to model the volume of overland timber exported within Bolgatanga municipalityPlace and Duration of Study: Study of the time series was based on a historical data of the volume of timber exported for twenty consecutive years, from 1999 to 2019 within Bolgatanga municipality.Methodology: The three-stage iterative modeling approach for Box Jenkins was used to match an ARIMA model and to forecast both the amount of timber export and the confiscated lumber. ARIMA method incorporates a cycle of autoregressive and a moving average. The three-stage iterative modeling technique of Box Jenkins which were used are model recognition, parameter estimation and/or diagnostic checks were also made.&#x0D; Results: From the preliminary investigation, the study showed that the amount of timber exported in municipality is skewed to the right, suggesting that much of the amount of timber exported is below the average. This, together with the high volatility in the volume of timber exported, indicates that the amount of timber exported within the municipalities during the twenty-year period was low. The plots from the trends also showed robust variations in the volume of timber exported indicating that timber exporters do not have better grips with the concepts and applications of export technology, hence the erratic nature of the volume of timber exported over the period. The quadratic pattern and the ARIMA (1,1,1) model best represented the amount of timber exported.The analysis further indicated that there will be a further decrease in the amount of timber export from the five years projection into the future. Over the last two decades the Bayesian approach to VAR has gained ground. For a future report, this estimation method will be followed to examine the ”long-run equilibrium relationships” between timber export volumes and climate change.Conclusion: The quadratic pattern and the ARIMA (1,1,1) model best represented the amount of timber exported. There will be a further decrease in the amount of timber export from the five years projection into the future.

A Tropical Cyclone-Induced Ecological Regime Shift: Mangrove Forest Conversion to Mudflat in Everglades National Park (Florida, USA)

The ecological effects of tropical cyclones on mangrove forests are diverse and highly location- and cyclone-dependent. Ecological resistance, resilience, and enhancement are terms that describe most mangrove forest responses to tropical cyclones. However, in the most extreme cases, tropical cyclones can trigger abrupt and irreversible ecological transformations (i.e., ecological regime shifts). Here, we examine a cyclone-induced ecological regime shift that occurred in Everglades National Park (USA), where forest mortality and peat collapse due to a powerful tropical cyclone (the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane) led to the conversion of mangrove forests to mudflats and an estimated elevation loss of approximately 75 cm. We investigated soil elevation change measured in these mangrove forests and adjacent mudflats during a twenty-year period [1998–2018] using Surface Elevation Table-Marker Horizon (SET-MH) methods. This period encompasses the effects of Hurricanes Wilma (2005) and Irma (2017). We also used historical sea-level rise rates and future sea-level rise scenarios to estimate surface elevation changes in the past (1930–1998) and to illustrate elevation gains needed for these ecosystems to adapt to future change. Collectively, our findings advance understanding of the long-term effects of cyclone-induced ecological regime shifts due to forest mortality, peat collapse, and conversion of mangrove forests to mudflats.

TÜRKİYE'DE ÖZEL SEKTÖR KISA VADELİ DIŞ BORCUNUN CDS PRİMLERİ ÜZERİNDEKİ ETKİSİ NEDİR? ASİMETRİK UYARLAMA YAKLAŞIMI KULLANILARAK YAPILAN BİR ANALİZ

A country’s capacity to pay short-term external debt, which reflects the fiscal strenght of an economy against adverse shocks, is significantly taken into consideration by international investors in their decision making process. It has been seen that Turkey has experienced a gradually increasing private sector short-term external debt especially in the last twenty-year period. The objective of this study is to investigate the long-run relationship between private sector short-term external debt and CDS (credit default swap) premiums in Turkey for the period of 2000:Q4-2017:Q4 by using asymmetric threshold autoregressive (TAR) and momentum threshold autoregressive (M-TAR) procedures of Enders and Siklos (2001). The results indicate that CDS premiums and private sector short-term external debt in Turkey are cointegrated. After finding cointegration, the null hypothesis of symmetric adjustment is tested against the alternative of asymmetric adjustment and the evidence of symmetric adjustment is found, suggesting that the relationship between the private sector short-term external debt and CDS premiums has the same effect in expansion and contraction periods.

What about the South? A case study of soccer’s early development in Winchester

ABSTRACTThe historiography of soccer’s early years includes numerous references to the game’s development within the industrial heartlands of nineteenth-century Britain. But there are few studies of how soccer came to be established as a popular sport in rural and non-industrial parts of southern England. Using Winchester as a case study, this paper examines the factors which, during a twenty-year period from 1884, transformed soccer from an obscure diversion into a sport that vied with cricket as the area’s most popular recreation. The sources reveal that soccer initially gained acceptance at local schools during the 1880s before being taken up by middle-class cricketers eager to find a game to play during the winter. However, soccer failed to take hold of the public’s imagination until the late 1890s. Reasons for this failure are identified, as are some of the factors which led, from 1895, to a boom in the game’s popularity among the local working class.

Quality management theory development via meta-analysis

Quality management (QM) research has frequently focused on investigating the QM system, while a collective consideration of the effects of individual QM practices on organizational performance and performance dimensions remains an under-investigated area of research. The current research provides insights for expanding quality management theory using evidence from a meta-analysis that examines the correlations presented in prior empirical studies. Specifically, this study investigates whether QM practices influence aggregate organizational performance and how individual QM practices influence different performance dimensions. Furthermore, this study investigates whether moderators exist among the relationships between QM and performance. This meta-analysis examined a sample of 28 empirical studies spanning a twenty-year period from 1995 to 2015. The results show that most individual QM practices have a positive impact on aggregate organizational performance and performance dimensions including financial performance, operational performance, customer service, and product quality. The results also reveal that moderators exist among relationships between most pairs of QM practices and performance. In particular, the results suggest a high level of importance is associated with management leadership and supplier quality management compared to other QM practices, as evidenced by their positive relationships with both aggregate organizational performance and the four performance dimensions. In addition, no moderating effects changed the relationships. This research contributes to the QM literature by providing a systematic understanding that addresses more complexity than previous research about the relationships between QM practices and organizational performance. This research also contributes to quality management theory development given the current state of information technology (IT). These findings suggest implications for managers interested in the effect of QM practices on performance.

Views from the Inside: Czech Underground Literature and Culture (1948–1989). Texts by Ivan M. Jirous, Paul Wilson, Egon Bondy, and Jáchym Topol by Machovec Martin (review)

SEER, 98, 2, APRIL 2020 362 about ‘Faith’ and ‘Psychoanalysis’ and their relegation to the ‘purgatory’ of the ‘Further Reading’ section is surprising. It was, after all, Alexandrov who initiated the seminal ‘metaphysical’ trend in Nabokov scholarship, inspired by Véra Nabokov’s comments on the theme of potustoronnost´ in her husband’s work, whilst Green showed both remarkable audacity by going against the ‘ban on psychoanalytical reading’, and striking intellectual acumen when he demonstrated, through careful textual analysis, that Nabokov’s supposed rejection of Freud’s works was more pretence than reality. It is a pity, therefore, that these two did not find a place here that better reflected their formative position in Nabokov studies. Nevertheless, Vladimir Nabokov in Context is a very commendable effort, and a valuable resource on the circumstances that fashioned Nabokov and his art. It is well worth acquiring, although the price of the volume, a brutal £74.99, might deter a number of potential readers. Département des Études du Monde Anglophone René Alladaye Université de Toulouse Jean Jaurès Machovec, Martin (ed.). Views from the Inside: Czech Underground Literature and Culture (1948–1989). Texts by Ivan M. Jirous, Paul Wilson, Egon Bondy, and Jáchym Topol. Karolinum Press, Prague, 2018. 111 pp. Notes. Bibliography.Discography.Documentaryfilmography.Index.CZK260.00 (paperback). English-language readers interested in Czechoslovak culture of the period following the crushing of the 1968 Prague Spring by Warsaw Pact forces — which initiated a twenty-year period of stark political repression known as ‘Normalization’ — have had a skewed selection of primary sources from which to choose. The major essays and plays of Václav Havel, the most famous of the Czech dissidents internationally and later president of the Czech Republic, became available in excellent English translations long ago, as did major novels by certain authors (most living in exile) such as Milan Kundera, Josef Škvorecký and Ivan Klíma, who were critical of the socialist regime. That this particular group of writers came to embody Czechoslovak dissidence for the English-reading public is a quirk of publishing history, however, and has obscured the work of other authors, musicians and intellectuals that a Czechoslovak audience would be quick to recognize as major cultural actors of the period. English-language scholarship in recent years has been busy revising this distorted view of the culture of the Normalization period, but the range of primary texts available in English remains very limited. REVIEWS 363 The present volume presents five texts about this period by major figures from the time. The Normalization era of 1969 to 1989 is the main focus, with some attention to cultural background extending back to 1948, the year Czechoslovakia fell firmly into orbit as a good Soviet satellite state. With one major exception, all five texts constitute retrospective reflections on the period by people who were actively involved. In that sense they help fill out our historical image of the culture of the period but do not expand the corpus of primary texts. This is an important collection nonetheless, as it makes clear that the hitherto dominant picture of dissidence centred on Havel and the Charter 77 civil rights movement requires expansion to include figures from ‘the Underground’. These were primarily young rock musicians and the poets who provided many of their lyrics, who began their activities independently of the better-known group around Havel. The most important of these rock bands is The Plastic People of the Universe, whose beguiling name enjoys a certain recognition, but about whom international audiences know fairly little. The exceptional, and most significant, text in this volume is an essay by Ivan M. Jirous, who was the artistic director of the Plastic People — a role that belies his extraordinary importance for alternative culture of the Normalization period. Jirous’s ‘Report on the Third Czech Musical Revival’ appeared in 1975 and represents a manifesto of sorts, a first attempt to take stock of the aims and inspirations of the young people associating with the Underground, who were already braving often brutal encounters with the police for what might appear the quixotic purpose of listening to a particular type of music. Jirous presents a loose and selective history...

Effect of Contraventions of Building Regulations on the Quality of Built Environment in Nigeria’s Urban Centers: Case Study of Kano Metropolis

The orderly growth of Nigerian urban areas is strategically moderated by hierarchic development control instruments of the three tiers of government. The design and construction of buildings for a variety of purposes are carefully managed by urban and regional planners, architects, and engineers among others, usually aid in the enforcement of development regulatory apparatus. This paper appraises development control abuses apparent in some selected neighborhoods of Kano metropolis, as well as their effects on the quality of the built environment. A case study qualitative research approach was applied to evaluate land use breaches in the study area using secondary data accessed from a statutory development control agency, Kano state Urban Planning and Development Authority (KNUPDA) over a twenty-year period. The research outcome shows that majority of the planned developments contravened in one way or the other, which manifests in over development through encroachment on setbacks, structures exceeding allowable floor area and change of land use. This implies the incapacitation of such organs to decisively contain urban sprawl, which may not be unconnected with the high deficit of serviced plots to meet the demand of building activities. Building contraventions gradually compromise the level of excellence of the built environment, especially its aesthetics, which leads to dysfunctional human abode, where privacy, fire protection, and natural ventilation are specifically dislodged. Therefore, a re-examination of the physical development process, product, and participants becomes imperative.

Local Versus Full Width Pavement Rehabilitation in the Frame of Old Water Supply Network Repair

Since the global financial crisis of 2008, all construction related activities are now subject to cost control of each project. An important component of the optimal choice is the implementation cost. The evaluation of construction activities can be conducted by estimating their environmental as well as their cost footprint, which is also the demand and consumption measure for the societies' needs. Water and sewerage projects have a key role in the standard of living, Public Health and environment. Therefore, water supply network replacements are important to upgrade the quality and quantity of water, through cost-effective choices. The purpose of this study is to present and comment on the uniform cost footprint through the complete replacement of the old water supply network along with complete reconstruction of pavement compared to local repair activities. Usual practices in repair works of old networks and flexible pavement rehabilitations are presented, assessing the benefits of total reconstruction by carrying out life cycle cost analysis in terms of uniform cost per year. The project of replacing the water supply network in the municipality of Larissa, Greece for the period 2015-2019 is analyzed, linking water savings with simultaneous total pavement rehabilitation, calculating average cost per inhabitant and hydrometer, comparing cost and pavement surface area between total and localized rehabilitation activities for a twenty-year rollback period. The fruitful findings of this research study, indicate that full-width pavement rehabilitation along with new water supply network establishment is economically advantageous compared to local rehabilitation treatments, according to the time period considered. Thus, competent authorities can use the proposed methodology as a useful tool to conclude to the optimal choice for maintaining water supply networks in a cost-effective way.

On the road: Access to transportation infrastructure and economic growth in China

This paper estimates the effect of access to transportation networks on regional economic outcomes in China over a twenty-year period of rapid income growth. It addresses the problem of the endogenous placement of networks by exploiting the fact that these networks tend to connect historical cities. Our results show that proximity to transportation networks have a moderately sized positive causal effect on per capita GDP levels across sectors, but no effect on per capita GDP growth. We provide a simple theoretical framework with empirically testable predictions to interpret our results. We argue that our results are consistent with factor mobility playing an important role in determining the economic benefits of infrastructure development.