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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2008‒03‒15
fifteen papers chosen by |
| By: | David Galenson |
| Abstract: | Words have appeared in visual art since classical times, but until the modern era their use was generally restricted to a few specific functions. In the early twentieth century, the Cubists Braque and Picasso began using words in their paintings and collages in entirely new ways, and their innovation was quickly adopted by other artists. Words, phrases, and sentences were subsequently used by visual artists for a variety of purposes -- to refer to popular culture, to pose verbal puzzles, to engage with philosophy and semiotics, and for political and social commentary. Throughout the century, the use of language in visual art was dominated by conceptual artists, and the increasing role of language over time was symptomatic of the fact that visual art was progressively intended less as an aesthetic product, to be looked at, and increasingly as an intellectual activity, to be read. The prominence of language is yet another way in which the visual art of the twentieth century differs from all earlier periods, as a result of the increasingly extreme practices of conceptual artists after the development of a competitive market for advanced art in the late nineteenth century freed them from the constraints that had previously been imposed by governments and other powerful patrons. |
| JEL: | J01 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13845&r=his |
| By: | Jeffrey G. Williamson |
| Abstract: | W. Arthur Lewis argued that a new international economic order emerged between 1870 and 1913, and that global terms of trade forces produced rising primary product specialization and de-industrialization in the poor periphery. More recently, modern economists argue that volatility reduces growth in the poor periphery. This paper assess these de-industrialization and volatility forces between 1782 and 1913 during the Great Divergence. First, it argues that the new economic order had been firmly established by 1870, and that the transition took place in the century before, not after. Second, based on econometric evidence from 1870-1939, we know that while a terms of trade improvement raised long run growth in the rich core, it did not do so in the poor periphery. Given that the secular terms of trade boom in the poor periphery was much bigger over the century before 1870 than after, it seems plausible to infer that it might help explain the great 19th century divergence between core and periphery. Third, the boom and its de-industrialization impact was only part of the story; growth-reducing terms of trade volatility was the other. Between 1820 and 1870, terms of trade volatility was much greater in the poor periphery than the core. It was still very big after 1870, certainly far bigger than in the core. Based on econometric evidence from 1870-2000, we know that terms of trade volatility lowers long run growth in the poor periphery, and that the negative impact is big. Given that terms of trade volatility in the poor periphery was even bigger during the century before 1870, it seems plausible to infer that it also helps explain the great 19th century divergence between core and periphery. |
| JEL: | F01 N7 O2 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13841&r=his |
| By: | Carsten Burhop (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we describe the emergence and evolution of pharmaceutical research at the German company E. Merck during the late 19th and early 20th century. Revolutionary changes in the scientific knowledge base, especially the rise of bacteriological research, and the market entry of dyestuff producers into pharmaceuticals made the re-organisation of pharmaceutical research during the 1890s a necessary corporate strategy. Consequently, Merck restructured its in-house research between 1895 and 1898. Moreover, the firm deepened its co-operation with universities and other outside inventors. Jointly and severally, the firm depended on outside inventors for the generation of new products, whereas in-house scientists improved the productive efficiency. Moreover, we show that a significant number of new products were launched between the late 1890s and 1905. During the following years, however, resource constraints restricted Merck’s innovative capacity. |
| Keywords: | Business history, pharmaceutical research, case study |
| JEL: | N83 O32 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2008_3&r=his |
| By: | Enriqueta Camps |
| Abstract: | This essay deals with the reasons explaining children’s work in 19th century textile factories and their removal during the first part of the 20th century. The inadequacy of the structure of incomes and expenditures of the household and the very low economic incentives to educate children can explain why children were in the factories and not in the school. Moreover, the marginal economic contribution to the economy of the household of a child was the same as that of his mother. This normally implied that women and children were perfect substitutes. When the family had a child at working age this allowed to replace the paid work input of the mother. With the beginnings of the 20th century a set of changes leading to the increase of women’s productivity and hourly real wages, switched the situation and involved the new incorporation of women into paid work and the investment in children’s human capital. |
| Keywords: | Children's work, Women's Work, Household Budgets, Education |
| JEL: | I2 I3 J3 J4 N3 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1073&r=his |
| By: | Scheltjens, Werner |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I try to substantiate the necessity of studying early-modern maritime shipping as an integral economic activity, by which I mean that early-modern maritime shipping is defined not only by the nodes it connects nor by its own social structures exclusively, but by both elements at the same time. Moreover, maritime shipping must be viewed in an unabridged fashion: it is an economic activity that covers large distances and long periods of time. This implies that we need to find a way to overcome the limitations of the currently predominant view of early-modern maritime shipping as a set of condensed numerical data. I will prove empirically that transportation networks were indeed socially constructed spaces with the necessary features to allow us to speak of maritime shipping as an integral economic activity. I will do this by studying the operational and organizational structures of Dutch maritime shipping in the first half of the eighteenth century. In this paper, I present a preliminary taxonomy of shipping patterns on the basis of a continuous trade-off between cargo, port of destination and origin of the shipmaster. This taxonomy distinguishes between repetitiveness and flexibility in the shipmaster's choice of cargoes and routes. |
| Keywords: | maritime history; maritime shipping; methodology of using early-modern maritime shipping records |
| JEL: | N01 N73 N0 |
| Date: | 2007–10–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:7688&r=his |
| By: | Jorge Martinez-Vazquez; Benno Torgler |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the evolution of tax morale in Spain in the post-Franco era. In contrast to the previous tax compliance literature, the current paper investigates tax morale as the dependent variable and attempts to answer what actually shapes tax morale. The analysis uses survey data from two sources: the World Values Survey and the European Values Survey, allowing us to observe tax morale in Spain for the years 1981, 1990, 1995, and 1999/2000. The study of the evolution of tax morale in Spain over nearly a 20-year span is particularly interesting because the political and fiscal system evolved very rapidly during that period. |
| Keywords: | Spain, Tax morale, Tax compliance, Constitutional and political changes, fiscal system, endogenous preferences |
| JEL: | H26 H73 K42 O17 Z13 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lpf:wpaper:03-2007&r=his |
| By: | Roman Hagelstein (Universität Tübingen) |
| Abstract: | I draw a geographically and temporally disaggregated model of the location and course of the Algerian civil war, using new battle event and location data from press reports. I show that the war was located in areas and at moments in time in which both the rebels and the government were about equally strong, according to my novel relative strength index. Additional factors that can robustly predict high location-specific war intensity are the severity of violence at a location in the past period, and unemployment. Finally, violence is unlikely to take place in unpopulated areas. |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:43&r=his |
| By: | Farley Grubb |
| Abstract: | Exchange rates and price indices are constructed to test purchasing power parity between eight British North American colonial locations, five of whom issued their own fiat paper money. Purchasing power parity is then tested between these same locations after six became states politically and monetarily unified under the U.S. Constitution. Purchasing power parity cannot be rejected between all colonial locations or between the six U.S. states, if anything holding with more confidence prior to U.S. political and monetary unification. But it is rejected between U.S. states and nearby British colonies that stayed outside the U.S. union. |
| JEL: | D02 F15 F54 N11 N21 N41 N71 O24 O51 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13836&r=his |
| By: | Chiswick, Barry R. (University of Illinois at Chicago) |
| Abstract: | This paper is concerned with trends over the post-WWII period in the employment of American Jews as College and University teachers and in their receipt of the PhD. The empirical analysis is for PhD production from 1950 to 2004 and Jews are identified by the Distinctive Jewish Name (DJN) technique. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analyses are reported. Central roles are played in the regression analysis by variables for military conscription, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and US government funding for research and development. Among the DJNs, the simple data show that male PhD graduates increased in number in the post-war period up to early 1970s, and declined thereafter. Among DJN women, however, annual PhD production increased throughout the period. The ratio of DJN to all PhDs declined throughout the period for both men and women. Other variables the same, male DJN PhD production increased to about 1967 and then declined, while for DJN females it increased throughout the period. The ratio of DJN to all PhDs started to decline among men in the 1950s and continued thereafter, while among women the DJN share increased until about 1979, and then declined. These data are consisted with the hypothesis that discrimination against Jews in salaried professional occupations declined in the post-WWII period earlier in College and University teaching than in other sectors of the economy that do not require a PhD degree for employment. |
| Keywords: | American Jews, education, discrimination, gender |
| JEL: | I21 J71 J44 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3384&r=his |
| By: | Tanika Chakraborty; Sukkoo Kim |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the relationship between kinship institutions and sex ratios in India at the turn of the twentieth century. Since kinship rules varied by caste, language, religion and region, we construct sex-ratios by these categories at the district-level using data from the 1901 Census of India for Punjab (North), Bengal (East) and Madras (South). We find that the female to male sex ratio varied inversely by caste-rank, rose as one moved from the North to the East and then to the South, was lower for Hindus than Muslims, and was lower for the northern Indo-Aryan rather than the southern Dravidian speaking peoples. We also find that the female deficit was greater in wheat growing regions and in areas with higher rainfall and alluvial soil. We argue that these systematic patterns in the data are largely explained by variations in the institution of family, kinship and inheritance. |
| JEL: | J12 N35 O17 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13828&r=his |
| By: | Tandefelt, Marika (Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | Reklam sägs använda ett modernt, gärna ett nyskapande språk. Detta är ett påstående som inte så lätt kan verifieras. Tidningsannonsen är troligen den skriftspråksgenre som har fått minst uppmärksamhet av språkforskare. De som skriver texten i en tidningsannons är personer som representerar det samtida språkbruket. Annonser som representerar olika tidsepoker skiljer sig därför från varandra inte bara genom att annonsen förändras i fråga om stil och form. Annonsens språk avspeglar också den språkliga förändringsprocess som kontinuerligt pågår i varje språksamhälle. Annonser, och marknadsföringsmaterial över huvud taget, läses också av många människor som i övrigt läser mycket litet eller kanske inte alls. Marknadsföraren, reklamskribenten (copywriter) och AD:n producerar m.a.o. texter som på ett omedvetet sätt kommer att vara språkmodeller för sina läsare. Förändringar i språket kreeras inte och drivs inte på av språkforskare, utan av vanliga språkbrukare i interaktion med andra språkbrukare. Sett ur ett sociolingvistiskt perspektiv har det vitt spridda reklamspråket därför inflytande på språket i samhället. Syftet med det reklamspråksprojekt som presenteras i föreliggande rapport är att analysera hur och när förändringar i svenskan som uppträder i Sverige dyker upp i annonser som skrivs på svenska i Finland. Reklam på svenska Finland under 1900-talet står i fokus, och tidningsannonser för Stockmanns varuhus i Helsingfors utgör primärmaterialet. Tidningsannonser för varuhuset Nordiska Kompaniet (NK) i Stockholm under motsvarande tid tjänar som jämförelsematerial. I denna rapport presenteras projektets syfte, de uppställda forskningsfrågorna, och resonemanget illustreras med exempel ur projektmaterialet. Rapporten innehåller också en beskrivning av projektets reklamdatabas och basfakta om material och metoder. <p> The advertising business is often said to favour a modern, innovative language use. This is a statement not easily verified. Newspaper ads are in fact the genre of written language that linguists have paid the least attention to. People writing texts for newspaper ads are individuals representing contemporary language use. Advertisements representing different periods therefore diverge not only regarding the change of style and form advertising undergoes over time, but changes in the language itself also reflect the continuous process of alteration in a speech community. Advertisements and marketing material on the whole, are also read by many individuals who otherwise are not accustomed to reading at all. The marketing manager, the copywriter and the Art Director, in other words, produce texts that unconsciously function as language models. Changes are not created by, or urged on by linguistic expertise, but by ordinary users confronting other ordinary users. From a sociolinguistic perspective the widely diffused advertising language is therefore a most influential factor. The aim of the present project is to analyze how and when changes in standard Swedish emerge in advertisement texts in Swedish in Finland. The basic material for this project consists of advertisements for the Stockmann Departement Store in Helsinki from the entire 20th century. The comparative material includes advertisements from the Swedish Department Store Nordiska Kompaniet (NK) in Stockholm from the corresponding period. In this report the aim of the project and its the basic research questions are presented and the reasoning is illustrated by examples from the collected material. The report also includes a description of the project’s advertisement database and presents facts about the material and methods. |
| Keywords: | finlandssvenska; modern svensk språkhistoria; reklamspråk; the swedish variety used in finland; Finland-Swedish; contemporary swedish language history; language of advertisement |
| Date: | 2008–02–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhb:hanken:0535&r=his |
| By: | Samuel Amaral |
| Abstract: | Gino Germani was an Italian-born Argentine sociologist who in 1956 offered the first interpretation of peronism based upon current social science categories. Popular interpretations of peronism considered it a local version of fascism. Germani specified the differences between these two political phenomena, but still considered the first as a special case of the second. This paper studies Germani’s first interpretation of peronism and fascism in order to single out the criteria allowing him to include both regimes within a single category. |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cem:doctra:371&r=his |
| By: | Canaday, Neil; Tamura, Robert |
| Abstract: | We present a model of public provision of education for blacks in two discriminatory regimes, white plantation controlled, and white town controlled. We show that the ability to migrate to a non-discriminating district constrains the ability of both types of whites to discriminate. The model produces time series of educational outcomes for whites and blacks that mimic the behavior seen in Post Reconstruction South Carolina to the onset of the Civil Rights Act. It also fits the Post World War II black-white income differentials. |
| Keywords: | discriminatory education provision; black-white education differences |
| JEL: | J71 J24 J42 |
| Date: | 2007–07–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:7723&r=his |
| By: | Timothy J. Hatton; Richard M. Martin |
| Abstract: | This paper examines effects of socio-economic conditions on the standardised heights and body mass index of children in Interwar Britain. It uses the Boyd Orr cohort, a survey of predominantly poor families taken in 1937-9, which provides a unique opportunity to explore the determinants of child health in the era before the welfare state. We examine the trade-off between the quality (in the form of health outcomes) and the number of children in the family at a time when genuine poverty still existed in Britain. Our results provide strong support both for negative birth order effects and negative family size effects on the heights of children. No such effects are found for the body mass index (BMI). We find that household income per capita positively influences the heights of children but, even after accounting for this, the number of children in the family still has a negative effect on height. This latter effect is closely associated with overcrowding and particularly with the degree of cleanliness or hygiene in the household, which conditions exposure to factors predisposing to disease. We also analyse evidence collected retrospectively, which indicates that the effects of childhood conditions on height persisted into adulthood. |
| Keywords: | child health, heights, poverty |
| JEL: | J13 I12 I31 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:dpaper:572&r=his |
| By: | Paul Heaton |
| Abstract: | Beginning in 1959 the public schools in Prince Edward County, Virginia were closed for five years in opposition to court-ordered integration. The author combines data from numerous administrative sources to examine the effects of the school closings on the educational attainment and economic outcomes of affected Black children. Although exposed students obtained an average of one fewer year of schooling than peers in surrounding counties, they do not exhibit substantially worse material, health, and incarceration outcomes. These findings may result from 1) the provision of substitute educational opportunities for many students and 2) flat returns at levels of educational attainment typical for southern Virginia Blacks during this period. |
| Keywords: | education, discrimination, Virginia |
| JEL: | J15 I20 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ran:wpaper:552&r=his |