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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2008‒04‒12
fourteen papers chosen by |
| By: | Eichengreen, Barry |
| Abstract: | The thesis of this paper is that there is no historical precedent for Europe’s monetary union (EMU). While it is possible to point to similar historical experiences, the most obvious of which were in the 19th century, occurred in Europe, and had “union” as part of their names, EMU differs from these earlier monetary unions. The closer one looks the more uncomfortable one becomes with the effort to draw parallels on the basis of historical experience. It is argued that efforts to draw parallels between EMU and monetary unions past are more likely to mislead than to offer useful insights. Where history is useful is not in drawing parallels but in pinpointing differences. It is useful for highlighting what is distinctive about EMU. |
| Keywords: | European Monetary Union |
| JEL: | F15 N14 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6642&r=his |
| By: | Hans Dewachter; Konstantijn Maes |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:ceswps:ces0005&r=his |
| By: | Antonio Tena Junguito |
| Abstract: | This paper revisits Bairoch’s hypothesis that tariffs were positively associated with growth in the late 19th century, as confirmed recently by a new generation of quantitative studies (see O`Rourke (2000), Jacks (2006) and Clements- Williamson (2002, 2004)). This paper highlights the importance of the structure of protection in the relation between trade policy and growth and its potential growth-promoting impact. Evidence is based in a new data base on industrial tariffs for the 1870`s. First results, based on these findings, show that protection was only positive for a “rich club” if we include in this group New Settler countries which grew rapidly in the late 19th century. Leaving out these countries, which protected mainly for fiscal reasons, the evidence shows that more protection, indicated by total average and manufacture tariff average, implied more un-skilled inefficient protection and less growth and this is especially true for the poor countries in the late 19th century. |
| Keywords: | Tariffs and growth, Tariff structure, Late 19th Century |
| JEL: | F13 N70 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:whrepe:wp08-04&r=his |
| By: | Galor, Oded; Moav, Omer; Vollrath, Dietrich |
| Abstract: | This paper suggests that inequality in the distribution of land ownership adversely affected the emergence of human capital promoting institutions (e.g., public schooling) and thus the pace and the nature of the transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy, contributing to the emergence of the great divergence in income per capita across countries. The prediction of the theory regarding the adverse effect of the concentration of land ownership on education expenditure is established empirically based on evidence from the beginning of the 20th century in the US. |
| Keywords: | Geography; Great Divergence; Growth; Human capital; Institutions; Land Inequality |
| JEL: | O10 O40 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6751&r=his |
| By: | Keller, Wolfgang; Shiue, Carol Hua |
| Abstract: | We study the relative importance of technology and institutions as factors determining the size of markets. The setting of 19th century Europe presents a unique opportunity to address this issue, since it witnessed fundamental change in both dimensions. First, Germany went from around 1,800 customs borders to none through the Zollverein customs treaties. Second, it moved from a situation of monetary disorder to currency unification. And third, the 19th century saw the introduction of steam trains, the key technology that revolutionized transportation between markets. Changes in market integration are studied in terms of the spatial dispersion of grain prices in 68 markets with more than 10,000 observations, located in five different countries and fifteen different German states. We find that the emergence of integrated commodity markets in 19th century Europe is in major part due to the transportation revolution in form of the railways. There is evidence that also customs liberalizations and, more so, currency agreements improved trade possibilities. However, the impact of trains was larger than the effect of these institutions: about three times larger over the long horizon, and around 50% larger for the relatively short time horizon of twenty-five years. These results suggest that as significant as institutional factors were for the expansion of markets, technology factors may have been even more important. |
| Keywords: | Currency Agreement; Customs Liberalization; Market Size; Steam Train; Trade; Transportation Technology |
| JEL: | F1 F3 N10 O3 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6759&r=his |
| By: | Juan Carlos Rojo Cagigal |
| Abstract: | The paper analyses the legal transfer of formal rules regulating stock markets in Spain between 1800 and 1936. We argue that the transfer of French legislation in the 1830s provoked a “transplant effect”, which generated serious distortions in Spanish financial markets. As a result, Spain developed a unique system in which official French style stock markets coexisted with Anglo-Saxon style free markets and small traditional markets, reminiscent of the ancien regime. This unique schism of systems reflects the result of multiple natural experiments whereby each region constituted its own stock market system. Diverse economic scenarios and path-dependence processes determined different institutional settings. We find that the unparalleled Spanish system was the result of lacking central power, persistence of institutional inertia, and the diversity of Spain´s geographical economy. |
| Keywords: | Stock markets, Exchanges, Commercial law, Comparative law, Legal origins, Legal transfer, Legal transplant, Rule of law, Spain |
| JEL: | N23 N24 N43 N44 K20 K22 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:whrepe:wp08-03&r=his |
| By: | Henri Delanghe |
| Abstract: | This paper studies what I consider to be the true starting point of significant Japanese-Brazilian trade and investment relations, the 1935 Hirao Hachisaburo economic mission to Brazil. This mission was prompted by Japanese concern about the Japanese-American bilateral trade balance and geo-strategic control over natural resources. It resulted in a dramatic increase in Japanese imports of Brazilian raw cotton and numerous textile related and other Japanese investments in Brazil. These investments, in turn, would constitute a solid basis for post-war textile related and other investments in Brazil. |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:ceswps:ces9904&r=his |
| By: | Antoine Vauchez |
| Keywords: | Europeanization; European law; European Court of Justice |
| Date: | 2008–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erp:euirsc:p0187&r=his |
| By: | Hans-Helmut Kotz; Reinhard H. Schmidt |
| Abstract: | The introduction of a common currency as well as the harmonization of rules and regulations in Europe has significantly reduced distance in all its guises. With shrunken costs of overcoming space, this emphasizes centripetal forces and it should foster consolidation of financial activity. In a national context, as a rule, comparable developments have led to the emergence of one financial center. Hence, Europeanization of financial and monetary affairs could foretell the relegation of some European financial hubs such as Frankfurt and Paris to third-rank status. Frankfurt’s financial history is interesting insofar as it has lost (in the 1870s) and regained (mainly in the 1980s) its preeminent place in the German context. However, because Europe is still characterized by local pockets of information-sensitive assets as well as a demand for variety, the national analogy probably does not hold. There is room in Europe for a number of financial hubs of an international dimension, including Frankfurt. |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fra:franaf:185&r=his |
| By: | Wolf, Nikolaus |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the timing of exit from the interwar gold-exchange standard for a panel of European countries, based on monthly data over the period January 1928 - December 1936. I show that the decision of exit from gold can be understood in terms of a trade-off between a quite limited set of factors commonly suggested in the theoretical literature on currency crises. A simple and parsimonious econometric framework that nests various hypotheses allows predicting the very month when a country will exit gold in the 1930s. |
| Keywords: | Europe; Gold-Exchange Standard; Interwar Period |
| JEL: | E42 E44 N14 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6685&r=his |
| By: | Martin, Philippe; Mayer, Thierry; Thoenig, Mathias |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes empirically the relationship between civil wars and international trade. We first show that trade destruction due to civil wars is very large and persistent and increases with the severity of the conflict. We then test the presence of two effects that trade can have on the risk of civil conflicts: it may act as a deterrent if trade gains are put at risk during civil wars but it may also act as an insurance if international trade provides a substitute to internal trade during civil wars. We find support for the presence of these two mechanisms and conclude that trade openness may deter the most severe civil wars (those that destroy the largest amount of trade) but may increase the risk of lower scale conflicts. |
| Keywords: | civil war; globalization; trade |
| JEL: | F10 F51 F52 F59 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6659&r=his |
| By: | Timothy Guinnane (Department of Economics, Yale University); Sheilagh Ogilvie (University of Cambridge) |
| Abstract: | Simple Malthusian models remain an important tool for understanding pre-modern demographic systems and their connection to the economy. But most recent literature has lost sight of the institutional context for demographic behavior that lay at the heart of Malthus’s own analysis. This paper estimates a short-run version of a Malthusian model for two Württemberg communities from 1646 to 1870. Württemberg differed institutionally from the northwest European societies analyzed in previous studies. The impact of institutional differences shows clearly in differing demographic reactions to economic shocks. Mortality was less sensitive to shocks than one would expect, while nuptiality was especially sensitive. |
| Keywords: | Malthusian models, mortality, fertility, nuptiality, guilds |
| JEL: | N33 J10 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egc:wpaper:962&r=his |
| By: | Mottis, Nicolas (ESSEC Business School); Walton, Peter (ESSEC Business School) |
| Abstract: | This papers starts from an article published by Chan et al. in Accounting and Business Research in 2006 on accounting research in Europe. It develops the idea that accounting research in Europe is much more diversified than it appears, is not limited to British academics output, and relies upon very diversified vectors (journals or books) across countries. The case of France and Germany are particularly highlighted. More generally, the addresses the question of research evaluation and its consequences on academic communities. |
| Keywords: | Accounting; Control; Research; Europe |
| JEL: | I23 M40 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ebg:essewp:dr-08007&r=his |
| By: | Yves Segers |
| Abstract: | Deze paper draagt de bouwstenen aan voor een diepgaande analyse van de huurprijsontwikkeling in enkele Belgische steden gedurende de jaren 1800-1920. Nieuw onderzoek in archieven van openbare instellingen (OCMW’s en steden), gecombineerd met reeds gepubliceerd cijfermateriaal, leverde een uitgebreide databank op met huurprijsgegevens van acht Vlaamse en Waalse steden: Antwerpen, Brugge, Brussel, Gent, Kortrijk, Leuven, Luik en Namen. Aan de hand van deze data werden -volgens de methode van een schakelindex- stedelijke indices berekend. Deze vormden op hun beurt de basis voor de berekening van een nationale huurprijsindex |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:ceswps:ces9915&r=his |