New Economics Papers
on Business, Economic and Financial History
Issue of 2007‒07‒27
five papers chosen by
  1. Thrift as a Virtue, Historically Criticized By McCloskey, Deirdre
  2. Mercantilism in the Reign of Frederick II and Prussian Industrial Politics in Upper Silesia 1740-1786 By Toni Pierenkemper
  3. The Effect of Internal Migration on Local Labor Markets: American Cities During the Great Depression By Leah Platt Boustan; Price V. Fishback; Shawn E. Kantor
  4. The Long-Term Effects of Africa's Slave Trades By Nunn, Nathan
  5. Is it Economics or Politics? Trending Economic Factors and the Structure of Congress in the Growth of Government, 1930-2002 By Stanley L. Winer; Michael W. Tofias; Bernard Grofman
  1. By: McCloskey, Deirdre
    Abstract: Thrift has been viewed since the blessed Adam Smith as the foundation of economic growth. Economists, the theorists of prudence, wsh it so. But it was not, and is not true. Modern economic growth came from some other source---perhaps the stunning shift 1600-1776 in the rhetoric of economy-talk.
    Keywords: thrift; savings; industrial revolution; growth models;
    JEL: O11 N10
    Date: 2006–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:4088&r=his
  2. By: Toni Pierenkemper (Department of Economic and Social History, Cologne University Germany)
    Abstract: In late 18th century Prussia, the conditions were laied down that were to form the basis of the economic upturn of the 19th century. This period of transition was marked by a break with the former “mercantilist” or “camerialist” system as it is termed in its specific German form of promotion of trade and industry by the state in the 18th century. It was not mercantilist policy but its avoidance that contributed considerably to the success of industrialisation beginning the late 18th century. The Prussian political economy in the middle of the 18th century, labelled ‘Friederician Mercantilism’ according to Frederick II (1740-1786), is addressed in the context of the international mercantilist system (France and England). The traditional view of German economic history is that “Friederician Mercantilism” laied down the conditions for industrial development in the 19th century. The results of this paper are different: The mercantilist sytem impeded development and, combined with the King’s obstinacy in adhering to the system, did nothing to help pave the way for development into a modern industrial nation. This is demonstrated using the example of the newly acquired Silesian province (1740), which was in no good economic state in the mid-18th century; and the first decades subsequent to Prussia’s acquisition were marked by the belligerent circumstances associated with its takeover. Later, “Friederician Mercantilism” only made a limited contribution to the transformation of Silesia into a modern industrial region. In spite of an active trade policy, the measures implemented by the Prussians in order to boost industry proved to be misdirected: financial, trade, and industrial policies emerged as irrelevant or even disadavantageous to the Silesian province. This was even more so the case for the Upper Silesian coal mining district, which was, over the course of the 19th century, to grow into a powerful industrial centre. The new Prussian administration completely underestimated this area’s potential for development. In the 1770s there was a broad discussion of the economic situation in Upper Silesia that resulted in state activity in the domain of the Upper Silesian iron industry. However, it was shaped by the state’s military and fiscal interests. “Friederician Mercantilism” had no perspective for economic development and it was only with the death of Frederick II in 1786 that the potentiality of Prussia’s and Upper Silesia’s development into a modern economiy characacterised by free enterprise emerged.
    Keywords: Mercantilism, State, Prussia, Silesia, Industrial Politics
    JEL: N33 N93
    Date: 2007–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wso:wpaper:2&r=his
  3. By: Leah Platt Boustan; Price V. Fishback; Shawn E. Kantor
    Abstract: During the Great Depression, as in the modern era, in-migrants were accused of taking jobs and crowding relief rolls. Unlike today, the targets of protest during the Depression were typically American citizens from other parts of the country, rather than the foreign born. Using aggregate data on internal migration flows matched to individual records from the 1940 Census, we analyze the impact of internal migration on various labor market outcomes. To control for the likely endogeneity bias that would arise if migrants were attracted to areas with high wages or plentiful work opportunities, we instrument for migration flows. The instrument predicts out-migration from local areas using extreme weather events and variations in the generosity of New Deal programs and assigns these flows to destinations based on geographic distance. As in many contemporary studies of immigration, our results indicate that residents of metropolitan areas with high in-migration rates did not experience a drop in hourly earnings. Instead, longer term residents of high in-migration areas experienced three types of economic dislocation. A significant number moved away. Many of those who stayed experienced either a drop in annual weeks of work and/or reductions in access to work relief jobs. During a Depression with extraordinary unemployment and an extensive amount of job sharing, these lost work opportunities were costly to existing residents.
    JEL: J61 N32 R23
    Date: 2007–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13276&r=his
  4. By: Nunn, Nathan
    Abstract: Can part of Africa’s current underdevelopment be explained by its slave trades? To explore this question, I use data from shipping records and historical documents reporting slave ethnicities to construct estimates of the number of slaves exported from each country during Africa’s slave trades. I find a robust negative relationship between the number of slaves exported from a country and current economic performance. To better understand if the relationship is causal, I examine the historical evidence on selection into the slave trades, and use instrumental variables. Together the evidence suggests that the slave trades have had an adverse effect on economic development.
    Keywords: Africa; Slave trade; Economic development
    JEL: O1 F1 O55
    Date: 2007–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:4134&r=his
  5. By: Stanley L. Winer (Department of Economics, Carleton University); Michael W. Tofias (Duke University); Bernard Grofman (University of California, IrvineAuthor-Name: John H. Aldrich; Duke University)
    Abstract: We expand the investigation of the role of Congress in explanations of government growth, building on the work of Kau and Rubin (2002). In addition to reconsidering the importance of the median ideological position of elected representatives they introduced, we allow for the roles of majority party strength and of party control of Congress. We consider the relative importantce of the state of Congress and of trending supply and demand-side economic factors in the evolution and composition of federal spending since 1930, and we use the resulting model to simulate the consequences of the radical and historically unprecedented shift to the right of Congress in 1994/95.
    JEL: H1 H3 H5 H6
    Date: 2006–06–29
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:car:carecp:07-04&r=his
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