nep-his New Economics Papers
on Business, Economic and Financial History
Issue of 2019‒10‒21
25 papers chosen by



  1. Louis Pasteur ou l’entreprise scientifique au temps du capitalisme industriel By Gabriel Galvez-Behar
  2. Art Dealers' Strategy The case of Goupil, Boussod & Valadon from 1860 to 1914 By David, Géraldine; Huemer, Christian; Oosterlinck, Kim
  3. Maximizing profits or pursuing the public good? The bank of Spain as a central bank By Martín-Aceña, Pablo; Martínez-Ruiz, Elena; Nogues-Marco, Pilar
  4. Justice without romance. The history of the economic analyses of judges behavior -1960-1993 By Alain Marciano; Alessandro Melcarne; Giovanni Ramello
  5. The financial cycle and the regulatory pendulum in the United Kingdom (1885-2016) By Germán Forero-Laverde; Jesús Mur; María Ángeles Pons
  6. Applied history, applied economics, and economic history By Colvin, Christopher L.; Winfree, Paul
  7. Patterns of innovation during the industrial revolution: a reappraisal using a composite indicator of patent quality By Nuvolari, Alessandro; Tartari, Valentina; Tranchero, Matteo
  8. The influence of health in early adulthood on male fertility By Kieron J. Barclay; Martin Kolk
  9. The unknown notification of XVI century French Diplomat about Ottoman-Persian relations and Georgia By Tea Tsitlanadze; Tea Karchava; Murman Papashvili; Andro Gogoladze
  10. Saving Rates in Latin America: A Neoclassical Perspective By Tamayo, Cesar E.; Fernandez, Andres; Imrohoroglu, Ayse
  11. Ganadería, uso del suelo y cambio institucional en Jerez de la Frontera, 1754-1865 By José Ignacio Jiménez Blanco
  12. Before the Invention of the “New World” Argentinean and Chilean Wines in Sweden before 1950 By Paulina Rytkönen
  13. Victorian Voting: The Origins of Party Orientation and Class Alignment By Dewan, Torun; Meriläinen, Jaakko; Tukiainen, Janne
  14. The Composition of New Zealand Exports 1989-2018 By Ralph G. Lattimore
  15. Extreme Weather and Long-term Health: Evidence from Two Millennia of Chinese Elites By Lee, Wang-Sheng; Li, Ben G.
  16. Divergent: The Time Path of Legacy and Athlete Admissions at Harvard By Arcidiacono, Peter; Kinsler, Josh; Ransom, Tyler
  17. Géopolitique de la Méditerranée : Un territoire de conflits économiques, politiques, religieux, environnementaux et humanitaires By Jacques Fontanel
  18. Ronald H. Coase (1910–2013) By Alain Marciano
  19. Creativity over Time and Space By Serafinelli, Michel; Tabellini, Guido
  20. A Cross-Cohort Analysis of Human Capital Specialization and the College Gender Wage Gap By Carolyn Sloane; Erik Hurst; Dan Black
  21. Note sur la conception de la science chez Cournot et Walras : critique et filiation au regard de la philosophie d’Etienne Vacherot By Ludovic Ragni
  22. Educational, Labor-market and Intergenerational Consequences of Poor Childhood Health By Krzysztof Karbownik; Anthony Wray
  23. The Origination and Distribution of Money Market Instruments: Sterling Bills of Exchange during the First Globalisation By Accominotti, Olivier; Lucena, Delio; Ugolini, Stefano
  24. Calabresi: Heterodox Economic Analysis of Law By Alain Marciano; Giovanni Battista Ramello
  25. El camino mexicano del lento crecimiento económico: una interpretación espuria de la metáfora del desarrollo como un rompecabezas de Albert O. Hirschman By Guillermo Rufino Matamoros-Romero

  1. By: Gabriel Galvez-Behar (IRHiS - Institut de Recherches Historiques du Septentrion (IRHiS) - UMR 8529 - Université de Lille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)
    Abstract: A critical political economy of science has recently developed to analyze the neoliberal turn and its impact on scientific disciplines. However, it tends to neglect the long-term economic history of science, which can shed a crucial light on recent developments. Through the study of Louis Pasteur's scientific business, this article shows how the question of the economic rewards of scientific work was posed from the rise of industrial capitalism in the nineteenth century. It analyzes the way in which Pasteur defended his scientific property, a means of claiming control over his discoveries. Studying the relationship between the development of industrial science and capitalism highlights the logic of action at the heart of Pasteur's scientific enterprise, which took shape during his early career in capitalist northern France. This logic was reinforced in the 1860s, when the distinction between science and industry was formalized at the legal level. It gave Pasteur a means of defending his scientific property and his rights, both economic and intellectual, over the results of his work. The final section of the article examines how Pasteur reinvested these profits, whether to create a commercial company or to create the Institute that bears his name. His entrepreneurial initiatives thus emerge as a process of accumulation that thrived on this creative ambivalence.
    Abstract: Une économie politique critique de la science s'est récemment développée pour analyser le tournant néo-libéral qui la caractérise. Ce courant tend pourtant à négliger la longue durée de l'histoire économique des sciences qui permet de comprendre les évolutions récentes. Cet article montre, à travers l'étude de l'entreprise scientifique de Louis Pasteur, comment la question du partage de la valeur du travail scientifique se pose dès l'essor du capitalisme industriel au xixe siècle. Il étudie la manière dont Pasteur défend sa propriété scientifique, manifestant une forme de revendication sur le contrôle de ses découvertes. L'étude du lien entre le développement de la science industrielle et le capitalisme permet d'abord de comprendre la logique d'action au cœur de l'entreprise scientifique pasteurienne qui s'affirme dès le début de sa carrière, aux prises avec le capitalisme nordiste. Cette logique se renforce ensuite dans les années 1860, alors que la distinction entre science et industrie est formalisée sur le plan juridique. Elle est un moyen, pour Pasteur, de faire valoir sa propriété scientifique et ses droits, autant économiques que scientifiques, sur les fruits de son travail. Est enfin examinée la façon dont ces derniers sont réinvestis, soit pour créer une société commerciale, soit pour fonder l'Institut éponyme. L'entreprise pasteurienne apparaît ainsi comme un processus d'accumulation qui se nourrit de cette ambivalence créatrice.
    Keywords: Economic History,History of science,Patents,Brevets,Pasteur (Louis),Histoire des sciences,Histoire économique
    Date: 2018–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01267638&r=all
  2. By: David, Géraldine; Huemer, Christian; Oosterlinck, Kim
    Abstract: Despite the existence of a large literature dedicated to the art market, the management of art galleries remains a black box as both buyers and sellers put a high value on discretion. This paper overcomes the traditional lack of quantitative data by analysing the complete books of one of the most successful French galleries at the end of the 19th century: Goupil, Boussod & Valadon. This original database covers the sale of more than 40,000 artworks that occurred between 1860 and 1914. Rapidity to sell artworks was a key element in Goupil's strategy. As a whole Goupil sold 71% of artworks bought. Out of the sold artworks, almost 80% were sold within a year (with 22% before the acquisition reflecting orders). Changes in ownership allow us to quantify changes in business strategy. The first owner required a lower mark-up for the artists in residence it was sponsoring and higher ones for nobles and art dealers. The second owner followed a similar strategy but also required a higher mark-up from former branches such as Knoedler.
    Keywords: Art Gallery; Art Investment; Art market; French Economic History
    JEL: N14 N44 Z11
    Date: 2019–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13941&r=all
  3. By: Martín-Aceña, Pablo; Martínez-Ruiz, Elena; Nogues-Marco, Pilar
    Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine whether the transition from a system of various issuing banks to a monopoly system was a step in the Bank of Spain becoming a central bank in the true sense of the word (a non-profit maximizing bank); or on the contrary, whether the Bank used its privilege as the only private issuing institution to obtain extra profits, and neglected its duties as a central bank. The study shows that thanks to the monopoly, the Spanish issuer obtained extraordinary profits (above the average for the sector). We also show that the Bank's "private interest" prevailed over the "public interest" (convertibility into gold) and that the monopoly was not a decisive step in its becoming a genuine central bank. The Bank of Spain was a very profitable financial institution for its shareholders, and little concerned with the public interest. History shows that the Bank of Spain's transformation into an institution responsible for monetary and financial policy did not occur until well into the twentieth century.
    Keywords: Bank of Spain, Central banks, Banking market structure, Issuing monopoly, Profit-maximizing issuing banks.
    JEL: D42 G21 L12 M2 N13 N23 N83
    Date: 2019
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gnv:wpaper:unige:124125&r=all
  4. By: Alain Marciano (MRE - Montpellier Recherche en Economie - UM - Université de Montpellier); Alessandro Melcarne (EconomiX - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Giovanni Ramello (Dipartimento di scienze giuridiche ed economiche, Universita degli studi del piemonte orientale - Universita degli studi del piemonte orienta)
    Abstract: Richard Posner's "What Do Judges and Justices Maximize?" (1993a) is not, as usually believed, the first analysis of judges' behaviors made by using the assumption that judges are rational and maximize a utility function. It arrived at the end of a rather long process. This paper recounts the history of this process, from the "birth" of law and economics in the 1960s to 1993. We show that economic analyses of judge behavior were introduced in the early 1970s under the pen of Posner. At that time, rationality was not modeled in terms of utility maximization. Utility maximization came later. We also show that rationality and incentives were introduced to explain the efficiency of Common Law. Around this theme, a controversy took place that led Posner, and other economists, to postpone their analysis of judicial behavior until the 1990s. By then, the situation had changed. New and conclusive evidence of judges' utility maximizing behavior demanded for a general theory to be expressed. In addition, the context was favorable to Chicago economists. It was time for Posner to publish his article.
    Keywords: Self-interest,Utility Maximization,Judges,Judicial decision making,Rationality
    Date: 2019–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02306821&r=all
  5. By: Germán Forero-Laverde (Universidad Externado de Colombia, Colombia); Jesús Mur (University of Zaragoza, Spain); María Ángeles Pons (University of Valencia, Spain)
    Abstract: The goal of this paper is twofold. First, we study whether there is evidence for a financial cycle, characterized by the joint movement of stock markets and credit aggregates in the United Kingdom from 1885 until 2016. Secondly, after controlling for an assortment of variables, we contrast if the causal relationship between stock markets and credit aggregates, is contingent on the level of financial repression or liberalisation. Regarding the first question, we find evidence of a time-varying relationship between stock markets and credit, and between both variables and the general economy throughout the period. Regarding the second question, our tests show a robust causal relationship between stocks and credit both in the short and long-run. Moreover, said relationship is contingent on whether the economy is experiencing a period of financial repression or latitude. Finally, we contribute evidence that changes in the regulation/deregulation dynamic in 1914 and 1971/79 coincide with structural breaks in our VAR model. Under deregulation, the long-run relationship between both variables was of bidirectional causality. Contrarily, during financial repression, the long-run nexus is broken. These results have implications for the understanding of UK historiography and the underlying mechanisms that drive financial instability.
    Keywords: Financial history, Deregulation, Financial cycle, United Kingdom, Financial stability
    JEL: N14 N24 G18 F33
    Date: 2019–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1911&r=all
  6. By: Colvin, Christopher L.; Winfree, Paul
    Abstract: As a new field of academic enquiry, applied history has a unique opportunity to learn lessons from other applied fields. In this essay, we set out how we think applied historians can learn from the mistakes of applied economists and economic policymakers in their use, and abuse, of economic theory and economic history. What we call the New Applied History has the potential to improve the way policymaking is conducted. But only if its practitioners understand the power, and limitations, of theory. We apply our ideas to the case of budgetary policymaking in the United States.
    Keywords: applied history,budgetary policy
    JEL: B15 B22 E12 E63 N12 N41
    Date: 2019
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:qucehw:201907&r=all
  7. By: Nuvolari, Alessandro; Tartari, Valentina; Tranchero, Matteo
    Abstract: We introduce a new bibliographic quality indicator for English patents granted in the period 1700-1850. The indicator is based on the visibility of each patent both in the contemporary legal and engineering literature and in modern authoritative works on the history of science and technology. The indicator permits to operationalize empirically the distinction between micro and macroinventions. Our fi ndings indicate that macroinventions did not exhibit any speci c time clustering, while at the same time they were characterized by a labor-saving bias. These results suggest that Mokyr's and Allen's views of macroinventions, rather than conflicting, should be regarded as complementary.
    Keywords: industrial revolution; macroinventions; microinventions; patents
    JEL: N74 O31
    Date: 2019–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13958&r=all
  8. By: Kieron J. Barclay (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Martin Kolk
    Abstract: Despite the large literature examining socioeconomic predictors of fertility and the influence of reproductive history on post-reproductive mortality, previous research has not offered a population-level perspective on how male health in early adulthood is related to subsequent fertility. Using Swedish population registers and military conscription data, we study how body mass index (BMI), physical fitness and height are associated with total fertility and parity transitions by 2012 amongst 405,427 Swedish men born 1965-1972, meaning we observe fertility up to age 40 or older. Applying linear regression as well as sibling fixed effects, we find that our anthropometric measures are strong predictors of later fertility, even after accounting for educational attainment and cumulative income up to age 40. Men with a 'normal' BMI and in the highest decile of physical fitness have the most children by the end of our follow-up period. Men who were already obese at ages 17-20 had a relative probability of childlessness almost twice as high as men who had a 'normal' BMI at ages 17-20, and men in the bottom decile of physical fitness had a relatively probability of childlessness almost 50% higher than men in the top decile of physical fitness. These patterns were at least as strong in our models applying the sibling fixed effects design. We find that the association between male height and fertility is curvilinear in models estimated without sibling fixed effects, but only men in the lowest decile of height have lower fertility in sibling comparison models. Further analyses show that the strong associations between our anthropometric measures and male fertility persist even amongst men who married. We discuss the implications of our findings for fertility in high-income countries in light of secular increases in the prevalence of overweight/obesity.
    Keywords: Sweden, anthropometry, body height, body weight, cohort fertility, fertility, health, population registers, siblings
    JEL: J1 Z0
    Date: 2019–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2019-020&r=all
  9. By: Tea Tsitlanadze (Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University); Tea Karchava (Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University); Murman Papashvili (Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University); Andro Gogoladze (Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University)
    Abstract: The issue (which is the little part of joint scientific work, regards French communiques unknown so far for Georgian Historiography. They belong to French diplomat Juie who visited Constantinople in XVI century. The letters comprise quite interesting information. Their scientific value is determined by the fact that they belong to the person, who got notifications from a direct informer. The importance of the given documents grows, because there are very scanty contemporaneous sources depicting a domestic as well as a foreign political situation of Georgia of the 16thcentury. It is not doubtful that the author of the letters was well acquainted with the political peripeteias of the Ottoman-Iranian War, which began in 1578. It had a great importance for the history of Georgia, because the Georgians actively participated in the war against Ottomans on the basis of the ?political Iranophilia?. Therefore, a factual material delivered by the diplomat is very interesting for the consideration of a political orientation of the Georgian principalities of the last quarter of the 16th century. It indirectly indicates that political Iranophilia of the Kingdom of Kartli resulted from a real assessment of the international situation created in western Transcaucasia and Near East. Military, political and diplomatic relations with Iran enabled the King of Kartli (Simon I) to base his plans on the usage of Iran and to involve this country as well as the Kingdom of Kartli in anti-Ottoman coalition of the European states. Therefore, Christian Georgia was a connecting bridge for Iran, which looked for an ally in Catholic west (Spain, France, Italy, Germany). This fact enabled Simon I to carry out the policy in relation to the Europeans.Three letters of French diplomat Juie reveal the Ottomans? preparation for a military expedition. These letters vividly depict how the Iranian government prevented the aggravation of the situation in the region. The position of the Georgian kings had a great significance in this respect. Therefore, these letters (together with the analogues Spanish and Italian sources) enable us to present a foreign policy of our country in the context of international relations and particularly, for the determination of the place occupied by Georgia in the Ottoman-Iranian diplomatic rivalry in western Europe.
    Keywords: Ottoman-Persian relations, Georgia, French notifications**The research was carried out with the financial support of Shota Rustaveli National Foundation of Georgia [FR17_86]
    Date: 2019–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:9810740&r=all
  10. By: Tamayo, Cesar E.; Fernandez, Andres; Imrohoroglu, Ayse
    Abstract: This paper examines the time path of saving rates between 1970 and 2010 in Chile, Colombia, and Mexico through the lens of the neoclassical growth model. The findings indicate that two factors, the growth rate of TFP and fiscal policy, are able to account for some of the major fluctuations in saving rates observed during this period. In particular, we nd that the model accounts for the low saving rates in Chile compared to Colombia until the late 1980s and the reversal in the saving rates thereafter. Also, a combination of high TFP growth and tax reforms that substantially reduced capital taxation seems to be responsible for the impressive increase in Chile's saving rate in mid 1980s.
    Keywords: Total factor productivity; Saving rate; Latin America
    JEL: E21 O47
    Date: 2019–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rie:riecdt:19&r=all
  11. By: José Ignacio Jiménez Blanco
    Abstract: This paper analyzes the evolution and changes in the cattle breeding of Jerez de la Frontera (Spain) between 1754 and 1865, a period of radical institutional transformations in Spain. It is based on the data compiled by both Ensenada´s Cadaster and the cattle breeding census of 1865, the only one available in Spain for this century. The most remarkable conclusions of this research are, first, the very important increase of animal husbandry, despite the decrease of natural grasses, especially due to Disentailment Act of 1855. Second, cattle’s breeding appears to have achieved a standard of increase like that of cereal and leguminous crop area. Finally, this process helped working animals at the expense of productive livestock, while helped a concentration of livestock property.
    Keywords: cattle breeding, agriculture, institutional change, Jerez de la Frontera
    JEL: N53 Q19 Q10 K30
    Date: 2019–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:seh:wpaper:1904&r=all
  12. By: Paulina Rytkönen
    Abstract: Before the new world became a concept related to the upswing of wines from Australia, Latin Amer- ica, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States, occasionally, wines from these countries could be sold in countries like Sweden. One such point in time was during WWII, when importing wines from Europe became impossible and a very short window of trade opened-up between Argentina, Chile and Sweden. This paper partially describes this story, based on the scarce sources found at the archive of the former Museum of Wines and Spirits in Stockholm. The purpose of the paper is to shed light on the amount of wine imports from Argentina and Chile during the trade window between Swe- den, Argentina and Chile caused by WWII. Some sources analyzed are sales statistics of the Swedish wholesale and import monopoly Aktiebolaget Vin & Spritcentralen, price lists of the regional alcohol monopoly in Stockholm (Stockholmssystemet) and by analyzing the labels of the wines found in the archive. Some of the questions to be answered are: How much wine from Argentina and Chile was sold during the studied period? Who were the exporters? Why was this trade window opened and closed?
    Keywords: Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Marketing
    Date: 2019
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aawewp:294129&r=all
  13. By: Dewan, Torun; Meriläinen, Jaakko; Tukiainen, Janne
    Abstract: Much of what we know about the alignment of voters with parties comes from mass surveys of the electorate in the postwar period or from aggregate electoral data. Using individual elector level panel data from 19th-century United Kingdom poll books, we reassess the development of a party-centred electorate. We show that (i) the electorate was party-centred by the time of the extension of the franchise in 1867; (ii) a decline in candidate-centred voting is largely attributable to changes in the behaviour of the working class; and (iii) the enfranchised working class aligned with the Liberal left. This early alignment of the working class with the left cannot entirely be explained by a decrease in vote buying. The evidence suggests instead that the alignment was based on the programmatic appeal of the Liberals. We argue that these facts can plausibly explain the subsequent development of the party system.
    Keywords: candidate-vs-party-oriented voting, party development, partisan alignment, Local public finance and provision of public services, C23, D72, N33,
    Date: 2019
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fer:wpaper:121&r=all
  14. By: Ralph G. Lattimore
    Abstract: It has been over 30 years since New Zealand initiated a trade liberalisation strategy as part of its radical economic reforms. Specifically, trade policies were changed in the early 1980’s and this liberalisation was brought to a halt around 2002. This paper uses revealed comparative advantage indices of 4-digit export categories to explore the changing composition of exports from 1989 to 2018.
    Keywords: trade liberalisation; New Zealand exports; revealed comparative advantage
    JEL: D22 E61 E65 F13 F14
    Date: 2019–09–30
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wai:econwp:19/10&r=all
  15. By: Lee, Wang-Sheng (Deakin University); Li, Ben G. (University of Massachusetts Lowell)
    Abstract: Modern technology empowers human beings to cope with various extreme weather events. Using Chinese historical data, we examine the impact of extreme weather on long-term human health in an environment where individuals have no access to modern technology. By combining life course data on 5,000 Chinese elites with historical weather data over the period 1-1840 AD, we find a significant and robust negative impact of droughts in childhood on the longevity of elites. Quantitatively, encountering three years of droughts in childhood reduces an elite's life span by about two years. A remarkably important channel of the childhood drought effect is the deterioration of economic conditions caused by droughts.
    Keywords: longevity, weather, early-life conditions, elites, history of China
    JEL: I15 N35
    Date: 2019–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12649&r=all
  16. By: Arcidiacono, Peter (Duke University); Kinsler, Josh (University of Georgia); Ransom, Tyler (University of Oklahoma)
    Abstract: Applications to elite US colleges have more than doubled over the past 20 years, with little change in the number of available seats. We examine how this increased competition has affected the admissions advantage that legacies and athletes (LA) receive. Using data on Harvard applications over 18 years, we show that non-legacy, non-athlete (NLNA) applications grew considerably and that LA applications remained at. Yet, the share of LA admits remained stable, implying substantial increases in admissions advantages for legacies and athletes. We develop a simple theoretical model of university admissions to frame our empirical analysis. Viewed through the lens of the model, stability in the share of LA admits implies that elite colleges treat the number of LA admits and overall admit quality as complements. Our empirical analysis reveals that, if the admissions advantages for LA applicants had been constant throughout this period, there would have been a large increase in the number of minority admits.
    Keywords: higher education, college admissions, legacy, admissions preference
    JEL: I23 I24 J15
    Date: 2019–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12634&r=all
  17. By: Jacques Fontanel (CESICE - Centre d'études sur la sécurité internationale et les coopérations européennes - UPMF - Université Pierre Mendès France - Grenoble 2 - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes)
    Abstract: After being the heart of the civilization of humanity, the Mediterranean sinks into wars, economic crises, illegal immigration. It has lost its economic bearings in the process of economic globalization that has been inviting since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The analysis of its political and religious heritage, the heterogeneity of the economic development of its residents, the extent of the militarization of this "hot" sea, the evolutionary strategies of the great powers, the appearance of new rarities and at the same time the discovery of new energy resources are as many questions about the stability of states face new risks likely to create interstate conflicts.
    Abstract: Après avoir été le cœur de la civilisation de l'humanité, la Méditerranée s'enfonce dans les guerres, les crises économiques, les migrations incontrôlées. Elle a perdu ses repères économiques dans le processus de la globalisation économique qui s'est invitée depuis l'effondrement de l'Union soviétique. L'analyse de son héritage politique et religieux, l'hétérogénéité du développement économique de ses riverains, l'étendue de la militarisation de cette mer « chaude », les stratégies évolutives des grandes puissances, l'apparition de nouvelles raretés et en même temps la découverte de nouvelles ressources énergétique sont autant d'interrogations sur la stabilité des Etats face à de nouveaux risques susceptibles de créer des conflits interétatiques.
    Keywords: humanitarian policy,war,religion,conflicts,oil,water scarcity,illegal immigration,European Union,Mediterranean,economic crisis,geopolitics,environment,géopolitique,environnement,crise économique,Méditerranée,politique humanitaire,guerre,conflits,pétrole,eau,immigration,Union européenne,Mots : Méditerranée
    Date: 2019–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02305889&r=all
  18. By: Alain Marciano (MRE - Montpellier Recherche en Economie - UM - Université de Montpellier)
    Abstract: The purpose of this chapter is to link Ronald Coase's methodological approach to what he 'learned' when he was at the London School of Economics (LSE) from Edwin Cannan and Arnold Plant. The main lesson Coase taught us and insisted upon was that economics should not be too 'abstract' and should not rely on a priori categories. He pleaded for more realism in economics, for a form of 'political economy': economists should use theory to generalise what facts tell us rather than trying to interpret facts by using a priori and abstract categories. This conception of economics is closer to the LSE of Cannan and Plant than to the Chicago of Stigler, Friedman, Becker, or Posner.
    Keywords: political economy,Cannan,Plant,realism,methodology,Coase,common sense,Chicago,LSE
    Date: 2019–07–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02306814&r=all
  19. By: Serafinelli, Michel (University of California, Berkeley); Tabellini, Guido (Bocconi University)
    Abstract: Creativity is often highly concentrated in time and space, and across different domains. What explains the formation and decay of clusters of creativity? In this paper we match data on thousands of notable individuals born in Europe between the XIth and the XIXth century with historical data on city institutions and population. Our main variable of interest is the number of famous creatives (scaled to local population) born in a city during a century, but we also look at famous immigrants (based on location of death). We first document several stylized facts: famous births and immigrants are spatially concentrated and clustered across disciplines, creative clusters are persistent but less than population, and spatial mobility has remained stable over the centuries. Next, we show that the emergence of city institutions protecting economic and political freedoms and promoting local autonomy facilitates the attraction and production of creative talent.
    Keywords: innovation, agglomeration, political institutions, immigration, gravity
    JEL: R10 O10 J61 J24
    Date: 2019–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12644&r=all
  20. By: Carolyn Sloane; Erik Hurst; Dan Black
    Abstract: This paper explores the importance of pre-market human capital specialization in explaining gender differences in labor market outcomes among the highly skilled. Using new data with detailed undergraduate major information for several cohorts of American college graduates, we establish many novel facts. First, we show evidence of a gender convergence in college major choice over the last 40 years. Second, we highlight that women today still choose college majors associated with lower potential wages than men. Third, we report gender differences in the mapping from major to occupation. Even conditional on major, women systematically choose lower potential wage and lower potential hours-worked occupations than men. Fourth, we document a modest gender convergence between the 1950 and 1990 birth cohorts in the mapping of major to occupation. Finally, we show that college major choice has strong predictive power in explaining gender wage gaps independent of occupation choice. Collectively, our results suggest the importance of further understanding gender differences in pre-labor market specialization including college major choice.
    Date: 2019–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2019-055&r=all
  21. By: Ludovic Ragni (Université Côte d'Azur, France; GREDEG CNRS)
    Abstract: L’article réévalue les emprunts de Léon Walras à la philosophie d’Etienne Vacherot et d’Antoine Augustin Cournot. Walras indique en effet n’avoir emprunté à Cournot que sa seule méthode mathématique et considère que l’ouvrage de Vacherot, La métaphysique de la science, est son livre de chevet philosophique. Or, Vacherot se réfère largement à Cournot dans ses Essais de philosophie critique, ouvrage que Walras semble ne pas avoir lu. Dans un premier temps, l’article met en évidence les points de désaccords méthodologiques entre Walras et Cournot à propos de l’économie. Dans un deuxième temps, il montre que Walras à beaucoup plus emprunté à la philosophie de Cournot que sa seule lecture de la Métaphysique de la science ne le laisse supposer parce qu’il n’aurait pas perçu que Vacherot emprunte lui-même à la philosophie de Cournot. L’article met en évidence qu’une part importante de l’épistémologie de Cournot se retrouve dans l’œuvre de Walras par l’intermédiaire de Vacherot.
    Keywords: Epistémologie économique, Méthode mathématique, Philosophie des sciences, Antoine Augustin Cournot, Etienne Vacherot, Léon Walras
    JEL: A10 A12 B40 B41
    Date: 2019–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2019-28&r=all
  22. By: Krzysztof Karbownik; Anthony Wray
    Abstract: We study whether childhood health capital affects school attendance, long-run occupational outcomes, and intergenerational mobility. We address this question in the context of London, England during the late-nineteenth century using the inpatient admission records of three large hospitals linked to population census records, from which we identify household characteristics and the patients’ siblings. Sibling fixed effects estimates indicate that boys with health deficiencies were 14.9 percent less likely to work in white collar occupations as adults and 13.9 percent more likely to experience downward occupational mobility relative to their fathers, in comparison to their brothers. This negative effect offsets 16.2 percent of the benefit of having a father in a high status occupation. We also explore medium-run mechanisms for both boys and girls, and find that poor childhood health reduced the likelihood of attending school by 2.5 and 4.1 percent, respectively.
    JEL: I14 J62 N33
    Date: 2019–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26368&r=all
  23. By: Accominotti, Olivier; Lucena, Delio; Ugolini, Stefano
    Abstract: This paper presents a detailed analysis of how liquid money market instruments â?? sterling bills of exchange â?? were produced during the first globalisation. We rely on a unique data set that reports systematic information on all 23,493 bills re-discounted by the Bank of England in the year 1906. Using descriptive statistics and network analysis, we reconstruct the complete network of linkages between agents involved in the origination and distribution of London bills. Our analysis reveals the truly global dimension of the London bill market before the First World War and underscores the crucial role played by London intermediaries (acceptors and discounters) in overcoming information asymmetries between borrowers and lenders on this market. The complex industrial organisation of the London money market ensured that risky private debts could be transformed into extremely liquid and safe monetary instruments traded throughout the global financial system.
    Keywords: bill of exchange; Industrial Organisation; information asymmetry; money market
    JEL: E42 G23 L14 N20
    Date: 2019–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14058&r=all
  24. By: Alain Marciano (MRE - Montpellier Recherche en Economie - UM - Université de Montpellier); Giovanni Battista Ramello (Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale-Amedeo Avogadro (ITALY))
    Abstract: Guido Calabresi is one of the founders of the law and economics movement. His approach, however, corresponds to a form of economic analysis of law that, we claim, is heterodox. We show why in this short notice.
    Date: 2018–08–13
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02306824&r=all
  25. By: Guillermo Rufino Matamoros-Romero
    Keywords: desarrollo económico; encadenamientos productivos; economía mexicana; Albert O. Hirschman; economic development; productive linkages; Mexican economy; Albert O. Hirschman.
    JEL: B5 L5 N1 O1
    Date: 2019–01–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000418:017545&r=all

General information on the NEP project can be found at https://nep.repec.org. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at <director@nep.repec.org>. Put “NEP” in the subject, otherwise your mail may be rejected.
NEP’s infrastructure is sponsored by the School of Economics and Finance of Massey University in New Zealand.