On the Origins and Development of Pakistan's Soccer-Ball Cluster
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On the origins.pdf
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Author(s) • • • • •
Chaudhry, Azam
Chaudry, Shamyla
Khandelwal, Amit K.
Raza, Tariq
Verhoogen, Eric
Atkin, David G
Date Issued
March 2016
Journal
The World Bank Economic Review
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Citation
Atkin, David et al. “On the Origins and Development of Pakistan’s Soccer-Ball Cluster.” The World Bank Economic Review 30 (March 2016): S34-S41 © 2016 The Author(s)
Version
Original manuscript
Abstract
Sialkot, Pakistan, is the world center of hand-stitched soccer-ball manufacturing. The existence of the cluster is puzzling and seems to argue against the “home market effect”, since there is little local demand for soccer balls. This paper traces the development of the cluster from its origins in the late 1800s and shows that it was rooted in an initial home market effect due to the presence of British colonists. Subsequent expansion was driven by agglomeration forces and effective industrial policy. The case study underlines the importance of longer-term historical dynamics and the role of industrial policy for understanding a country's contemporaneous pattern of specialization in the world economy.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1093/WBER/LHW015