|
on Business, Economic and Financial History |
|
Issue of 2005‒07‒18
seven papers chosen by |
| By: | Joshua L. Rosenbloom; Gregory W. Stutes |
| Abstract: | This paper uses data on real and personal property ownership collected in the 1870 Federal Census to explore factors influencing individual wealth accumulation and the aggregate distribution of wealth in the United States near the middle of the nineteenth century. Previous analyses of these data have relied on relatively small samples, or focused on population subgroups. By using the much larger sample available in the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) we are able to disaggregate the data much more finely than has previously been possible allowing us to explore differences in inequality across space and between different population groups. The data provide strong support for the hypothesis that American industrialization during the nineteenth century resulted in increasing inequality in the distribution of wealth. |
| JEL: | N3 R2 O1 |
| Date: | 2005–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11482&r=his |
| By: | Christopher L. Gilbert (Università degli Studi di Trento); Duo Qin (Queen Mary, University of London) |
| Abstract: | We characterize modern econometrics in terms of the emergence a widely accepted analytical framework. A major theme which dominated much of the debate through the century was whether and how econometric models can reflect theory-generated economic structures. In the period prior to the 2nd world war, economists adopted a wide variety of analytical methods, some ad hoc but others reflecting advances in statistical methodology. Business cycle analysis and demand analysis were the two major areas in which statistical theory was employed. Methods became increasingly formalized but problems of data adequacy, estimation and identification were not always well distinguished. During and immediately after the war, Cowles Commission research sought to base econometrics on autonomous probabilistic models specified in terms of underlying structural parameters. Least squares would not normally be consistent in such models and maximum likelihood estimation was to be preferred. Subsequently, however, the pendulum swung back towards least squares-based methods and this was reflected ion the textbook expositions of what was accepted as standard econometrics in the late sixties and early seventies. Subsequently, the paradigm was undermined by the challenges imposed by rational expectations modelling, which challenged standard identification assumptions, and by the poor forecasting performance of many macroeconomic models by comparison with black box time series competitors. The result was a revival of non-structural modelling, particularly in the analysis of macroeconomic data. |
| Keywords: | Econometrics, History, Estimation, Identification. |
| JEL: | B23 C10 |
| Date: | 2005–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qmw:qmwecw:wp544&r=his |
| By: | Metin Cosgel (University of Connecticut) |
| Abstract: | Interdisciplinary citation patterns and other indicators of the flow and sharing of academic knowledge suggest that economists and anthropologists do not talk to each other. Previous studies of this puzzling trend have typically attributed the problem to methodological differences between the two disciplines. Although there are significant differences between economics and anthropology in behavioral assumptions and modes of inquiry, similar differences exist between them and other disciplines (some with much heavier volumes of cross-citations with economics or anthropology), suggesting that the source of the problem lies elsewhere. This paper considers the problem at a deeper level by examining systematic differences in the preferences, capabilities, and literary cultures of economists and anthropologists. Adopting a rhetorical perspective, I consider not the firms, households, or tribes as the principal objective of analysis in the two disciplines, but the conversations between these units. These conversations (through non-verbal as well as verbal media) can be grouped into two genres, based on the type of problem they aim to solve. Those in the first genre aim to solve the problem of interest--how to align the incentives of the parties involved. Those in the second genre deal with the problem of knowledge--how to align localized, and dispersed information. Economists are interested and capable of dealing with primarily, if not exclusively, the first genre, and anthropologists focus on the second. This difference has far reaching consequences for how economists and anthropologists conduct their own scholarly conversations with their own colleagues, why they are having difficulty talking to each other across disciplinary boundaries, and what can be done to change the patterns of communication. |
| Keywords: | anthropology, conversation, interest, incentive, knowledge |
| JEL: | A12 B4 O5 Z1 |
| Date: | 2005–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:uconnp:2005-29&r=his |
| By: | Bjerkholt, Olav (Dept. of Economics, University of Oslo) |
| Abstract: | After World War II economic policy in Europe comprised considerable elements of planning. The paper discusses how this shift was related to the conceived failure of the free enterprise economy to provide full employment in the interwar period and to the war experience. The Norwegian post-war planning had a more integrated and comprehensive character and a more structured format than in most other countries in Western Europe. Some major aspects of the Norwegian planning system and the models developed to support it are discussed, with particular emphasis on the roles played by key economists |
| Keywords: | Economic planning; planning models; national budgeting; Marshall Plan |
| JEL: | A11 O21 P41 |
| Date: | 2005–07–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:osloec:2005_014&r=his |
| By: | Mauricio Avella Gómez |
| Abstract: | The hypothesis that the internal public debt has played the role of shock absorber in Colombia since 1923 is modelled. 1923 was an important landmark in the history of fiscal and monetary reforms in Colombia during the twentieth century. The econometric results offer a strong support for the hypothesized shock-absorber role of the internal debt. |
| Keywords: | Deficit, surplus, Debt, Latin America |
| JEL: | H62 H63 N16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdr:borrec:342&r=his |
| By: | Pablo Medina; Eduardo Uribe |
| Abstract: | Este documento presenta un análisis de los efectos de las reformas introducidas por la Constitución de 1991 y por la Ley 142 de 1994 sobre el desempeño del sector de energía eléctrica. Incluye una descripción de esas reformas y del actual marco institucional y regulatorio del sector. El documento analiza la evolución de las realidades institucionales y regulatorias del sector de energía y sus efectos sobre la financiación, las tarifas, la cobertura y la calidad del servicio. También presenta información relativa a la contribución del sector de energía eléctrica a la economía nacional. Finalmente, se presentan una serie de conclusiones y de retos futuros del sector. |
| Keywords: | Servicios Públicos, |
| JEL: | L94 |
| Date: | 2005–03–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000138:001079&r=his |
| By: | Harold Coronado; Eduardo Uribe |
| Abstract: | Este documento presenta un análisis de los efectos de las reformas introducidas por la Constitución de 1991 y por la Ley 142 de 1994 sobre el desempeño del sector de gas natural. Incluye una descripción de esas reformas y del actual marco institucional y regulatorio del sector. El documento analiza la evolución de las realidades institucionales y regulatorias del sector de gas natural y sus efectos sobre la financiación, las tarifas, la cobertura y la calidad del servicio. También presenta información relativa a la contribución del sector de gas natural a la economía nacional. Finalmente, se presentan una serie de conclusiones y de retos futuros del sector. |
| Keywords: | Servicios públicos |
| JEL: | L97 |
| Date: | 2005–03–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000138:001080&r=his |