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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2011‒02‒05
28 papers chosen by |
| By: | Batiz-Lazo, Bernardo; Noguchi, Masayoshi |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how accounting–based regulation was introduced through the House Purchase and Housing Act, 1959 (HPHA59) and Building Societies Act, 1960 (BSA60). It also tells how it was put into practice by the Registrar of Friendly Societies (RFS). The discussion is framed by the so called ‘disciplinary perspective’ of accounting as represented by Hoskin and Macve (1986; 1988; 1994a; 1994b; 1996; 2000). Fieldwork documents cases of intervention by the RFS under new powers granted by BSA60. These new powers were used to discipline targeted societies or those revealing inadequate use of their funds and thus, observed important deviations from specified accounting-based criteria which was generally recognized as financially sound within the industry. As a result we provide evidence of how accounting-based regulation affected the operation of the societies. This evidence amends other studies claiming that managers of British financial intermediaries disregarded accounting information in their operation and strategic plans (or that they incorporated such criteria until the 1990s). |
| Keywords: | accounting-based regulation; House Purchase and Housing Act; 1959 (HPHA59); Building Societies Act; 1960 (BSA60); Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies (CRFS); the Building Societies Association (Association); disciplinary power; reserve ratio |
| JEL: | N8 M41 N2 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:28374&r=his |
| By: | Ravallion, Martin |
| Abstract: | Word searches of Google's library of digitized books suggest that there have been two"Poverty Enlightenments"since 1700, one near the end of the 18th century and the second near the end of the 20th. The historical literature suggests that only the second came with a widespread belief that poverty could and should be eliminated. After the first Poverty Enlightenment, references to"poverty"(as a percentage of all words) were on a trend decline until 1960, after which there was a striking resurgence of interest, which came with rising attention to economics and more frequent references to both general and specific policies relevant to poverty. Developing countries also became more prominent in the literature. Both Enlightenments came with greater attention to human rights. The written record reflects the push-back against government intervention and the retreat from leftist economics and politics since the late 1970s. Although many debates from 200 years ago continue today, there is little sign that the modern revival of the classical 19th century views on the limitations of government has come with a revival of the complacency about poverty that was common early in that century. |
| Keywords: | Rural Poverty Reduction,Services&Transfers to Poor,Achieving Shared Growth,Poverty Reduction Strategies,Regional Economic Development |
| Date: | 2011–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5549&r=his |
| By: | Scherer, F. M. (Harvard Kennedy School) |
| Abstract: | A century ago, in 1911, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its path-breaking decision in the monopolization case against the Standard Oil Companies. Standard pleaded inter alia that its near-monopoly position was the result of superior innovation, citing in particular the Frasch-Burton process for refining the high-sulphur oil found around Lima, Ohio. This paper examines the role of Hermann Frasch in inventing and developing the desulphurization process, showing that Standard failed to recognize his inventive genius when he was its employee and purchased his rights and services only after he had applied the technique in his own Canadian company. |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp11-008&r=his |
| By: | Davide Cantoni |
| Abstract: | Many theories, most famously Max Weber’s essay on the “Protestant ethic,” have hypothesized that Protestantism should have favored economic development. With their considerable religious heterogeneity and stability of denominational affiliations until the 19th century, the German Lands of the Holy Roman Empire present an ideal testing ground for this hypothesis. Using population figures in a dataset comprising 272 cities in the years 1300–1900, I find no effects of Protestantism on economic growth. The finding is robust to the inclusion of a variety of controls, and does not appear to depend on data selection or small sample size. In addition, Protestantism has no effect when interacted with other likely determinants of economic development. I also analyze the endogeneity of religious choice; instrumental variables estimates of the effects of Protestantism are similar to the OLS results. |
| Keywords: | Protestantism, Culture, Economic Growth, Historical Development, Germany |
| JEL: | N13 N33 O11 Z12 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1260&r=his |
| By: | Börner, Lars; Hatfield, John William |
| Abstract: | We examine the evolution of decentralized clearinghouse mechanisms from the 13th to the 18th century; in particular, we explore the clearing of non- or limitedtradable debts like bills of exchange. We construct a theoretical model of these clearinghouse mechanisms, similar to the models in the theoretical matching literature, and show that specific decentralized multilateral clearing algorithms known as rescontre, skontrieren or virement des parties used by merchants were efficient in specific historical contexts. We can explain both the evolutionary self-organizing emergence of late medieval and early modern fairs, and its robustness during the 17th and 18th century. -- |
| Keywords: | market design,matching,history of decentralized clearinghouses |
| JEL: | C78 D02 N23 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:201027&r=his |
| By: | Barnes, Geoffrey (Yale University); Guinnane, Timothy W. (Yale University) |
| Abstract: | Simon Szreter's book Fertility, Class, and Gender in Britain, 1860-1940 argues that social and economic class fails to explain the cross-sectional differences in marital fertility as reported in the 1911 census of England and Wales. Szreter's conclusion made the book immediately influential, and it remains so. This finding matters a great deal for debates about the causes of the European fertility decline of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For decades scholars have argued whether the main forces at work were ideational or social and economic. This note reports a simple re-analysis of Szreter's own data, which suggests that social class does explain cross-sectional differences in English marital fertility in 1911. |
| JEL: | J13 N33 |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:yaleco:87&r=his |
| By: | Burgelman, Robert A. (Stanford Business School) |
| Abstract: | Longitudinal qualitative research combining grounded theorizing and insights from modern historical methods can generate novel conceptual frameworks that establish theoretical bridges between historical narratives and reductionist quantitative models. To capitalize fully on this potential theory-bridging role, qualitative scholars should seek to study social systems characterized by complexity and nonlinear causation. Effectively serving this theory-bridging role provides a basis for securing a distinctive place for qualitative research in the social sciences in general and for international business research in particular. |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:stabus:2045r&r=his |
| By: | Hasan, Zubair |
| Abstract: | This paper deals with familiar facts in monetary economics from an unfamiliar angle. It argues that it is not factual to regard the legal tender money and bank credit as of different genus: they work in tandem to the same ends in an economy, conventional or Islamic. Also, it does not matter what serves as money – solid gold or flimsy paper – for keeping its value stable; only the blind would argue that staff is indispensable for walking. Money is just an instrument: it was never nor can ever be classified into Islamic and non-Islamic. What it does – good or bad – depends on how we use it. Money does not generate crises; its mismanagement does. It follows that the refuge the world is searching today from recurring financial crises does not lie in money substance: history testifies that national economies could not remain turmoil-free during the centuries of the yellow metal sway over the monetary scene. The paper concludes that it is the human factor that has been the source of good or evil for mankind including money matters. And the quality of human factor true religion can alone improve: morality without faith is rudderless. |
| Keywords: | Key words: Monetary policies; Gold standard; managed currency; Islamic banking; Central banks |
| JEL: | E62 E42 E58 B50 B25 |
| Date: | 2011–01–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:28366&r=his |
| By: | Hanappi, Hardy |
| Abstract: | This paper explores how the visions of a future global political economy might shape its actual emergence. The emergence of powerful visions themselves seems to follow a pattern of discrete steps in historical time; it follows a beat of emancipation. In Europe the fundamental note was provided by the vision of enlightenment after the Dark Ages, which were kept in an ideological stalemate by religions. The beat of Luther’s early protestant secularization, Smith’s paleo-liberalism, Marx’ communism, micro-theological marginalism (Walras, Menger, Jevons), and Keynes’ collection of singular outposts of a more global design – this succession of forceful visions enabled and accompanied the explosion of population, output, and thus of possible visions of the last 60 years. Indeed the most terrible drawback of the 20th century, Hitler’s 3rd Reich, was explicitly based on a vision too: It envisaged 1000 years of dominance of the Arian race. But Hitler failed, and a new step of emancipative evolution could start to unfold. After the bi-polar visions of the bi-polar US-SU world collapsed in 1990, the last 20 years were characterized by an accelerating divergence of contradictions between visions and realities they address. The dominating vision - a footloose, privately accumulating (i.e. capitalist) entity growing in a crudely specified market environment – rather produced less social glue, less integration. And that contradicted the enormously refined, increasing interdependence of socio-economic relations within and across all social strata. The current crisis indicates that the next discrete step towards a common consciousness, anticipated by common visions, knocks at the door. The paper highlights features of this next beat of visions, which are already visible. To name a few examples: • Take the essential features of large scale financial institutions back into the realm of democratically legitimized politics. • Design the proper places for well-specified (different) market-mechanism to do their job as scarcity indicating devices rather than to be misused as dubious element of an even more dubious religion. • Invent and implement advanced bureaucracy control mechanisms that meet the challenges of global administration. In the conclusion the dangers of constructing such a large ship at sea are discussed. The threat of fascist visions conquering considerable parts of populations is eminent – in a sense the forces of WW2 have not disappeared yet. So while the positive and creative side of vision building has to be expanded, the same intellectual project also has to defend what historically has already been achieved – to avoid the barbarism of ‘tabula rasa’, fascist visions. |
| Keywords: | Vision; global political economy; Europe |
| JEL: | O1 P00 N00 |
| Date: | 2010–09–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:28398&r=his |
| By: | Raimundo Soto |
| Abstract: | Between 1860 and 1950, railroads in Chile were synonym of modernization, integration, and economic development. By the 1970s railroads were bankrupt and socially discredited, surviving out of government subsidies. By 2000, passenger services had disappeared but private sector freight operations were revitalized after swift reforms. We review the Chilean reforms and experience, focusing on regulation, public sector involvement and political interference, market entry, vertical integration, and externalities. Perhaps uniquely, two different forms of private sector participation in freight operations emerge after reforms: a vertically integrated, privatized railroad and a state-owned, open-access, concession system. |
| Keywords: | Railways, divestiture, regulation, industrial organization. |
| JEL: | L92 L51 L43 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ioe:doctra:391&r=his |
| By: | Akhabbar, Amanar |
| Abstract: | Depuis les années 1990, l’histoire de la pensée économique s’intéresse aux « marges » de la discipline et notamment aux pratiques économiques, à la profession d’économiste ainsi qu’à l’économie appliquée et à l’économie empirique. Elle n’est plus cantonnée à une histoire des théories économiques, à un monde éthéré d’idées pures. Mais cet intérêt nouveau peut conduire à un excès inverse et à évacuer toute dimension analytique et épistémologique. À cet égard, l’analyse input-output de Wassily Leontief apparaît comme l’archétype de l’instrument économique et statistique développé pour mettre en œuvre des politiques économiques de planification. Ignorée jusque là par l’histoire de la pensée économique elle est devenue, après l’économétrie, un sujet d’étude. Pour Alain Desrosières l’analyse input-output est l’outil par excellence de l’Etat ingénieur et, pour Mary Morgan, elle est représentative de la montée de l’interventionnisme technocratique en Occident. Dans cet article nous défendons l’idée selon laquelle ces interprétations sont trop réductrices car elles se concentrent sur les seules dimensions socio-politiques et instrumentales. Nous examinons alors, dans une approche comparative, les différentes dimensions qui ont permis la formation de l’analyse input-output. Notre argument principal consiste à insister sur la relation complémentaire entre une certaine forme d’instrumentation politique et technique et une certaine configuration épistémologique et culturelle de la science. Comprendre le tableau entrées-sorties ce n’est pas seulement saisir ce qui se produit dans les bureaux de statistique ou les ministères, mais aussi comment la science économique entière s’empare d’une manière de faire de la statistique, face à des enjeux scientifiques et politiques majeurs. Nous retraçons l’entremêlement des débats sur la politique économique et les controverses épistémologiques qui constituent le terreau sur lequel prend forme l’analyse input-output, depuis les débats sur la planification soviétique (1920-1929) jusqu’à la controverse de la mesure sans théorie (1947-1949). Nous montrons que loin d’être à part, l’analyse input-output est exemplaire du mouvement qui accompagne la transformation de la science économique en une technoscience, c’est-à-dire ici une science modélisée et statistique produisant des techniques de savoir et de pouvoir. |
| Keywords: | input output analysis; Leontief; planning; history of economics; Koopmans; soviet; methodology; econometrics; national accounting; Tinbergen; interindustrial; interwar |
| JEL: | C6 P0 B2 A14 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:28421&r=his |
| By: | George J. Hall (Department of Economics, Brandeis University); Thomas J. Sargent (Department of Economics, New York University) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a sequence of government budget constraints to motivate estimates of returns on the U.S. Federal government debt. Our estimates differ conceptually and quantitatively from the interest payments reported by the U.S. government. We use our estimates to account for contributions to the evolution of the debt-GDP ratio made by inflation, growth, and nominal returns paid on debts of different maturities. |
| Keywords: | Holding period returns, capital gains, inflation, growth, debt- GDP ratio, government budget constraint |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:brd:wpaper:01&r=his |
| By: | Luke Samy (Winton Institute for Monetary History and Nuffield College, University of Oxford.) |
| Abstract: | Some scholars have posited that mutual banks have fewer incentives to engage in excessive risk-taking than joint-stock banks because of the unique structure of property rights in the mutual firm. This paper uses their theory as a framework to explain the divergent risk-taking behavior of building societies between the pre-war and the inter-war periods, and between large and small societies in the latter period. It is argued in this paper that the low risk-taking behaviour predicted of mutual financial institutions like building societies can only be expected of small, regional societies which were less exposed to competition than their larger, city-based counterparts which competed more aggressively for investor funds and mortgage business. In the inter-war period, increased competition between societies led to levels of risk-taking hitherto unseen in the movement, leading to calls by the movement’s leaders to consolidate the sector into the hands of a few large societies. This process of consolidation promised to benefit members and to improve the overall efficiency of societies in the movement. The actual experience however shows that these promises were largely unmet. Rather, it is shown that the only beneficiaries of firm growth were building society managers, who were able to extract higher pay from empire building. |
| Date: | 2011–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nuf:esohwp:_086&r=his |
| By: | Mária Vojtková (University of Economics in Bratislava, Faculty of National Economy, Department of Banking and International Finance) |
| Abstract: | In the study we focus on theoretical and practical aspects of the role of the U.S. dollar in current international monetary system. We shortly describe the historical evolution of monetary system when it comes to the dollar position in it. Subsequently, we assess current status of the U.S. dollar in financial markets and its share on international foreign exchange reserves. In the application part, we examine how changes in the U.S. dollar exchange rate affect countries operating in the pegged exchange regime. At the same time, we focus on the problem of current account deficit of the U.S. balance of payments and its relationship to the export-oriented countries pegged to the U.S. dollar. |
| Keywords: | Bretton-Wood monetary system, U.S. dollar, pegged exchange regime, fixed exchange regime, balance of payment, terms of trade |
| JEL: | E42 E52 F30 F33 |
| Date: | 2011–01–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:brt:wpaper:002&r=his |
| By: | Bucheli, Marcelo (University of IL); Kim, Min-Young (University of IL) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the practice of integration of influential host country actors to a multinational corporation as a strategy to decrease problems of legitimacy to the foreign firm before the host country's society. By developing the concept of obsolescing legitimacy, we argue that this strategy provides legitimacy to the foreign firm only in the absence of institutional changes in the host country. Once these changes take place, an alliance by the multinational to an elite or a political system no longer ruling the host country will become a liability and will generate problems of legitimacy for the multinational. We illustrate our argument with the case of the US multinational United Fruit Company in Central America. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:illbus:10-0105&r=his |
| By: | Jamee K. Moudud; Francisco Martinez-Hernadez |
| Abstract: | From the spurring of productivity and the incubation of new technologies to its role in the maintenance of the safety and security of citizens, public investment is widely recognized to play a central role in the long-term economic and social development of society. This article will discuss the structural and institutional determinants of the financing of public investment, its evolution during the post-World War II period and its challenges faced in the current economic crisis. The discussion will revolve around the empirical fact, observed for a number of countries over fairly wide time periods, of a long-run co-trended relationship between public savings and public investment. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rmf:dpaper:26&r=his |
| By: | Michael Artis; George Chouliarakis; Pkg Harischandra |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the international business cycle behaviour across 25 advanced and emerging market economies for which 125 years of annual GDP data are available. The picture that emerges is more fragmented than the one drawn by studies that focused on a narrower set of advanced market economies. The paper offers evidence in favour of a secular increase in international business cycle synchronization within a group of European and a group of English-speaking economies that started during 1950-1973 and accelerated since 1973. Yet, in other regions of the world, country-specific shocks are still the dominant forces of business cycle dynamics. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:man:cgbcrp:153&r=his |
| By: | Nina Boberg-Fazlic (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen); Paul Sharp (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen); Jacob Weisdorf (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | We use data collected by the Cambridge Group to investigate and explain differences in fertility by socio-economic group in pre-industrial England. We find, in line with results presented by Greg Clark, that wealthier groups did indeed have higher fertility until the 1700s. We demonstrate that this had to do with earlier age at marriage for women. We then turn to the likely social and economic impact of this, considering Clark’s hypothesis that ‘middle class values’ spread through English society prior to the industrial revolution. Through the construction of social mobility tables, we demonstrate that the children of the rich were indeed spreading through society, but they were small in number relative to poorer sections of society, and moreover the children of the poor were also entering the middle classes. |
| Keywords: | demography; pre-industrial England, fertility; social mobility; survival of the richest |
| JEL: | N33 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kud:kuiedp:1102&r=his |
| By: | Börner, Lars; Quint, Daniel |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the market microstructure of pre-industrial Europe. In particular we investigate the institution of the broker in markets and fairs, and develop a unique data set of approximately 1100 sets of brokerage rules in 42 merchant towns in Central and Western Europe from the late 13th to the end of the 17th century. We show that towns implemented brokerage as an efficient matchmaking institution in a two-sided market problem. Furthermore, towns differentiated seller-friendly from buyer-friendlier matching mechanisms. We show that the decision to implement matchmaking mechanisms, and whether these mechanisms would be buyer- or seller friendly, depends on the products in question and the stated policy goals of the town, as well as time and geographic variables. -- |
| Keywords: | preindustrial markets,market microstructure,efficient matching |
| JEL: | D4 N23 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:201031&r=his |
| By: | Cormac Ó Gráda (University College Dublin) |
| Keywords: | famine, China, communism |
| Date: | 2011–01–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201103&r=his |
| By: | Lyttkens, Carl Hampus (Department of Economics, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | A period of two and a half millennia separates us from the Classical period of ancient Greece. Nevertheless, looking at ancient Greek medicine from the perspective of modern health economics is an interesting endeavour in that it increases our understanding of the ancient world and provides insights into contemporary society. Ancient Greece is rightly famous for pioneering secular and scientific medicine, but equally noteworthy is the prominence of healing cults, such as that of Asklepios. In this paper, the market for secular physicians is illuminated with tools from modern economics, for example the concern for the physician’s reputation. The simultaneous emergence in ancient Greece of a scientific and rational approach to medicine and the proliferation of religious medicine provides an interesting vantage point for a study of the current market for alternative medicine. Similar circumstances arguably lie behind the dual nature of the health market that was present then and is still present now. The underlying mechanism in both periods is hypothesised to be increased uncertainty in everyday life. |
| Keywords: | health; economics; medicine; ancient Greece; alternative |
| JEL: | I11 N33 |
| Date: | 2011–01–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2011_007&r=his |
| By: | Götze, Ralf |
| Abstract: | This paper deals with the changing role of the state in the Dutch healthcare system. At the eve of the first oil crisis the Netherlands had a relatively compound healthcare system combining several characteristics of the three Western healthcare system types: National Health Service, social health insurance system, and private health insurance system. Comparative case-studies on OECD countries indicate a hybridization trend from relatively pure to mixed healthcare systems during the era of 'permanent austerity'. The adequate question is therefore, how and why the role of the state has changed in the relatively mixed Dutch social health insurance system. In order to approach this research question in a systematic way, we distinguish between three dimensions of the healthcare system: regulation, financing, and service provision. In the regulation dimension we observe an increasing state influence on coverage by an incremental socialization of the private sector. This progress culminated in 2006 in the merger of sickness funds and private health insurances into a functional social health insurance under private law. Since the early 1980s the state also directly intervened in the corporatist bargaining of providers and insurers in order to contain costs and regain global competiveness. At the beginning of the new millennium tight budgets resulting in long waiting lists were no longer accepted against the background of a booming economy. Instead, the role of competition increased through new opportunities and incentives for selective contracting between insurers and providers. Therefore, we observe a shift from corporatist self-regulation towards state-regulated market competition within the institutional framework of a social health insurance system. This ongoing reform process towards a welfare market for medical goods was supported by the main political parties on the left and right in order to enhance efficiency and safeguard solidarity. -- Gegenstand dieses Papiers ist die veränderte Rolle des Staates im niederländischen Gesundheitssystem. Vor der ersten Ölkrise zeichneten sich die Niederlande durch ein vergleichsweise gemischtes Gesundheitssystem aus, das einzelne Elemente der drei westlichen Gesundheitssystemtypen beinhaltete: Nationaler Gesundheitsdienst, Sozialversicherungssystem und Privatversicherungssystem. Vergleichende politikwissenschaftliche Studien zeigen einen Hybridisierungstrend in der OECD-Welt von eher idealtypischen zu hybriden Gesundheitssystemen seit dem Ende des Goldenen Zeitalters der Wohlfahrtstaaten in den 1970er Jahren. Daraus ergibt sich die Frage, wie sich die Rolle des Staates im bereits zum Ausgangspunkt vergleichsweise gemischten niederländischen Sozialversicherungssystem entwickelt. Zur systematischen Beantwortung dieser Frage wird in diesem Papier zwischen drei Dimensionen eines Gesundheitssystems unterschieden: Regulierung, Finanzierung und Leistungserbringung. In der Regulierung zeigt sich ein deutlicher Anstieg des Staatseinflusses bei der Absicherung durch eine inkrementelle Sozialisierung der Privatversicherung. Dieser Prozess fand 2006 mit der Verschmelzung der gesetzlichen und privaten Krankenversicherung zu einer funktionalen Sozialversicherung auf privater Basis seinen vorläufigen Höhepunkt. Auch in der Interaktion zwischen Versicherern und Leistungserbringern baute der Staat seit Anfang der 1980er Jahre stetig seinen direkten Einfluss aus, um mit einer strikten Kostendämpfung die internationale Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der Niederlande zu verbessern. Zur Jahrtausendwende war die restriktive staatliche Budgetplanung allerdings angesichts steigender Wartezeiten nicht mehr vermittelbar, wodurch verstärkt Möglichkeiten und Anreize für mehr Vertragswettbewerb geschaffen wurden. Damit wurde die für Sozialversicherungssysteme typische korporatistische Selbstverwaltung schrittweise unterhöhlt und durch Elemente eines staatlich regulierten Wettbewerbs ersetzt. Diese sich weiterhin im Prozess befindliche Hinwendung zu einem Wohlfahrtsmarkt für Gesundheitsgüter wurde von den relevanten linken und bürgerlichen Parteien in unterschiedlichen Koalitionen in der Überzeugung mitgetragen, Effizienzpotenziale zu heben und die Solidarität nicht zu gefährden. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:sfb597:141&r=his |
| By: | Baafi Antwi, Joseph |
| Abstract: | The issue of Western guilt has enjoyed much attention after the independence of most colonized countries in the Third World (developing countries). Western guilt is defined here as the feeling that the West (developed countries) is responsible for the poverty of the Third World. For sometimes now, both the West and the developing countries have had some kind of agreement on the subject. But there has been an emergence of a new ideology championed mainly by Peter Bauer who has argued sternly against Western guilt. This ideology has caused many to sit up to reconsider the subject. The main of this paper is to provide the final verdict on this issue and bring the subject to a close. To do this, the paper identified four main factors of the proponents of Western guilt which includes Colonialism, Neo-colonialism, Slave trade and Trade Barriers. Part one of this work argued in favour of Western guilt using these four thematic areas. It was concluded that the West have been a major contributor of Third World poverty. Part two of this work will consider the otherwise of the situation and a verdict will be provided. |
| Keywords: | Western Guilt; Third World Countries; West; Development |
| JEL: | F02 |
| Date: | 2011–01–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:28422&r=his |
| By: | Coskun, Yener |
| Abstract: | The idea of development of capital markets and hence securities firms had resurfaced after 1980’s in Turkey, the latest and probably the final liberal period of Turkish economy. First regulations on securities firm business appaeard after Banking Crisis of 1982 (or Banker Crisis). The number of securities firms were dramatically increased in Turkey during the first half of the 1990’s. But it has observed that the number has gradually decreased after this periodic movement. This tendency is still going on in the securities firm business (Coşkun, 2009a: 2). In this process, some argue that risk management problems were relatively less important in the failed securities firms. But, because of the problems of data availability and lack of proper reporting, it would be too optimistic to assume that all securities firm failures in the above period were related to market conditions. In this context, it is important to define specific risks of securities firms. To define sector specific risks is also important to develop ideal risk management framework for securities firms. Therefore, in this article, the author analyses the features of the securities firm business, typical balance sheet and industry specific risks. |
| Keywords: | securities firms; risk; capital markets; Turkey |
| JEL: | D53 G32 G24 |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:28368&r=his |
| By: | Charles W. Calomiris; Joseph R. Mason; David C. Wheelock |
| Abstract: | In 1936-37, the Federal Reserve doubled the reserve requirements imposed on member banks. Ever since, the question of whether the doubling of reserve requirements increased reserve demand and produced a contraction of money and credit, and thereby helped to cause the recession of 1937-1938, has been a matter of controversy. Using microeconomic data to gauge the fundamental reserve demands of Fed member banks, we find that despite being doubled, reserve requirements were not binding on bank reserve demand in 1936 and 1937, and therefore could not have produced a significant contraction in the money multiplier. To the extent that increases in reserve demand occurred from 1935 to 1937, they reflected fundamental changes in the determinants of reserve demand and not changes in reserve requirements.> |
| Keywords: | Money supply ; Bank reserves ; Recessions |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2011-002&r=his |
| By: | Ramon Garrabou (Departament d’Economia i d’Història Econòmica, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain); Jordi Planas (Departament d’Història i Institucions Econòmiques, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain); Enric Saguer (Departament d’Història i Història de l’Art, Universitat de Girona, Spain); Enric Vicedo (Departament d’Història, Universitat de Lleida, Spain) |
| Abstract: | El análisis de la distribución de la propiedad de la tierra —y de las consecuencias sociales de ésta— entraña dificultades heurísticas y metodológicas importantes que suelen limitar la posibilidad de establecer comparaciones territoriales suficientemente sólidas y sistemáticas. Dicho análisis es difícilmente asumible a partir de aquellas estadísticas fiscales y catastrales que presentan los datos agregados y, por ello, ofrecen mayor cobertura territorial. Un acercamiento más realista y con mayor potencial sólo es posible combinando prospecciones locales en distintos ámbitos territoriales, en los cuales sea posible la identificación nominal tanto de los habitantes como de los propietarios de tierra usando simultáneamente padrones de población y relaciones catastrales. La presente comunicación pretende desarrollar un enfoque metodológico basado en el análisis de casos locales con el objetivo de analizar comparativamente el nivel de desigualdad social existente en la sociedad rural catalana de mediados del siglo XIX. |
| Keywords: | propiedad de la tierra, desigualdad, Cataluña, siglo XIX |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aub:uhewps:2011_01&r=his |
| By: | Josep Pujol Andreu (Departament d’Economia i d’Història Econòmica, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain) |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aub:uhewps:2011_02&r=his |
| By: | Filippo Randelli (Università degli Studi di Firenze,); Ron Boschma (Department of Economic Geography, Utrecht University) |
| Abstract: | Italian industrial districts are undergoing fundamental changes due to globalization. Taking a firm perspective, we argue that the analysis of firm strategies, in particular the rise of business groups, is key to understand the organizational adjustments industrial districts have recently gone through. Due to the typical family structure of industrial district firms in the Marche region, as in other fragmented Italian districts, the organizational form adopted by firms to manage growth is that of the business group. We evaluate the empirical relevance of business groups in the Marche region, and we describe different transition strategies that turned firms into business groups. |
| Keywords: | Industrial Districts, Business Groups, Globalization, Marche Region |
| JEL: | L22 R12 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2011_05.rdf&r=his |