War and Subnational State Building: A Comparative Study of Governance in Two Chinese Prefectures During the Han Dynasty

• In Event: Historical Political Economy of China: Imperial Dynasties

Brief Overview

We leverage newly excavated and decoded local government documents from Han Dynasty China to compare the scope and effectiveness of local governments. Our finding suggests that war has a negative impact on the local state's infrastructural power.

Authors

• Huan Gao, Carleton College

• Erik H Wang, New York University

• Qiziwei Wu, New York University