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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2011‒12‒13
29 papers chosen by |
| By: | Hugh Rockoff (Rutgers) |
| Abstract: | Abstract: Wars have been the main forces shaping the international trading system in the twentieth century. The early years of the twentieth century were dominated by the international gold standard. But as a result of World War I, this system was replaced by the troubled gold exchange standards of the 1920s and 1930s. As a result of World War II the interwar system was replaced in turn by the Bretton Woods system. And as a result of inflation of the late 1960s, produced in part by America's war in Vietnam, the Bretton Woods system was replaced by the current system of flexible exchange rates. The European monetary union was a response to German reunification and the perceived need to defuse potential conflicts through a high level of economic cooperation. |
| Keywords: | war, finance, globalization |
| JEL: | N40 |
| Date: | 2011–04–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rut:rutres:201101&r=his |
| By: | Johan Fourie (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch) |
| Abstract: | The Cape Colony of the eighteenth century was one of the most prosperous regions in the world. This paper shows that Cape farmers prospered, on average, because of the economies of scale and scope achieved through slavery. Slaves allowed farmers to specialise in agricultural products that were in high demand from the passing ships – notably, wheat, wine and meat – and the by-products from these products, such as tallow, skins, soap and candles. In exchange, farmers could import cheap manufactured products from Europe and the East. Secondly, the paper investigates why the relative affluence of the early settlers did not evolve into a high growth trajectory. The use of slaves as a substitute for wage labour or other capital investments allowed farmers to prosper, but it also resulted in severe inequality. It was this high inequality that drove the growth-debilitating institutions posited by Engerman and Sokoloff (2000). The immigration of Europeans was discouraged after 1717, and again during the middle of the century, while education was limited to the wealthy. Factor endowments interacted with institutions to create a highly unequal early South African society, with long-term development consequences. |
| Keywords: | Slavery, Settler, Proto-industry, Eighteenth century, South Africa |
| JEL: | N57 N27 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers149&r=his |
| By: | Perrin, Cedric |
| Abstract: | The tanning industry is presented today, by its own enterprises but also in the media, as a champion of sustainable development through the come back of the vegetable method, abandoned since the early twentieth century. The argument is problematic in relation to the concept of sustainable development itself, but also with regard to the history of this industry which is in contrary among the most polluting. The abandonment of vegetable tannage at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries must be understood by situating this technological development in its economic and social framework. Adherence to sustainable development seems well, therefore, like a recent development to meet the challenges of the sector. |
| Keywords: | tanning industry - vegetable tannage - sustanaible development |
| JEL: | N84 Q01 N83 |
| Date: | 2011–12–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:35167&r=his |
| By: | Péter Ori; Levente Pakot |
| Abstract: | - |
| Keywords: | Hungary, historical demography, historical sources |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2011-020&r=his |
| By: | Ghita, Eugen |
| Abstract: | The article offers a brief overview of the administrative-territorial organization and reorganization in the former county of Arad. Old medieval boundaries have known significant changes after the installation of Habsburg rule. Political, social and military reasons determined the imperial authorities to make several reorganizations of the area. Institutions were designed to ensure proper functioning of the county, but also contributed to the upgrade of the administrative structures on the Enlightenment spirit. |
| Keywords: | Arad County; Habsburg Empire; XVIIIth century; institutions; administration |
| JEL: | N9 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:35181&r=his |
| By: | Koehn, Julia |
| Abstract: | It is shown that early research in modern financial economics had substantially been driven by the application of the research strategy of economics and the use of newly developed mathematical methods. For this purpose the professionalization of business education as a consequence of changes in the U.S. economy after Word War II is presented. The emergence of professional Journals in financial economics, similar to the academic culture including the trend of applying abstract mathematical reasoning and during the war developed methods like linear programming are highlighted. Also the meaning of Milton Friedman's 1953 essay The Methodology of Positive Economics for the dominance of abstract and prediction driven research in modern financial economics gets discussed. Finally, the emergence of Harry Markowitz's paper Portfolio Selection (1952) is used to substantiate the hypothesis. -- |
| Keywords: | history of finance,portfolio theory,business schools,modern financial economics,modelling,theories of modern financial economics,risk management,positivism,professionalization,methodology of finance |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:uwhdps:162011&r=his |
| By: | Marc Flandreau, Juan Flores, Norbert Gaillard, Sebasti‡n Nieto-Parra (IHEID, The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva) |
| Abstract: | This paper covers the long-term evolution of the primary market for foreign government debt. We discuss the role of financial intermediaries as underwriters and distributors of securities, providers of information, and lending of last resort services since the early 19th century, and the evolution of this role. We underscore the role of the prestige of global financial brands in sustaining early foreign debt markets and its weakening in the modern era. |
| Keywords: | Sovereign debt, primary bond market, reputation, underwriting, certification, information asymmetries, investment banking, credit rating agencies, IMF |
| JEL: | G15 G24 N20 |
| Date: | 2011–12–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gii:giihei:heidwp15-2011&r=his |
| By: | Mikolaj Szoltysek (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | This essay represents an attempt at a re-examination of the Western scientific evidence for the existence of the divergent “Eastern European family pattern.” This evidence is challenged by almost entirely unknown contributions of Eastern European scholars, revealing the stark incompatibility of the two discourses. This paper is informed to a large extent by R. Wall’s voluminous research on European household and family systems. Wall’s original observation of non-negligible spatial variation within the supposedly homogenous North-Western European marriage and family pattern is used here as a starting point to show the true diversity of familial organization in Eastern Europe, which had been placed at the other end of the spectrum of what was long believed to be a dichotomous division in European family systems. The diversity of family forms and the rhythms of their development in historical Eastern Europe presented in this literature should finally free us from a simplistic view of the continent’s familial history, and especially from the perspective implied by the notion of a “dividing line.” |
| Keywords: | Europe, family forms |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2011-021&r=his |
| By: | Simon Ville (University of Wollongong); Peter Siminski (University of Wollongong) |
| Abstract: | Australia’s commitment to the Vietnam War drew on the selective conscription of additional manpower through 16 biannual ballots. 20-year-old men were liable to serve if their date of birth was drawn out. The random nature of the ballot was seen as an equitable method of selection for a system of labour coercion that was potentially life-threatening. We investigate the various stages of conscription of these ‘national servicemen’ to undertake service in Vietnam throughout the war and evaluate the extent to which the processes provided for fair and equitable selection. Comparisons are drawn with a similar process of Vietnam-War era conscription in the United States. |
| Keywords: | Australia; conscription; ballot; Vietnam War |
| JEL: | J47 J45 N37 N47 H56 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uow:depec1:wp11-16&r=his |
| By: | Rota, Mauro |
| Abstract: | The Kantian thought had advanced the idea that wars and military expenditure should decrease as long as democracy widens across the World. Historical evidence seems to invalidate this wisdom because frequency of wars is ncreasing over time and a large amount of public resources is still being committed to military spending. This paper contributes to explain this point by considering the effect of polity regimes on the military spending during the period 1880-1938. Indeed, before World War I the more democratic countries spent more for military purposes than autocracies whereas the reverse is true after 1920. This puzzling behaviour is therefore explained by the inconsistent timing between the ability of a state to drain resources by taxation (state fiscal capacity) and the political participation. Thus, the Kantian idea of a democratic and peaceful world seems to hold only for full democracy with large political participation. |
| Keywords: | Military spending; polity regimes; war; political participation |
| JEL: | H56 N40 |
| Date: | 2011–11–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:35254&r=his |
| By: | ciani scarnicci, manuela |
| Abstract: | Skidelsky’s last work « The Return of the Master” gives a new perspective to his previous studies about J.M. Keynes. In this new light, he studies the Keynesian theories, no longer in the historical context in which they were developed, but using them to explain and to try to find a solution to modern economy. This work almost represents a denunciation towards the new economic theory system that loses sight of the importance of the uncertainty, and overestimated the value of currency, and have not considered other values such as ethics and morals. |
| Keywords: | the return of Keynes's Theory |
| JEL: | A13 A11 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:35128&r=his |
| By: | William Kennedy; Robert Delargy |
| Abstract: | Drawing on a comprehensive data set consisting of dividend payments, security prices, and stock exchange disclosures, this paper argues that, contrary to common interpretation, potentially damaging government regulations imposed in 1882 cannot explain the retarded development of the nascent British electrical industry in its first decade. Instead, as informed opinion at the time maintained, wildly inflated expectations had by the spring of 1882 driven the publicly-traded security prices of putative electrical enterprises to manifestly unsustainable levels. When initial demand and operating profits failed to meet these grossly extravagant expectations, “irrational exuberance” quickly turned to equally undisciplined pessimism in a classic case of stock market boom and bust - with predictable consequences, most notably a collapse of subsequent investment and development at a time of great technological ferment, when durable early-mover advantages were being established among electrical manufacturers globally. This debilitating sequence of market boom and bust was further exacerbated by the fact that during the brief boom surprisingly little money was invested in the promising technologies that were available. Technological rather than regulatory risk was the dominant factor in the 1882 electrical debacle, with long lasting consequences. |
| Date: | 2011–11–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esx:essedp:701&r=his |
| By: | Jordi Catalan; Ramon Ramon-Munoz (Universitat de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the sources of competitive advantage of the Spanish export industrial districts that specialised in textile, apparel and footwear products. It shows that most of the nowadays outstanding Spanish firms in fashion-related international markets emerged from 1980s districts. Using a new database, the paper concludes that by then there were as many neo-Marshallian exporting districts dominated by small firms as hub-firm districts coordinated by medium-large companies. This probably allowed the latter to combine the advantages derived from Marshallian external economies (i.e. non-codified knowledge, subsidiary industries and specialized labour force) with those connected to leading firms organizational capabilities. |
| Keywords: | fashion, inheritance, industrial district, textiles and apparel, leather and footwear, competitive advantage, leading firms, clusters |
| JEL: | N84 N64 L25 R12 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bar:bedcje:2011265&r=his |
| By: | Quamrul Ashraf; Oded Galor |
| Abstract: | This research argues that variations in the interplay between cultural assimilation and cultural diffusion have played a significant role in giving rise to differential patterns of economic development across the globe. Societies that were geographically less vulnerable to cultural diffusion benefited from enhanced assimilation, lower cultural diversity, and more intense accumulation of society-specific human capital. Thus, they operated more efficiently with respect to their production-possibility frontiers and flourished in the technological paradigm that characterized the agricultural stage of development. The lack of cultural diffusion and its manifestation in cultural rigidity, however, diminished the ability of these societies to adapt to a new technological paradigm, which delayed their industrialization and, hence, their take-off to a state of sustained economic growth. The theory thus contributes to the understanding of the advent of divergence and overtaking in the process of development. Consistently with the theory, the empirical analysis establishes that (i) geographical isolation prevalent in pre-industrial times (i.e., prior to the advent of airborne transportation technology) has had a persistent negative impact on the extent of contemporary cultural diversity; (ii) pre-industrial geographical isolation had a positive impact on economic development in the agricultural stage but has had a negative impact on income per capita in the course of industrialization; and (iii) cultural diversity, as determined exogenously by pre-industrial geographical isolation, has had a positive impact on economic development in the process of industrialization. |
| JEL: | N0 O1 O4 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17640&r=his |
| By: | Stolz, Yvonne; Baten, Jörg; Botelho, Tarcísio |
| Abstract: | We estimate a long-run trend of Brazilian human capital that extends back to the very beginning of the 18th century. With new data on selective immigration during the era of mass migrations at the end of the 19th century, we show that human capital endowment of international migrants can induce effects on economic development that persist until today. According to our estimations, the effect of selective immigration on real GDP per capita in the year 2000 is significant and equals around 75 US $ overall. As a reference, this value equals the amount poor Brazilians get to supplement their subsistence in the Fome Zero (Zero Hunger) program. We argue that human capital formation is a highly path-dependent and persistent process. -- |
| Keywords: | migration,economic growth,Brazil,human capital,path dependency |
| JEL: | F22 J40 I21 N30 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuewef:20&r=his |
| By: | François-Xavier De Vaujany (DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - CNRS : UMR7088 - Université Paris IX - Paris Dauphine); Isabelle Walsh (Humanis - Humans and Management in Society - Université de Strasbourg); Nathalie Mitev (Departement of information systems - London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | In order to explore scientific writing in Information Systems (IS) journals, we adopt a combination of historical and rhetorical approaches. We first investigate the history of universities, business schools, learned societies and scientific articles. This perspective allows us to capture the legacy of scientific writing standards, which emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries. Then, we focus on two leading IS journals (EJIS and MISQ). An historical analysis of both outlets is carried out, based on data related to their creation, evolution of editorial statements, and key epistemological and methodological aspects. We also focus on argumentative strategies found in a sample of 436 abstracts from both journals. Three main logical anchorages (sometimes combined) are identified, and related to three argumentative strategies: 'deepening of knowledge', 'solving an enigma' and 'addressing a practical managerial issue'. We relate these writing norms to historical imprints of management and business studies, in particular: enigmafocused rhetorics, interest in institutionalized literature, neglect for managerially grounded rhetoric and lack of reflexivity in scientific writing. We explain this relation as a quest for academic legitimacy. Lastly, some suggestions are offered to address the discrepancies between these writing norms and more recent epistemological and theoretical stances adopted by IS researchers. |
| Keywords: | argumentative strategies; history; academic writing; legitimacy |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00644398&r=his |
| By: | FUJITA Masahisa |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I explain Thünen's pioneering work on industrial agglomeration. In my opinion, Thünen's thinking on industrial agglomeration was not only amazingly advanced for his time, but in many respects remains novel even today. It is shown that if we unify Thünen's well-known theory on agricultural land use with this pioneering work on industrial agglomeration by using modern tools, then we essentially come up with a prototype of New Economic Geography model. |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:11074&r=his |
| By: | Prak, Maarten |
| Abstract: | ‘Good’ institutions are now often portrayed as a precondition for economic development and growth. This paper revisits an old thesis, first articulated by Max Weber, that citizenship explains why Europe managed to modernise and Asian societies did not. Like Weber, the paper focuses on urban citizenship, but uses a broader definition than he did. The paper finds that although Asian towns did not have legal citizenship, they displayed many more characteristics of citizenship-as-practice than Weber and his followers allowed for. It also finds that European towns often were less autonomous than Weber assumed. Economic development and growth in the pre-modern era were not so much determined by citizenship per se, but by the way towns and urban interests could be articulated at state level. |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:lselon:http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/39751/&r=his |
| By: | Mouhcine Tallaki; Enrico Bracci |
| Abstract: | The relation between an organization, economic, social and cultural contexts leads to ask the question whether those organizations, not only big companies but also SMEs, can transfer their domestic Management Control Systems (henceforth MCSs) overseas or they need to redesign them according to cultural imperatives of other nation (Graeme et al., 1999). The rise of internationalization versus localization emphasizes the significance of this question. The study of differences in MCSs has been discussed in the literature according to different approaches, namely: the cultural approach, societal effects, new institutionalism and historical approach (Bhimani, 1999). One of management diversity causes which was highlighted by the most of the approaches is the culture. This paper aims to sketch an embryonic conceptual framework to understand the relationship between national culture and MCSs. In doing so, the case of the Italy-Morocco is considered adopting a combination of historical analyses, new institutionalism and cultural approach. Culture is not stable and evolves over the time (Morin, 1984), it is learned and not inherited. With the adoption of an historical approach, we attempt to study the origins of MCSs and to understand the circumstances under which they were born, spread and institutionalized. New institutionalism helps us to understand how organizational ideals become common and how they are shared in languages and symbols. Cultural approach instead explains how cultural values may affect the management, this approach was developed with the apparition of Hofstede study about culture and management. |
| Keywords: | management control; national culture; management diversity |
| JEL: | M16 M41 |
| Date: | 2011–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udf:wpaper:201118&r=his |
| By: | Roy, Tirthankar |
| Abstract: | Using data on the production and usage of cotton, the paper develops estimates for the production and consumption of cotton cloth in India during 1795-1940, and based on these numbers, revisits three issues central to interpretations of economic change in colonial India. These are: (a) trends in levels of living, (b) the correlation between production of textiles and consumption of textiles, and (c) consumption of clothing in India in relation to the rest of the world. |
| Keywords: | consumption; India; standard of living; textiles |
| JEL: | N35 N95 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8669&r=his |
| By: | Pablo Querubin; James M. Snyder, Jr. |
| Abstract: | We employ a regression discontinuity design based on close elections to estimate the rents from a seat in the U.S. congress between 1850-1880. Using census data, we compare wealth accumulation among those who won or lost their first race by a small margin. We find evidence of significant returns for the first half of the 1860s, during the Civil War, but not for other periods. We hypothesize that increased opportunities from the sudden spike in government spending during the war and the decrease in control by the media and other monitors might have made it easier for incumbent congressmen to collect rents. |
| JEL: | D72 D78 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17634&r=his |
| By: | Marcus Noland (East-West Center & Peterson Institute for International Economics); ; |
| Abstract: | South Korea is arguably the premier development success story of the last half century. For 47 years starting in 1963, the economy averaged 7 percent real growth annually, and experienced only two years of economic contraction: 1980 after the second oil shock and the assassination of President Park Chung-hee, and 1998 at the nadir of the Asian financial crisis. At the start of that period South Korea had a per capita income lower than that of Mozambique or Bolivia; today it is richer than Spain or New Zealand, and was the first Asian and first non-G7 country to host a summit of the G20, the unofficial steering committee of the world economy. The South Korean case is of interest for a variety of reasons. Rapid growth coincided with extensive state interventions in the economy, and considerable controversy exists as to how much this performance should be credited to the country’s state-led development strategy and to what extent the lessons from that experience might be portable or applied elsewhere. The salience of this issue has grown as South Korea has become a more important provider of development assistance and advice. Now the country faces challenges in maintaining its superior economic performance in the face of an aging population domestically and a taxing external environment. Finally, the country confronts scenarios involving potential instability, collapse, and/or absorption of its neighbor, North Korea. |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ewc:wpaper:wp123&r=his |
| By: | Correa-López, Mónica (Economic Research Department, BBVA Research, and Department of Economics, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester.); de Blas, Beatriz (Departamento de Análisis Económico (Teoría e Historia Económica), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.) |
| Abstract: | This paper documents stylized facts of international medium-term business cycles by exploring the pattern of comovement between a catching-up economy, Spain, and each of the obvious candidate countries to technological leadership of the 1950-2007 period, the U.S., France, Germany, Italy and the U.K. A remarkable feature of the international medium-term business cycle is the strong, positive lead displayed by the U.S. technology and terms of trade cycles over Spain's macroeconomic aggregates. The corresponding evidence when the counterpart to Spain is a large European economy is weaker, particularly in the case of Europe's medium-term technology cycles. Non-parametric tests results suggest that, over the medium-term cycle, a shift towards more economic integration may not necessarily be associated with increased international comovement. |
| Keywords: | Medium-term business cycles; Stylized facts; International comovement; Technology diffusion. |
| JEL: | E32 F41 F44 O3 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uam:wpaper:201109&r=his |
| By: | Lefteris Tsoulfidis (Department of Economics, University of Macedonia); Dimitris Paitaridis (Department of Economics, University of Macedonia) |
| Abstract: | Smith’s theory of the falling rate of profit has been usually interpreted as a result of the intensification of competition in the markets of goods and services of the factors of production. This aspect of Adam Smith had been initially posed by Ricardo and subsequently was widely adopted by the major economists of the past as well as from the majority of the modern historians of economic thought. In our view, Smith’s analysis of the falling tendency in the rate of profit is by far more complex than usually presented and that the intensification of competition is the result of the falling rate of profit rather than its cause which is the capitalization of the production process. |
| Keywords: | Rate of Profit, competition, mechanization, Adam Smith, Stationary State. |
| JEL: | B10 B12 B13 B14 B16 H50 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcd:mcddps:2011_18&r=his |
| By: | Gina Greene (Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | This talk examines the écoles de plein air, or open-air schools, as they developed during the interwar years in France. Troubled by visions of ‘race enfeeblement’ which seemed to be evidenced by the low French birth-rate, high child mortality rate, and high tuberculosis rate, physicians, educators, and politicians promoted open-air schools with an unabashedly utopian zeal. It was believed that such schools could achieve the eugenic project of rehabilitating scores of feeble, anemic, and ‘pre-tubercular’ working-class children by removing them from cities and exposing them to nature, fresh air, and heliotherapy. The universal establishment of such schools, claimed one promoter, would be a first step towards ensuring healthy and vigorous future generations of children imbued with “the joy of living, the strength to work and, later, to fight." This talk will seek to explain why such utopian aspirations were brought to what was a dubious and ill-defined project and how architects in France strove to give concrete form to these aspirations. Their challenge: to create structures that increased rather than hindered the access to the fresh air and sunlight that, it was believed, would ‘save the race.’ |
| Keywords: | France, youth, young people, schooling, race |
| JEL: | I18 I28 J15 N34 Z11 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cpanda:1362&r=his |
| By: | Emek Basker |
| Abstract: | Barcodes and barcode scanners transformed the grocery industry in the 1970s. I use store-level data from the 1972, 1977, and 1982 Census of Retail Trade, matched to data on store scanner installations, to estimate scanners’ effect on labor productivity. I find that early scanners increased a store’s labor productivity, on average, by approximately 4.5 percent in the first few years. The effect was larger in stores carrying more packaged products, consistent with the presence of network externalities. Short-run gains were small relative to fixed costs, suggesting that the impediment to widespread adoption of the new technology was profitability, not coordination problems. |
| Keywords: | Barcode scanners, Retail, Supermarkets, Technology, Productivity |
| JEL: | L81 D22 O33 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:11-16r&r=his |
| By: | Myck, Michal (Centre for Economic Analysis, CenEA); Bohacek, Radim (CERGE-EI) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the extent and effects of job-related persecution under communist regimes in the Czech Republic and Poland using a representative sample of individuals aged 50+ from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. Retrospective information collected in the SHARELIFE interview offers a unique chance to relate past and current labor market outcomes to experiences of persecution reflecting the historical developments in Central Europe in the 20th century. Individual level data with details on labor market histories is matched with information on the experiences of state oppression. On-the-job persecution is found to have significant effect on job quality assessment and is strongly related to reporting of distinct periods of stress in both countries. Consequences of on-the-job persecution seem to have been much more severe and longer lasting in the Czech Republic, with significant financial effects of job loss or discrimination. This is explained by the greater degree of state control over the labour market in the former Czechoslovakia compared to Poland and different characteristics of the dissident groups in both countries. |
| Keywords: | labor discrimination, persecution, job satisfaction, life histories, history of Central Europe |
| JEL: | J71 J28 N44 I19 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6130&r=his |
| By: | Whalley, Jason; Curwen, Peter |
| Abstract: | Each year the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development produces a report on foreign direct investment (FDI). This report highlights trends on FDI, and identifies the world's largest transnational corporation (TNC). Prominent among the largest TNS are telecommunication companies such as Vodafone and Telefónica. Less obvious due to its diversified description is Hutchison Whampoa, a large conglomerate with a long history of an active presence in the telecommunications industry. This paper charts the history of this involvement before focusing on whether its recent investment in third-generation (3G) licences will be as successful as previous its ones. Through analysing the 3G investments that it has made, this paper argues that Hutchison Whampoa is unlikely to enjoy the same success with these 3G investments as it has in the past with Orange and its Indian operations. -- |
| Keywords: | Hutchison Whampoa,3 Group,operational performance,telecommunications |
| JEL: | L22 L96 M13 O33 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:itse11:52188&r=his |
| By: | Estrada, Fernando |
| Abstract: | This article aims to discuss an evaluation of the concept of paradigm of T. Kuhn in his representative work: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions ERC, [Ku96] and the complementary version by W. Stegmüller, Structure and dynamics of theories EDT, [Steg83]. This refined interpretation of the concept of paradigm allows for a more complete set of central Kuhnian concept. |
| Keywords: | Paradigm; Kuhn; Economics; Stegmüller; Epistemology |
| JEL: | B0 B31 A12 B00 B41 C72 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:35210&r=his |