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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2005‒04‒16
43 papers chosen by |
| By: | Bernardo BÁTIZ-LAZO (London South Bank University); Peter WARDLEY (University of the West of England) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the automation of the supply of financial services on the British High Street. Its aim is to provide an historical perspective to highlight the longevity of organisational change in the financial sector and to emphasise its remarkable continuity: UK clearing banks and building societies had very specific problems and adopted particular responses. It also indicates the close correspondence of organisational change with assessments by senior bank staff of both technological opportunities and the reception to change of bank customers. Office mechanisation (from the introduction of office equipment and “mechanical banking” in the inter-war years to its culmination with computer technology in the late 1950s and beyond) was introduced alongside the development of new capabilities. Technological change eventually offered others the potential to compete in bank markets. However, time and again, and despite a broadening of the range of financial institutions which provided competing services, technical change associated with long-standing experience resulted in a strengthened competitive position for already established participants. |
| Keywords: | banks, building societies, technological change, management accounting |
| JEL: | N |
| Date: | 2005–03–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:0503001&r=his |
| By: | Ray ANDERSON (Victoria University) |
| Abstract: | In 1950, the Australian Institute of Management introduced an Annual Report Award, which was designed to improve the form and presentation of annual reports. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact the award scheme had on annual report design and presentation and the financial practices of Australian companies. |
| Keywords: | Annual Reports; design; presentations; accounting practices |
| JEL: | N |
| Date: | 2005–03–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:0503002&r=his |
| By: | Didier BENSADON (Université de Nantes) |
| Abstract: | This survey aims to analyse the evolutions of the consolidation perimeter concept through reports and studies issued by public and private organizations implied in the financial report issue. A supplementary lighting is brought on the practice of the groups thanks to the analysis of Saint-Gobain consolidated accounts between 1965 and 1985. Résumé Cette recherche se propose d’analyser les évolutions de la notion de périmètre de consolidation au travers de rapports et études émanant d’organismes publics et privés impliqués dans l’information financière. Un éclairage supplémentaire est apporté sur la pratique des groupes grâce à l’analyse des comptes consolidés de Saint-Gobain entre 1965 et 1985. |
| Keywords: | Accounting history, consolidated accounts, consolidation perimeter, Saint-Gobain. |
| JEL: | N |
| Date: | 2005–03–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:0503003&r=his |
| By: | Bertrand BLANCHETON (Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV) |
| Abstract: | Pendant plus d’un an, entre 1924 et 1925, la Banque de France présente au public de faux bilans hebdomadaires. La Banque minimise le chiffre de la circulation monétaire afin de préserver la confiance des opérateurs notamment sur le marché des changes. Cette contribution lève le voile sur les techniques de manipulations utilisées et analyse les conséquences de la révélation en avril 1925 de ce « scandale » sur la crédibilité de la Banque de France. |
| JEL: | N |
| Date: | 2005–03–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:0503004&r=his |
| By: | Hubert BONIN (Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV) |
| Abstract: | L’histoire des banques en tant que « firmes » reste encore lacunaire pour les décennies antérieures aux travaux des spécialistes d’économie industrielle au sein des départements de gestion ou de sciences économiques, qui portent sur le dernier tiers du XXe siècle. Pourtant une « préhistoire » du management est pertinente pour évaluer comment les banquiers ont évolué d’un type de société plutôt informelle où les méthodes de traitement administratif et comptable avaient en fait plus ou moins léguées par les techniques constituées pendant les XVe- XVIIIe siècles à un type de société structurée en une véritable « organisation ». La notion de « rationalisation » devient alors un mot d’ordre et détermine un processus d’évolution vers un nouveau type d’économie tertiaire, beaucoup plus « formalisée » – en opposition à une économie « informelle » ou simplement encore « inorganisée » – parce que les banques se sont soudain inquiétées de ne plus pouvoir connaître la réalité de l’étendue chiffrée des risques qu’elles brassaient. Les exigences de contrôle des risques – l’une des spécificités du portefeuille de savoir-faire des banques – ont évidemment pesé en faveur d’une rapide acclimatation de méthodes « industrielles » pour mettre en place une réelle « organisation tertiaire ». C’est pourquoi l’introduction des machines comptables n’est qu’une pièce du vaste ensemble de réformes de rationalisation qui se cristallise dans les années 1920-1950 : standardisation, normalisation, suppression des doublons-papiers et des duplications ou chevauchements de services, durcissement des procédures de contrôle et mécanisation (de l’écriture, avec les machines à écrire ; ou des comptes) sont autant d’outils de cette mutation structurelle qui introduit les « technologies de l’information » dans le secteur bancaire. |
| JEL: | N |
| Date: | 2005–03–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:0503005&r=his |
| By: | Trevor BOYNS (Cardiff University) |
| Abstract: | Through a detailed examination, using business archives, of the impact of the First World War on cost calculation practices in British firms, this paper examines, and finds wanting, the claim of Loft (1986, 1990) that cost accounting came into the light in Britain during the First World War. |
| Keywords: | costing, Britain, First World War |
| JEL: | N |
| Date: | 2005–03–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:0503006&r=his |
| By: | Emmanuel CHARRIER (Université Paris IX Dauphine) |
| Abstract: | Le dispositif juridique français, fidèle au modèle de la décision publique, place l’expert dans une situation subalterne par rapport au Juge qui le choisit, lui fixe sa mission, lui impartit des délais et finalement le rémunère, et à qui il doit apporter un éclairage strictement limité à sa technique afin que la décision de justice soit prise en toute autorité par le Juge. Pourtant, l’expertise comptable judiciaire occupe une position particulière sur la scène judiciaire : la durée de ces missions donne à l’expert un accès privilégié aux justiciables ; la fréquence des discussions financières dans les procès les fait paraître accessibles, en dépit de la complexité des questions expertisées ; enfin, la comptabilité trouve ses racines dans l’économie, qui dispute au droit la légitimité à évaluer les dommages à réparer. C’est pourquoi l’étude se propose d’examiner, au travers des publications de compagnies d’experts, dans quelle mesure les experts comptables judiciaires se cantonnent au service technique du Juge ou, au contraire, se revendiquent comme pairs bien avisés au service de la Justice. |
| Keywords: | Droit, justice, expert judiciaire, expert comptable, comptabilité, technique, légitimité, autorité, compagnies d’experts, discours publics |
| JEL: | N |
| Date: | 2005–03–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:0503007&r=his |
| By: | Rahma CHEKKAR (Université Orleans) |
| Abstract: | Our study aims at understanding the introduction and the development of financial 'communication' in French companies. The case of Saint-Gobain (1867-2005) is used to explain why and how Saint-Gobain have taken the initiative in going more to meet investors, by having voluntary disclosed more than legal financial information. |
| Keywords: | Financial communication – France - Saint-Gobain – Voluntary disclosure – Law |
| JEL: | N |
| Date: | 2005–03–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:0503008&r=his |
| By: | Jean-Guy DEGOS (Université Montesquieu – Bordeaux IV) |
| Abstract: | It is difficult, even in 2005, to write the peaceful history of the French Institute of Chartered Accountants. Almost everywhere, it is written that it was founded in 1945. It would be more accurate to say that it was re-constituted in 1945. It was actually created in 1942 and its origins are still regarded with shame by some people. It is the dissension between the professionals, during the years 1925-1939 which gave birth to it in the Second World War. There would have been occasions to found it earlier (in 1867, or 1917, or even 1921). This paper does not aim to start again a painful polemic. It wants only to show how the Institute was organized and how it functioned during 3 years, 3 short but fundamental years, which left indelible traces that some sought at all costs to erase. |
| Keywords: | Corporatism, Education, Chartered Accountant, Formation, Professional Institute, Accounting Profession. |
| JEL: | N |
| Date: | 2005–03–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:0503009&r=his |
| By: | Maxime DELHOMME (Société d'avocats Delhomme Brégou et associés) |
| Abstract: | Les avocats plaidaient et les comptables comptaient, les seconds, plus près des marchands dont les premiers se tenaient à distance. La révolution industrielle du 19ème n’ayant été possible que par l’instauration d’instruments juridiques nouveaux sont apparus entre le notariat, ange gardien du patrimoine, et l’avocat plaidant, sur les conséquences des atteintes à ce patrimoine, des juristes qui, eux, organisaient les nouvelles conditions de la création et de la gestion de ce patrimoine, notamment sous forme sociale. L’essor consécutif d’une fiscalité complexe a fourni par la suite tant à ces juristes qu’aux comptables un rôle de plus en plus important qu’ils se partageaient. L’Etat, pour assurer sa quiétude quant à l’établissement de l’assiette fiscale, formalisera alors une profession comptable libérale connue aujourd’hui sous le titre d’expert-comptable. |
| JEL: | N |
| Date: | 2005–03–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:0503010&r=his |
| By: | Cheryll S. Mc WATTERS (University of Alberta); Yannick LEMARCHAND (Université de Nantes) |
| Abstract: | Malgré un titre très général qui explique certainement le peu de place qui lui a été fait jusque-là dans l'histoire de la comptabilité, le Guide du commerce de Gaignat de l'Aulnais (1771) est vraisemblablement l'un des tout premiers manuels spécialisés de comptabilité, mais d'une spécialisation qui lui confère une place très particulière. Au-delà de quelques paragraphes consacrés aux matières commerciales traditionnelles — marchandises à échanger en divers pays, pratique du change, effets de commerce, poids et mesures, etc. — et d'une présentation relativement classique de la tenue des livres en partie simple et parties doubles, l'ouvrage est essentiellement consacré au commerce maritime et, plus particulièrement, à l'un de ses aspects les plus dramatiques : la traite négrière. L’essor consécutif d’une fiscalité complexe a fourni par la suite tant à ces juristes qu’aux comptables un rôle de plus en plus important qu’ils se partageaient. L’Etat, pour assurer sa quiétude quant à l’établissement de l’assiette fiscale, formalisera alors une profession comptable libérale connue aujourd’hui sous le titre d’expert-comptable. |
| JEL: | N |
| Date: | 2005–03–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:0503011&r=his |
| By: | Yves LEVANT (ESC Lille); Marc NIKITIN (Université Orleans) |
| Abstract: | In the first half of the 20th century France, consultants offered their services to big firms, sometimes successfully. In a somewhat cloudy economic context, some of them, like Bedaux or Perrin, elaborated more ambitious social projects, in order to cope with the economic disorders. All those projects failed. L’Etat, pour assurer sa quiétude quant à l’établissement de l’assiette fiscale, formalisera alors une profession comptable libérale connue aujourd’hui sous le titre d’expert-comptable. |
| Keywords: | Consultants – Business History – France – 20th century- Bedaux – Perrin |
| JEL: | N |
| Date: | 2005–03–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:0503012&r=his |
| By: | Marc MALHERBE (Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV) |
| Abstract: | Comptabilité et droit n’ont pas toujours été deux sciences indépendantes. Sous l’Antiquité romaine, la comptabilité privée a largement contribué à la formation du droit romain, particulièrement entre le second siècle avant Jésus-Christ et le IIIe siècle de notre ère. Pendant cette période de cinq siècles, la comptabilité privée a tout d’abord constitué un moyen de preuve très utile en cas de litige, avant de devenir une véritable source du droit des contrats. Ce n’est qu’au Bas-Empire que son influence s’affaiblira, lorsque le droit deviendra complètement autonome. |
| Keywords: | Comptabilité privée. Droit romain. Codex accepti et expensi. Expensilatio. |
| JEL: | N |
| Date: | 2005–03–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:0503013&r=his |
| By: | Nicolas PRAQUIN (Université Marne la vallée) |
| Abstract: | En consacrant le principe de responsabilité limitée aux apports pour les actionnaires de sociétés anonymes, le législateur introduisait dans le code de commerce de 1807 une règle novatrice qui aura des répercussions majeures sur la façon de concevoir la comptabilité dans son rapport avec les créanciers ; elle se traduit par le principe de fixité du capital à partir de 1818. Initialement rudimentaire, le concept devient complexe à mesure que se transforment l’environnement socio-économique et les pratiques comptables. La discussion entre comptables et juristes s’avère féconde : la règle juridique s’inscrit progressivement comme principe comptable avant d’être abandonnée lors de la mise en œuvre des plans comptables français. |
| Keywords: | Fixité du capital – Capital social – Créanciers – Code de commerce – Principes comptables – Situation nette. |
| JEL: | N |
| Date: | 2005–03–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:0503014&r=his |
| By: | Christian PRAT dit HAURET (Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV) |
| Abstract: | The research topic is analysing financial statements of Suez Channel Company from the construction beginning to the end (1859-1869) |
| Keywords: | Financial Statements - Investment -Suez Channel - Ferdinand de Lesseps |
| JEL: | N |
| Date: | 2005–03–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:0503015&r=his |
| By: | Jeannette RUTTERFORD (Open University) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the roles of a merchant banker, Everard Hambro, and the chairmen of two companies, Thames Iron and Trollope, Colls & Co., in the restructuring of their companies at the beginning of the twentieth century. Their correspondence provides evidence that the choice of corporate capital structure had little to do with company needs or risk characteristics. Instead, Hambro, in concert with stockbrokers, concentrated on legal issues and on ensuring that the securities issued conformed in amount, type and price to market norms, including the avoidance of stock watering. The company chairmen concentrated on ensuring that they retained control and that the new issues were deemed a success. |
| Keywords: | Corporate finance, stock watering, underwriting, new issues |
| JEL: | N |
| Date: | 2005–03–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:0503016&r=his |
| By: | Armstrong JS (The Wharton School) |
| Abstract: | Tom Swift, who began his career with factor analysis (1967) , is pleased to announce that the “1973 Tom Swift Award for Data Abuse” has been won by LeRoy Stone and James Brosseau. They originally (Stone, et al., 1973) used 115 variables in a stepwise regression analysis to explain differences among 19 observations. They then claimed (Stone & Brosseau, 197 3) to have tested the predictive validity of this model. This was done by regressing the 14 variables from the model on data from 18 new subjects. This “cross-validation” yielded a final model with six variables and an R2 of 0.76. |
| Keywords: | Tom Swift, regression, statistics |
| JEL: | A |
| Date: | 2005–02–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpgt:0502030&r=his |
| By: | Paul A. David (Stanford University &) |
| Abstract: | Both the macroeconomic and the microeconomic evidence from U. S. economy’s experience over the past two centuries leads to a view of technological change (broadly conceived) as having not been “neutral” in its effects upon growth. The specific meaning of “non-neutrality” in this context is that technical and organizational innovation had effects upon the derived demands for factors of production, and these tended to alter the relative prices of the heterogeneous array of productive assets in the economy. By directly and indirectly impinging on relative real rates of remuneration established in the markets for particular types of human labor and skill, and for the services of specific tangible and intangible capital, “technological change” altered key conditions governing the absolute and relative growth rates of the various macroeconomic factors of production. On the other hand, because innovation exhibited strong cumulative features reflecting the influence of “localized learning,” past domestic factor market conditions exerted a persisting influence upon the globally non-neutral trajectory of American technological and organizational development. This essay thus explores two broad and related historical themes. Firstly, the non- neutrality of the impacts of innovations on the demand side of the markets for productive inputs implies that “innovation” should be understood as contributing to complex interactions among all the proximate “sources of growth.” Even though the latter are usually presented by exercises in “growth accounting” as distinct and separate dynamic elements contributing to the rise of labor productivity and per capita real output, the identification of the total factor productivity “residual” as the “contribution” of technological change is mistaken in ignoring the quantitatively important effect of successive capital- deepening “traverses” to the growth of labor productivity. The second theme underscores a fundamental contrast between the twentieth and the nineteenth century growth processes, in regard to the impacts of the predominant “bias” of the direction of innovation: the relative shift away from the accumulation of stocks of tangible reproducible capital and towards the formation of intangible productive assets by in investments in education, training and the search for new scientific and technological knowledge. |
| JEL: | E |
| Date: | 2005–02–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpma:0502019&r=his |
| By: | William N. Goetzmann (Yale School of Management - International Center for Finance); Roger Ibbotson (Yale School of Management) |
| Abstract: | We summarize some of our own past findings and place them in the context of the historical development of the idea of the equity risk premium and its empirical measurement by financial economists. In particular, we focus on how the theory of compensation for investment risk developed in the 20th century in tandem with the empirical analysis of historical investment performance. Finally, we update our study of the historical performance of the New York Stock Exchange over the period 1792 to the present, and include a measure of the U.S. equity risk premium over more than two centuries. This last section is based upon indices constructed from individual stock and dividend data collected over a decade of research at the Yale School of Management, and contributions by other scholars. |
| Keywords: | financial history, equity premium |
| JEL: | N2 G11 |
| Date: | 2005–04–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ysm:somwrk:ysm448&r=his |
| By: | WILLIAM N. GOETZMANN (Yale School of Management - International Center for Finance); ELISABETH KÖLL (Case Western Reserve University - Department of History) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the emergence of corporate ownership in China from the final decades of the Qing empire in the late 19th century to the early Republican period in the 1910s and 1920s. By analyzing the actual process of incorporation, the development of the legal and financial environment, in particular the role of the state, we ask whether the top-down approach, in which the central government established a legal framework for corporate enterprise based on Western models and the assumption that it would work as it did for Western firms and markets, was a viable approach to the modernization of a financial system traditionally dominated by family businesses and economic state patronage. Using business records from turn-of-the-century Chinese corporate companies, this paper argues that the government\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s top-down approach, while clearly well-intentioned, created a framework which only insufficiently promoted the system of corporate capitalism in pre-war China. |
| JEL: | G15 N25 |
| Date: | 2005–04–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ysm:somwrk:ysm450&r=his |
| By: | Mauricio Avella Gómez |
| Abstract: | En este ensayo se discute la primera ronda del proceso de renegociación de la deuda externa colombiana adelantado durante los treinta y cuarenta. La materia de renegociación estuvo constituida por los contratos de deuda firmados con inversionistas británicos desde principios de la centuria, y con inversionistas estadounidenses en la segunda mitad de los veinte. En este ensayo se discute la primera ronda del proceso de renegociación de la deuda externa colombiana adelantado durante los treinta y cuarenta. La materia de renegociación estuvo constituida por los contratos de deuda firmados con inversionistas británicos desde principios de la centuria, y con inversionistas estadounidenses en la segunda mitad de los veinte.En este ensayo se discute la primera ronda del proceso de renegociación de la deuda externa colombiana adelantado durante los treinta y cuarenta. La materia de renegociación estuvo constituida por los contratos de deuda firmados con inversionistas británicos desde principios de la centuria, y con inversionistas estadounidenses en la segunda mitad de los veinte. En este ensayo se discute la primera ronda del proceso de renegociación de la deuda externa colombiana adelantado durante los treinta y cuarenta. La materia de renegociación estuvo constituida por los contratos de deuda firmados con inversionistas británicos desde principios de la centuria, y con inversionistas estadounidenses en la segunda mitad de los veinte.En este ensayo se discute la primera ronda del proceso de renegociación de la deuda externa colombiana adelantado durante los treinta y cuarenta. La materia de renegociación estuvo constituida por los contratos de deuda firmados con inversionistas británicos desde principios de la centuria, y con inversionistas estadounidenses en la segunda mitad de los veinte. En este ensayo se discute la primera ronda del proceso de renegociación de la deuda externa colombiana adelantado durante los treinta y cuarenta. La materia de renegociación estuvo constituida por los contratos de deuda firmados con inversionistas británicos desde principios de la centuria, y con inversionistas estadounidenses en la segunda mitad de los veinte.En este ensayo se discute la primera ronda del proceso de renegociación de la deuda externa colombiana adelantado durante los treinta y cuarenta. La materia de renegociación estuvo constituida por los contratos de deuda firmados con inversionistas británicos desde principios de la centuria, y con inversionistas estadounidenses en la segunda mitad de los veinte. En este ensayo se discute la primera ronda del proceso de renegociación de la deuda externa colombiana adelantado durante los treinta y cuarenta. La materia de renegociación estuvo constituida por los contratos de deuda firmados con inversionistas británicos desde principios de la centuria, y con inversionistas estadounidenses en la segunda mitad de los veinte. |
| Date: | 2004–02–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000070:000239&r=his |
| By: | HÉCTOR OCHOA; JUAN CARLOS GOMEZ LAGUADO; JOSÉ ORLANDO INFANTE DÍAZ |
| Abstract: | El negocio de las remesas es tan importante para Colombia ue para el año 2004 es la segunda fuente de divisas, después del petróleo. Debido a esta situación, los principales grupos financieros colombianos han decidido entrar al negocio. Este caso contempla el análisis económico, social y de mercado del negocio de las remesas en Colombia y deja planteada su evolución. El negocio de las remesas es tan importante para Colombia ue para el año 2004 es la segunda fuente de divisas, después del petróleo. Debido a esta situación, los principales grupos financieros colombianos han decidido entrar al negocio. Este caso contempla el análisis económico, social y de mercado del negocio de las remesas en Colombia y deja planteada su evolución.El negocio de las remesas es tan importante para Colombia ue para el año 2004 es la segunda fuente de divisas, después del petróleo. Debido a esta situación, los principales grupos financieros colombianos han decidido entrar al negocio. Este caso contempla el análisis económico, social y de mercado del negocio de las remesas en Colombia y deja planteada su evolución. El negocio de las remesas es tan importante para Colombia ue para el año 2004 es la segunda fuente de divisas, después del petróleo. Debido a esta situación, los principales grupos financieros colombianos han decidido entrar al negocio. Este caso contempla el análisis económico, social y de mercado del negocio de las remesas en Colombia y deja planteada su evolución.El negocio de las remesas es tan importante para Colombia ue para el año 2004 es la segunda fuente de divisas, después del petróleo. Debido a esta situación, los principales grupos financieros colombianos han decidido entrar al negocio. Este caso contempla el análisis económico, social y de mercado del negocio de las remesas en Colombia y deja planteada su evolución. El negocio de las remesas es tan importante para Colombia ue para el año 2004 es la segunda fuente de divisas, después del petróleo. Debido a esta situación, los principales grupos financieros colombianos han decidido entrar al negocio. Este caso contempla el análisis económico, social y de mercado del negocio de las remesas en Colombia y deja planteada su evolución.El negocio de las remesas es tan importante para Colombia ue para el año 2004 es la segunda fuente de divisas, después del petróleo. Debido a esta situación, los principales grupos financieros colombianos han decidido entrar al negocio. Este caso contempla el análisis económico, social y de mercado del negocio de las remesas en Colombia y deja planteada su evolución. El negocio de las remesas es tan importante para Colombia ue para el año 2004 es la segunda fuente de divisas, después del petróleo. Debido a esta situación, los principales grupos financieros colombianos han decidido entrar al negocio. Este caso contempla el análisis económico, social y de mercado del negocio de las remesas en Colombia y deja planteada su evolución. |
| Keywords: | Remesas |
| Date: | 2004–04–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000117:000794&r=his |
| By: | Nicolai J. Foss |
| Keywords: | firm growth; capabilities; firm strategy |
| JEL: | L21 L22 M2 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ivs:iivswp:98-1&r=his |
| By: | Komlos, John; Cinnirella, Francesco |
| Abstract: | We estimate the height of various European populations in the first half of the 18th century. English and Irish male heights are estimated at c. 65 inches (165 cm), and c. 66 inches (168 cm) respectively. These values are below those obtained from the only other sample available for the period pertaining to British and Irish men, namely those of runaway indentured and convict servants in colonial North America, whose height is estimated as between 66.4 and 67.0 inches (168,7 and 170,2 cm). At c. 64.5 inches (164 cm) Saxon, German and Scotch military heights appear to be near the bottom of the European height distribution in this period. The English were about as tall as Bohemians and French, but shorter than the Irish and Hungarians. A large decline in English heights is evident among the birth cohorts of 1725-29, suggesting that the subsistence crisis of this period must have had a substantial lasting impact on the nutritional status of the cohort born during a time of nutritional deprivation. |
| JEL: | N93 N53 N33 |
| Date: | 2005–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:muenec:572&r=his |
| By: | Komlos, John |
| Abstract: | The physical stature of lower- and upper-class English youth are compared to one another and to their European and North American counterparts. The height gap between the rich and poor was the greatest in England, reaching 22 cm at age 16. The poverty-stricken English children were shorter for their age than any other European or North American group so far discovered, while the English rich were the tallest in their time: only 2.5 cm shorter than today?s US standards. Height of the poor declined in the late-18th century, and again in the 1830s and 1840s conforming to the general European pattern, while the height of the wealthy tended rather to increase until the 1840s and then levelled off. |
| JEL: | N93 N53 N33 |
| Date: | 2005–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:muenec:573&r=his |
| By: | Shafiah Fifi Muhibat (Department of International Relations, Centre for Strategic and International Studies) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to analyse the decision making in ASEAN in its policy to declare Southeast Asia as a zone of peace, freedom and neutrality in 1971. Two significant and interrelated factors served as the basis for the ASEAN member states in their decision to establish the ZOPFAN proposal: first, the international and regional security condition during that period; and second, the differing national interests of each ASEAN state members which resulted in a compromise. The new power pattern in the region forced the ASEAN state members to come up with a scenario that could best protect regional security. Each state realised that its security might be in danger if the regional security situation did not improve. At this point, the ASEAN states decided to collaborate to guard themselves against the worst possible consequences. The fact that ASEAN decided to come up with such an optimistic policy is particularly interesting to observe, because it gives an insight of how the Third World states placed and saw themselves within the Cold War theatre. |
| Keywords: | Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality (ZOPFAN), regional security, cold war |
| Date: | 2004–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eab:govern:67&r=his |
| By: | Paul A. David (All Souls College & Stanford University); Gavin Wright (All Souls College & Stanford University) |
| Abstract: | Presented to the International Symposium on ECONOMIC CHALLENGES OF THE 21ST CENTURY IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE, Oxford, England, 2nd-4th July, 1999 Celebrating the Scholarly Career of Charles H. Feinstein, FBA. Re- examination of early twentieth century American productivity growth experience sheds light on the general phenomenon of recurring prolonged swings in total factor productivity (TFP) growth rate experienced in the advanced industrial economies. After a “productivity slowdown” lasting more than a quarter of a century (during which TFP for in the manufacturing sector grew at less than 1 percent per annum, industrial TFP surged to average 6 percent per annum during 1919-29. This contributed substantially to the absolute and relative rise of the US domestic economy’s TFP residual, and in many respects it may be seen as the opening of the high-growth era that persisted into the 1970s. The productivity surge marked the culminating phase in the diffusion of “the dynamo” as a general purpose technology (GPT); that saw a shift in the underlying technological regime brought about by the implementation of critical engineering and organizational advances originating in some two decades earlier. Closer analysis reveals the significant concurrence of the factory electrification movement in this period with important structural changes that were taking place in US labor markets; in addition, there were significant complementarities between managerial and organizational innovations and the new dynamo-based factory technology, on the one hand, and, and the reinforcement of both kinds of innovation by the macroeconomic conditions of the 1920s. This more complicated, historical view of the dynamics of GPT diffusion is supported by comparisons of the US experience of factory electrification with the developments taking place in Japanese industry during the 1920’s, and in the UK manufacturing sector during the 1930’s. Concluding sections of the paper reflect on the analogies and contrasts between the historical case of a socio-economic regime transition involving the electric dynamo and the modern experience of the information and communications technology (ICT) revolution. Our formulation the GPT concept in explicitly historical terms contributes to explaining the paradoxical phenomenon of the late twentieth century productivity slowdown in the US. It also points to some contemporary portents of a future phase of more rapid ICT-based growth in total factor productivity. |
| JEL: | N |
| Date: | 2005–02–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:0502002&r=his |
| By: | Paul A.David (All Souls College, Oxford & Stanford University) |
| Abstract: | The concept of path dependence refers to a property of contingent, non- reversible dynamical processes, including a wide array of biological and social processes that can properly be described as 'evolutionary.' To dispell existing confusions in the literature, and clarify the meaning and significance of path dependence for economists, the paper formulates definitions that relate the phenomenon to the property of non-ergodicity in stochastic processes; it examines the nature of the relationship between between path dependence and 'market failure,' and discusses the meaning of 'lock-in.' Unlike tests for the presence of non-ergodicity, assessments of the economic significance of path dependence are shown to involve difficult issues of counterfactual specification, and the welfare evaluation of alternative dynamic paths rather than terminal states. The policy implications of the existence of path dependence are shown to be more subtle and, as a rule, quite different from those which have been presumed by critics of the concept. A concluding section applies the notion of 'lock-in' reflexively to the evolution of economic analysis, suggesting that resistence to historical economics is a manifestation of 'sunk cost hysteresis' in the sphere of human cognitive development. |
| Keywords: | path dependence, non-ergodicity, irreversibility, lock-in, counterfactual analysis |
| JEL: | N |
| Date: | 2005–02–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:0502003&r=his |
| By: | Paul A. David (All Souls College, Oxford) |
| JEL: | N |
| Date: | 2005–02–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:0502004&r=his |
| By: | Christian Bayer (Universität Dortmund); Carsten Burhop (Universität Münster) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the relation of firm performance and managerial turnover in 19th century German banking by probit estimation. This period covers a major reform of corporate governance. Before the reform performance and turnover are unrelated, wheras after the reform more succesfull managers leave firms more seldom. However, only short run performance matters. |
| Keywords: | Management turnover, Performance, Banking, late 19th century Germany |
| JEL: | G30 J33 N23 |
| Date: | 2005–02–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:0502006&r=his |
| By: | Cornelis A. Los (Kent State University) |
| Abstract: | In 1928 Cobb and Douglas (C&D) presented a system analysis which established the first empirically identified production model, which forms the foundation for Solow's growth theory and research into productivity growth factors, such as 'technological progress ' and 'human capital development '. C&D claimed that their production model ('function') showed neutral economies of scale, i.e., constant returns to scale, with a labor production elasticity of 3/4 and a capital production elasticity of 1/4. A simple CLS analysis shows that C&D's data were incorrectly identified by an (n,q)=(3,1) linear model. C&Ds claim that their neutral 'constant returns of scale ' was the inevitable scientific conclusion of their analysis was also incorrect, since that conclusion is strictly determined by their subjectively chosen projection direction. In fact, the data shows that with their model and identification technology constant, increasing and diminishing returns to scale are all three compatible with the uncertain data. Their (n,q) = (3,1) model was never identified with an acceptable level of scientific accuracy, with a maximum coefficient value variation of 212%). In contrast, a simple two-equation (n,q) = (3,2) system model can be accurately identified from C&Ds data set, with an acceptable level of accuracy, with a maximum coefficient value variation of 7.4%). |
| Keywords: | System identification, growth theory, production elasticities, projections, Complete Least Squares, noisy data |
| JEL: | C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C8 |
| Date: | 2005–02–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpem:0502013&r=his |
| By: | Eric Hillebrand (Louisiana State University, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | After the stock market crash of 1987, Fischer Black proposed a model in which he explained the crash by inconsistencies in the formation of expectations of mean reversion in stock returns. Following this explanation, a model that allows for mean reversion in stock returns is estimated on daily stock index data around the crash of 1987. The results strongly support Black’s hypothesis. Simulations show that on Friday Oct 16, 1987, a crash of 20 percent or more had a probability of more than seven percent. |
| Keywords: | stock-market crash, mean reversion, stock return predictability, change-points |
| JEL: | G10 C22 |
| Date: | 2005–01–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpfi:0501015&r=his |
| By: | Kirby Adam J.R. Faciane (Kirby Faciane / KAJR Faciane) |
| Abstract: | Over the past two decades, many economists believe that financial changes have greatly benefited society. Others argue that welfare gains have been a mixed blessing; a minority would probably go so far as to say that costs have outweighed their benefits. There is naturally no satisfactory resolution to this debate, considering the complexity of the issues as well as the judgmental nature of benefit and cost calculations. A look at the presumed positive effects and difficulties might be helpful in providing a perspective on the debate. |
| Keywords: | financial evolution, assessment |
| JEL: | G G0 G00 |
| Date: | 2005–03–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpfi:0503022&r=his |
| By: | J. S. Armstrong (The Wharton School) |
| Abstract: | The Great Depression of 1990 was on the New York Times best-seller list for non-fiction in the summer of 1987. It follows a standard formula for best sellers in forecasting: Forecast a great disaster, and include a formula for redemption. If the disaster occurs, you can say, <93>I told you so.<94> If it doesn't occur, you say, <93>It is good that they listened to my advice. I saved them.<94> How can you lose? When I first saw this book, it occurred to me that it was a hoax. Here is a man claiming to be a highly respected economist who makes a forecast and provides a date. The forecast is that the great depression will occur in 1990. A variety of paths to redemption are provided, the most important being that rich people should have to give up much of their riches, for it is the concentration of wealth that causes business cycles. This is a fact that Batra claims to have discovered. Batra suggests that society should tax this wealth. On the other hand, he also provides advice to rich people on how to preserve their wealth <96> put it in cash, then store it in a safe deposit box and at home. Businessmen should avoid long-term investments. |
| Keywords: | Ravi Batra |
| JEL: | A |
| Date: | 2005–02–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpgt:0502021&r=his |
| By: | Elena Huergo (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) |
| Abstract: | El propósito de este trabajo es revisar las principales aplicaciones sobre el diagnóstico de poder de mercado que hacen referencia concreta a la industria española de manufacturas. En el marco del paradigma clásico las aplicaciones han consistido básicamente en estimaciones de ecuaciones de rentabilidad. La evidencia obtenida a partir de estas estimaciones tiende a señalar un efecto positivo de la concentración sobre los resultados empresariales, si bien su magnitud y significatividad varía en función del resto de variables explicativas. En la línea de la Nueva Organización Industrial Empírica, el conjunto de estudios empíricos sobre poder de mercado en la industria española es muy reducido, consecuencia en parte del retraso en el cambio de orientación del trabajo aplicado en España. Dentro de este pequeño grupo se observa una gran heterogeneidad que está en consonancia con la observada en la literatura empírica internacional, respecto a la que las aplicaciones españolas han reducido notablemente la distancia que manifestaban en décadas anteriores. |
| Keywords: | Market Structure, Market power, empirical evidence |
| JEL: | L |
| Date: | 2005–04–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpio:0504003&r=his |
| By: | stanley c. w. salvary (Canisius College) |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses a theme in an historical setting that financial accounting measurement contributes to: (1) retardation of national economic growth by the failure of financial accounting to provide for the replacement of capital goods in its measurement process; and (2) the business cycle owing to the illusory profits reported in financial statements. The author explores the issues and concludes that the arguments against accounting are based upon misunderstandings. |
| Keywords: | retardation of economic growth; national or social accounting; replacement cost accounting; Harrod's 'instability principle'; maintenance of physical capacity; illusory profits. |
| JEL: | E |
| Date: | 2005–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpma:0502006&r=his |
| By: | stanley c. w. salvary (Canisius College) |
| Abstract: | In the literature, nominal money has been decried as a reliable measure. However, before condemning money as a defective measure, it is necessary to examine in a historical context the nature and the role of money in a money economic system, and the changes over time in the types of money (commodity money versus paper money). Using historical evidence and logical analysis, this paper attempts to establish the validity of nominal money as a valid device for the measurement of organizational perfor mance. This paper reveals that: (1) the deficiencies of commodity money (and the historical arguments associated with it) are attributed to paper (fiat) money; (2) in a historical setting, there are very restrictive conditions under which paper money would be a defective measuring device; and (3) under general economic conditions, paper money is a reliable measure. |
| Keywords: | organizing economic activities; commodity money; representative paper money; transaction cost reduction; extrinsic and intrinsic values; uncertain nominal value; non specified purchasing power; individual preferenc;stored entitlements. |
| JEL: | E |
| Date: | 2005–02–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpma:0502018&r=his |
| By: | Paul A. David (All Souls College & Stanford University); Gavin Wright (Stanford University) |
| Abstract: | A marked acceleration of total factor productivity (TFP) growth in U.S. manufacturing followed World War I. This development contributed substantially to the absolute and relative rise of the domestic economy's aggregate TFP residual, which is observed when the 'growth accounts' for the first quarter of the twentieth century are compared with those for the second half of the nineteenth century. Two visions of the dynamics of productivity growth are germane to an understanding of these developments. One emphasizes the role of forces affecting broad sections of the economy, through spillovers of knowledge and the diffusion of general purpose technologies (GPT's). The second view considers that possible sources of productivity increase are multiple and idiosyncratic. Setting aside possible measurement errors, the latter approach regards sectoral and economy-wide surges of the TFP growth to be simply the result of which carried more weight than others. Although there is room for both views in an analysis of the sources of the industrial TFP acceleration during the 1920's, we find the evidence more compelling in support of the first approach. The proximate source of the TFP surge lay in the switch from declining or stable capital productivity to a rising output-capital ratio, which occurred at this time in many branches of manufacturing, and which was not accompanied by slowed growth in labor productivity. The 1920's saw critical advances in the electrification industry, the diffusion of a GTP that brought significant fixed capital-savings. But the same era also witnessed profound transformations in the American industrial labor market, followed the stoppage of mass immigration from Europe; rising real wages provided strong impetus to changes in workforce recruitment and management practices that were underway in some branches of the economy before the War. The productivity surge reflected the confluence of these two forces. This historical study has direct relevance for policies intended to increase the rate of productivity growth. In many respects, the decade of the 1920's launched the US economy on a high-growth path that lasted until the 1970's. If we hope to return to the growth performance of that era, we would be well advised to understand how it began. |
| JEL: | E |
| Date: | 2005–02–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpma:0502023&r=his |
| By: | stanley c. w. salvary |
| Abstract: | It is recognized that the usefulness of accounting infor mation is contingent upon its (1) neutrality, (2) relevancy, and (3) reliability. Given that all socio-economic systems are comprised of participants and institutions, it would seem that the attainment of those three qualities is conditioned by a proper determination of the institutional arrangement. The relationship of the members of society to existing institutions emerges as the pivotal consideration. Institutions are the creations of society, therefore, it seems fair to state that they reflect the evolutionary process. The institutional arrangement has evolved over time, and an understanding of the evolution is fundamental to achieving neutrality, relevancy, and reliability of accounting information. The roles of the many and varied institutions as intended upon their creation by society can provide the basis for establishing disclosure requirements. Such requirements entail a proper balancing of many factors as constrained by costs versus benefits in the information disseminating process. In this regard, historical research can provide a tremendous insight into institutions and institutional roles as they have evolved. Such insight can facili tate the complex balancing problem of financial reporting. |
| Keywords: | The information disseminating process; institutional arrangements and their historical evolution; external financial reporting; adaptability, tractability, mobility, and shiftability; mercantilist philosophy; feudalism; manorial system; individual capitalism; joint stock company; industrialization; institutional innovation; monetary economy; |
| JEL: | D1 D2 D3 D4 |
| Date: | 2005–03–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpmi:0503011&r=his |
| By: | WILLIAM N. GOETZMANN (Yale School of Management - International Center for Finance; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)); Andrey Ukhov (Indiana University Bloomington - Department of Finance) |
| Abstract: | Many scholars have asked whether British investors benefited from overseas investment investing in the 19th century and whether this export of capital had negative effects. We re-visit the issue using modern portfolio theory. We examine the set of investment opportunities available to British investors, the developments in information transmission technology, and advances in financial and investment theory at the time. We use meanvariance optimization techniques to take into account the risk and return characteristics of domestic and international investments available to a British investor, and to quantify the benefits from international diversification. Evidence suggests that capital export was a consequence of both the opportunity and the understanding of diversification. Foreign assets offered higher rates of return, but equally important, they offered significant diversification benefits. Even when - by setting expected return on each foreign asset class equal to that of the corresponding UK asset class - we put foreign assets at a disadvantage, we find that it was rational for a British investor to include foreign debt and equity in the portfolio. |
| Keywords: | International Diversification, Modern Portfolio Theory, International Investment Flows, British Overseas Investment |
| JEL: | N24 |
| Date: | 2005–04–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ysm:somwrk:ysm445&r=his |
| By: | WILLIAM N. GOETZMANN (Yale School of Management - International Center for Finance; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)); Ravi Dhar (International Center for Finance at Yale School of Management) |
| Abstract: | We surveyed a large sample of investors who bought stock in a telecommunications company at least once in the 1999-2000 period. We solicited their views on the efficiency of the stock market, and the basis for their personal trading decisions. A significant fraction appear to hold beliefs inconsistent with various implications of the efficient market hypothesis. Their motives for trade are based upon a belief in the value of fundamental research and a belief in the importance of past price trends. These investors on average believe that markets over-react to news announcements. Many admitted to buying stocks they believed at the time to be over-valued, but claimed to have done so on the anticipation that the share prices would continue to rise. |
| Date: | 2005–04–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ysm:somwrk:ysm446&r=his |
| By: | Julien Reynaud (TEAM); Rofikoh Rokhim |
| Abstract: | Drawing together the concepts of inefficiency and banking crisis is directly inspired by business cycles theory where a crisis is the turning point from which the market/economy is recovering. If inefficiency plays a role in the occurrence of banking crisis, the post-crisis period should be the time for recovering efficiency. Moreover, traditional banking theory predicts that the crisis should eliminate bad banks from the system, leading to a more efficient banking sector. We tested this hypothesis on the 1994 Turkish and 1997 Indonesian banking crises using stochastic cost frontier analysis. Our results show an interesting pattern, opposed to what theory predicts : we find that inefficiency increase after the crises in both banking sectors. |
| Keywords: | Banking crisis, efficiency, Indonesia, Turkey. |
| JEL: | G14 G21 G28 G34 |
| Date: | 2005–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:wpsorb:bla05007&r=his |
| By: | Miguel Lebre de Freitas (Departamento de Economia, Gestão e Engenharia Industrial, Universidade de Aveiro) |
| Abstract: | Neste artigo, procuramos descrever a evolução do stock de capital físico em Portugal ao longo do Século XX, tendo em conta alguns dos seus determinantes, nomeadamente, a envolvente económica e institucional, a propensão a poupar e os preços relativos. Os cálculos efectuados revelam algumas inconsistências entre as séries estatísticas disponíveis. Confrontando a evolução da dotação relativa capital-físico/capital humano em Portugal com a verificada em outros países da OCDE, argumentamos que, não obstante na segunda metade do século XX Portugal ter registado uma taxa de investimento muito elevada, tal não terá resultado em acumulação excessiva de capital. |
| Date: | 2004–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ave:wpaper:202004&r=his |