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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2012‒04‒23
sixteen papers chosen by |
| By: | Voigtländer, Nico; Voth, Hans-Joachim |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we assess the determinants of long-run persistence of local culture, and examine the success of policy interventions designed to change attitudes. We analyze anti-Semitic attitudes drawing on individual-level survey results from Germany’s social value survey in 1996 and 2006. On average, we find that historical voting patterns for anti-Semitic parties between 1890 and 1933 are powerful predictors of anti-Jewish attitudes today. There is evidence that transmission takes place both vertically (parent to child) and horizontally (among peers). Policy modified German views on Jews in important ways: The cohort that grew up under the Nazi regime shows significantly higher levels of anti-Semitism. After 1945, the victorious Allies implemented denazification programs in their zones of occupation. We use differences in these policies between the occupying powers as a source of identifying variation. The US and French zones today still show high anti-Semitism, reflecting an ambitious botched attempt at denazification. In contrast, the British and Soviet zones, register much lower levels of Jew-hatred. |
| Keywords: | anti-Semitism; attitudes; cultural transmission |
| JEL: | N44 Z1 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8935&r=his |
| By: | Kikkawa, Takeo |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hjbswp:140&r=his |
| By: | Laura Panza (School of Economics, La Trobe University) |
| Abstract: | The Ottoman Empire underwent a process of integration with the global economy during the second half of the Nineteenth Century. This paper explores one aspect of this process, examining the linkages established between the cotton industries in Egypt and Western Anatolia, which we consider as part of the Empire, and the international cotton market during the first wave of globalisation. We undertake a quantitative exploration of the pattern of price transmission between the Ottoman and the international cotton markets over this period, connecting changes in the nature of spatial market integration to major economic and political developments. |
| Keywords: | Market integration, Globalisation, Ottoman Empire |
| JEL: | F15 N15 N75 O1 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trb:wpaper:2012.01&r=his |
| By: | Michiaki Obata (Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo) |
| Abstract: | Stage theory of capitalist development proposed by Kozo Uno(1897 - 1977) is a method to clarify the characteristics of imperial capitalism that started at the end of the 19th century typically in Germany. It is founded on the revise of Marx's "Capital". However, in order to depict the new rise of emerging capitalism at the end of the 20th century it is necessary to review the Uno's method, especially on the notion of the mercantilist stage, related to the stage of "development" and "origin" of capitalism. It leads us to replace the traditional "single origin theory" which assumes the capitalist development passes through three stages of rise, progress and decline with the "multiplex origin theory" of capitalism. The new stage theory requires another revise of political economy based on Uno's "pure capitalism" approach. |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tky:jseres:2012cj239&r=his |
| By: | Karlsson, Martin (Technische Universität Darmstadt); Nilsson, Therese (Department of Economics, Lund University); Pichler, Stefan (Technische Universität Darmstadt) |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic on economic performance in Sweden. The pandemic was one of the severest and deadliest pandemics in human history, but it has hitherto received only scant attention in the economic literature { despite important implications for modern-day pandemics. In this paper, we exploit seemingly exogenous variation in incidence rates between Swedish regions to estimate the impact of the pandemic. Using difference in-differences and high-quality administrative data from Sweden, we estimate the effects on earnings, capital returns and poverty. We find that the pandemic led to a significant increase in poverty rates. There is also relatively strong evidence that capital returns were negatively affected by the pandemic. On the other hand, we find robust evidence that the influenza had no discernible effect on earnings. This finding is surprising since it goes against most previous empirical studies as well as theoretical predictions. |
| Keywords: | Spanish Flu; Dierence-in-Dierences |
| JEL: | I18 J31 O40 |
| Date: | 2012–03–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2012_007&r=his |
| By: | Cantoni, Davide; Yuchtman, Noam |
| Abstract: | We present new data documenting medieval Europe’s Commercial Revolution” using information on the establishment of markets in Germany. We use these data to test whether medieval universities played a causal role in expanding economic activity, examining the foundation of Germany’s first universities after 1386 following the Papal Schism. We find that the trend rate of market establishment breaks upward in 1386 and that this break is greatest where the distance to a university shrank most. There is no differential pre-1386 trend associated with the reduction in distance to a university, and there is no break in trend in 1386 where university proximity did not change. These results are not affected by excluding cities close to universities or cities belonging to territories that included universities. Universities provided training in newly-rediscovered Roman and Canon law; students with legal training served in positions that reduced the uncertainty of trade in medieval Europe. We argue that training in the law, and the consequent development of legal and administrative institutions, was an important channel linking universities and greater economic activity. |
| Keywords: | Human Capital; Historical Development; Legal Institutions |
| JEL: | I25 N13 N33 O10 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:muenec:12896&r=his |
| By: | Gathmann, Christina; Jürges, Hendrik; Reinhold, Steffen |
| Abstract: | Education yields substantial non-monetary benefits, but the size of these gains is still debated. Previous studies, for example, report contradictory effects of education and compulsory schooling on mortality – ranging from zero to large mortality reductions. Using data from 19 compulsory schooling reforms implemented in Europe during the twentieth century, we quantify the mean mortality effect and explore its dispersion across gender, time and countries. We find that men benefit from compulsory education both in the shorter and longer run. In contrast, compulsory schooling reforms have little or no effect on mortality for women. |
| Keywords: | Compulsory schooling , education , mortality , Europe |
| JEL: | I12 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mnh:wpaper:30386&r=his |
| By: | Daron Acemoglu |
| Abstract: | Following on Keynes’s Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren, this paper develops conjectures about the world we will leave to our grandchildren. It starts by outlining the 10 most important trends that have defined our economic, social, and political lives over the last 100 years. It then provides a framework for interpreting these trends, emphasizing the role of the expansion of political and civil rights and institutional changes in this process. It then uses this framework for extrapolating these 10 trends into the next 100 years. |
| JEL: | O10 O30 P16 P17 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17994&r=his |
| By: | Antonella Stirati |
| Abstract: | The theory of employment is clearly a central question in economic thought. Economists of all traditions and schools have always admitted short run fluctuations in aggregate employment levels associated with the business cycle and explained them with a variety of factors. Yet the central question is, of course, fluctuations around which long run level of employment? Focussing mainly on long run aspects of employment theory, this paper aims at providing an overview of different theoretical approaches that have been prominent in various phases in the history of economics up to the present. It necessarily summarizes and, hence, simplifies approaches and debates, but may be useful in suggesting that textbook accounts of past authors (including Keynes) and approaches may be wrong, or at least very controversial. It may thus stimulate a renewed interest in past authors and suggest the possibility of a different angle in reading past and present controversies. |
| Keywords: | Employment theory; History of Economics, Say’s law; schools of thought in macroeconomics |
| JEL: | B00 E00 E24 J01 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtr:wpaper:0148&r=his |
| By: | Farley Grubb |
| Abstract: | The British North American colonies were the first western economies to rely on legislative-issued fiat paper monies as their principal internal media of exchange. This system arose piecemeal. It was monetary experimentation on a grand scale. In the absence of banks and treasuries that exchanged local fiat monies at fixed rates for specie monies (outside monies) on demand, colonial governments experimented with other ways to anchor their fiat monies to real values in the economy. These mechanisms included tax-redemption, interest-bearing notes, land-backed mortgage loans, sinking funds, and legal tender laws. The structure and performance of these mechanisms are explained. <i>"[The colonies] cannot keep Gold and Silver among them sufficient for the Purposes of their internal Commerce... Paper Bills called Bills of Credit or Paper Money have therefore in the colonies long been substituted for real Money. Various Ways of issuing these and on different Foundations, have at different Times been thought of and practised.... On the whole no Method has been found to give any Degree of fixed, steady, uniform Value to Bills of Credit in America,..." (Benjamin Franklin, 13 Feb. 1767)</i> |
| JEL: | E42 E50 F31 G10 H60 K29 N11 N21 N41 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17997&r=his |
| By: | Rai, Soumi |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses gaps in research related to study and understanding of Human Resource Management in the context of Indian Automobile sector. The review is based on the available and published literature in peer reviewed journals of reputation and academic standing. A total of 138 papers were reviewed related to the general context of Human Resource Management practices. Of these, about 65 papers were found relevant and relating to understanding of HRM practices in India specifically in the context of the industrial sector. The timeline for literature review has been taken from 1970 - 2010, as it encompasses the period of industrialization in India, growth of HRM and major transition across Indian industrial sector post economic liberalization - 1991. -- |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbgwp:spiii2012301&r=his |
| By: | Nikolaus Wolf (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, CEPR and CESifo) |
| Abstract: | The recent debate on the Eurozone failed to appreciate a particular characteristic of European crisis experiences, namely their fundamentally political character. To make my argument, I borrow from Dani Rodrik (2000) the framework of a “political trilemma” between cross-border economic integration, national institutions and democracy (in the sense of mass politics) and discuss its relation to the more commonly known “macroeconomic trilemma” as well as some limitations of the framework. The recent experience of a European debt crisis and the experience of Europe’s Great Depression can be interpreted as a “political trilemma”: both reflect the problem of designing effective policy responses to major economic shocks within the environment of deep economic integration across political boundaries and the regime choices that this involves. Within this framework I highlight some aspects of the 1930s that are informative to the policy choices in Europe today. Once we accept that some policy choices should be avoided, attention should be shifted to the remaining options and the obstacles that prevent their implementation, notably the challenge to transform democracy beyond national borders. |
| Keywords: | political trilemma, great depression, euro-crisis |
| JEL: | F42 F50 N14 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0016&r=his |
| By: | Sebastián Galiani (Washington University in Saint Louis); Leonardo Gasparini (CEDLAS - UNLP) |
| Abstract: | El objetivo de este trabajo es reseñar brevemente los métodos tradicionales de evaluación del impacto distributivo de las políticas públicas y discutir algunos de los avances más relevantes en los últimos veinte años. El trabajo se concentra en la evaluación de programas sociales, dejando de lado otras intervenciones públicas y su financiamiento. El trabajo resume los progresos a nivel internacional con algunas referencias a la experiencia argentina. |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0130&r=his |
| By: | Carolyn M. Moehling; Melissa A. Thomasson |
| Abstract: | From 1922 to 1929, the Sheppard-Towner Act provided matching grants to states to fund maternal and infant care education initiatives. We examine the effects of this public health program on infant mortality. States engaged in different types of activities, allowing us to examine whether different interventions had differential effects on mortality. Interventions that provided one-on-one contact and opportunities for follow-up care, such as home visits by public health nurses, reduced infant deaths more than classes and conferences. Overall, we estimate that Sheppard-Towner activities can account for 9 to 21 percent of the decline in infant mortality over the period. |
| JEL: | H51 I18 N32 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17996&r=his |
| By: | José Luis Malo de Molina (Banco de España) |
| Abstract: | Este documento ocasional recoge dos textos que el autor ha publicado recientemente en memoria de Luis Ángel Rojo, cuya vida profesional estuvo estrechamente vinculada al Banco de España y que falleció en mayo de 2011. El primer artículo es la contribución del autor a un libro colectivo, que coordinado por Carlos Sebastián, fue publicado en febrero de 2012 por la fundación Ramón Areces con el título Luis Ángel Rojo. Recuerdo y homenaje. En este artículo se analiza la etapa de Luis Ángel Rojo al frente del Servicio de Estudios del Banco de España. El segundo es la introducción que el autor escribió para el libro editado por el Banco de España con el título Luis Ángel Rojo, gobernador del Banco de España. Discursos y conferencias. En esta introducción se comentan y glosan los discursos incluidos en el libro y agrupados por su temática: presentación de los Informes Anuales, política monetaria, la integración en la UEM, sistema financiero y bancario, y pensamiento económico. |
| Keywords: | Luis Ángel Rojo, Banco de España, sistema financiero, política monetaria |
| JEL: | B31 E58 O52 E52 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:opaper:1204&r=his |
| By: | Tobias Kretschmer |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a review of existing studies on dynamic, macroeconomic effects of the ICT on productivity and growth. |
| Date: | 2012–04–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:stiaab:195-en&r=his |