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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2008‒05‒24
seven papers chosen by |
| By: | Jordi Guilera Rafecas (Universitat de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents new statistical evidence on the long-term evolution of income inequality in Portugal. Portuguese tax sources have been employed to estimate top income shares from 1936 onwards, with the methodology used to derive such inequality measure being taken from Piketty (2001). The new series show a decrease in top income shares during WWII, followed by a recovery up until the early 1950s. From the mid-fifties to the early eighties there was a huge decline in top income shares. Finally, during the 1990s top income shares once again increased. This pattern is very similar to the experience of other countries: the decline of top income shares during the Golden Age has been observed in most other cases, and their increase during the 1990s seems to put Portugal on a par with the experience of Anglo-Saxon countries. |
| Keywords: | top incomes, portugal, economic inequality |
| JEL: | H24 O15 D31 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bar:bedcje:2008195&r=his |
| By: | Farley Grubb (Department of Economics,University of Delaware) |
| Abstract: | The British North American colonies were the first western economies to rely on legislature-issued fiat paper money as their principal internal medium of exchange. This system arose piecemeal across the colonies making the paper money creation story for each colony unique. It was true monetary experimentation on a grand scale. The creation story for Maryland, perhaps the most unique among the colonies, is analyzed to evaluate how market forces, media influences, and the power of various constituents combined to shape its particular paper money system. |
| Keywords: | Colonial Maryland; Commodity Money; Dual Currency; Economic History; Export Controls; Monetary Policy; Paper Money; Tax Policy; Tobacco Trade. |
| JEL: | E42 E51 H20 N11 N21 N41 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dlw:wpaper:08-16.&r=his |
| By: | Isabella Cecchini (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a panel of data about material culture in early modern Venice. The data are taken from three samples of Venetian probate inventories drawn up voluntarily from Venetian widows in the years 1510–1615, at intervals of roughly fifty years. The entire period has been divided into two subgroups of three years each (1511–1513, 1560–1562), and one of six years (1610–1615). The selection of goods tries to reflect the variety of objects appearing in written lists of Venetian interiors (pieces of furniture, paintings, musical instruments, tableware, cloths), though it aims to present a view of domestic interiors in early modern Venice that pays special regard to less essential goods. |
| Keywords: | Material culture, Venice, early-modern economic history, consumption, social orders, dowry legislation, probate inventories |
| JEL: | D12 D31 N33 R21 Y20 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2008_14&r=his |
| By: | San Thein; Kudo, Toshihiro |
| Abstract: | Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) engaged in sugar processing in Myanmar appeared in the last decade of the socialist era. An acute sugar deficit, restricted trade in white sugar, and high demand from the conventional dairy business led to the growth of sugar SMEs by appropriate blending of semi-finished products (syrup) in the fields, which were then processed in vacuum pans and centrifugals to obtain white sugar. This became a tradable commodity and sugar SMEs grew in clusters in big cities. They are family-owned businesses. However, they lack the bagasse-based power generation. In recent years, large modern sugar factories operated by private and military companies have emerged as key players. The current shortage of fuel feedstock and competition for raw materials have become driving forces that shift sugar SMEs from market-oriented to raw material-oriented locations. Internal competition among key players made sugar price highly volatile, too. Being placed on a level playing field, the whole industry should be upgraded in terms of price and quality to become export-oriented. |
| Keywords: | Myanmar (Burma), Small and medium enterprise (SME), State-owned economic enterprise (SEE), Sugar, Sugarcane, Resource-based location, Market economy, Mandalay, Pyawbwe |
| JEL: | L11 L52 L66 N85 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper147&r=his |
| By: | Teresa M. Fernandes (Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto, Portugal); João F. Proença (Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto, Portugal); P.K. Kannan (University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business, USA) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an historical analysis of relationship marketing. We discuss the roots and the directions of relationship marketing that are considered relevant: their origins, the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing group (IMP) approach to business relationships, the Nordic approach to services relationships and, the managerial and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) approach of relationship marketing. The paper highlights that the boundaries of relationship marketing as defined in contemporary literature have been permeable and elastic. Relationship marketing consists of a fragmented collection of different approaches, partly independent partly overlapping, inspired by different theories, with a multitude of aggregation levels and several units of analysis. We clarify the scope of this domain and we present a number of critical issues that remain unresolved. Is the concept of relationship marketing ubiquitous and can it be applied to every context? Are relationships alike whatever the market considered? Do they describe the same phenomena or are they different phenomena resulting from different contexts? We present a historical analysis of relationships marketing that could contribute to a better understanding of what relationships are in marketing. |
| Keywords: | relationships, business-to-business relationships, relationship marketing, CRM |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:por:fepwps:274&r=his |
| By: | Annette Jäckle (Institute for Social and Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Data on income sources collected in panel surveys typically display a concentration of transitions at the seam between waves of data collection. This concentration is caused by constant wave response (reporting receipt for ‘all’ or ‘none’ of the months in the reference period) and wave under-reporting (reporting receipt in some but not all relevant waves). The resulting ‘seam effect’ is likely to lead to errors in estimated durations of benefit receipt, attenuation of the estimated effects of explanatory factors on conditional exit probabilities and biases in estimated duration dependence. Little is however known about the nature of errors in histories from panel data, or about their effect on estimates. This paper uses benefit histories from survey reports and matched administrative records covering a four-year period to assess the extent of bias in key estimates, such as the distribution of spell lengths, their determinants and duration dependence. The paper also evaluates the effectiveness at reducing bias of dependent interviewing techniques, where information collected in a previous interview is used to remind the respondent of sources reported previously, or to verify that sources no longer reported have truly ended. |
| Keywords: | benefits, dependent interviewing, hazard rate models, record linkage, seam effect, validation, welfare dependency |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2008-13&r=his |
| By: | Francisco Gallego (Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.); Robert Woodberry |
| Abstract: | Using cross-country data for about 70 countries and regional data for about 180 African provinces, we show that competition between Protestant and Catholic missionaries increased schooling in former colonies. Our evidence implies that Protestant missionaries increased schooling in Catholic countries by more than Catholic missionaries, but we cannot reject the hypothesis that the e ect of Protestant and Catholic missionaries on educational outcomes was similar when missionaries of both denominations faced the same legal and institutional treatment. We interpret these results in the context of an economic rationale in which di erent institutions created di erences in competitive pressures faced by Catholic and Protestant missionaries. |
| Keywords: | Education, Missionaries, Colonialism, Institutions, State Religions |
| JEL: | I20 N30 N37 N40 O15 O43 Z12 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ioe:doctra:339&r=his |