|
on Business, Economic and Financial History |
|
Issue of 2012‒10‒13
thirty papers chosen by |
| By: | Donovan, Kevin |
| Abstract: | [This is a review of three books on microfinance and the cashless society] |
| Keywords: | microfinance; casless society; economic history |
| JEL: | N8 L96 E42 H23 G21 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:41659&r=his |
| By: | Timothy Guinnane; Jochen Streb |
| Abstract: | The German government introduced compulsory accident insurance for industrial firms in 1884. This insurance scheme was one of the main pillars of Bismarck’s famous social insurance system. The accident-insurance system achieved only one of its intended goals: it successfully compensated workers and their survivors for losses due to accidents. The accident-insurance system was less successful in limiting the growth of work-related accidents, although that goal had been a reason for the system’s creation. We trace the failure to stem the growth of accidents to faulty incentives built into the 1884 legislation. The law created mutual insurance groups that used an experiencerating system that stressed group rather than firm experience, leaving firms with little hope of saving on insurance contributions by improving the safety of their own plants. The government regulator increasingly stressed the imposition of safety rules that would force all firms to adopt certain safety practices. Econometric analysis shows that even the flawed tools available to the insurance groups were powerful, and that more consistent use would have reduced industrial accidents earlier and more extensively. |
| Keywords: | Social insurance; accident insurance; workman‘s compensation; regulation |
| JEL: | N33 G22 H55 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0364&r=his |
| By: | Aled Davies (Mansfield College, University of Oxford) |
| Abstract: | How far were monetary targets imposed on the post-1974 Labour Government by international and domestic financial markets enthused with the doctrines of ‘monetarism’? The following paper attempts to answer this question by demonstrating the complex and contingent nature of the ascent of British ‘monetarism’ after 1968. It describes the post-devaluation valorisation of the ‘money supply’ which led investors to realign their expectations with the behaviour of the monetary aggregates. The collapse of the global fixed-exchange rate regime, coupled with vast domestic inflationary pressures after 1973, determined that investors came to employ the ‘money supply’ as a convenient new measure with which to assess the ‘soundness’ of British economic management. The critical juncture of the 1976 Sterling crisis forced the Labour Government into a reluctant adoption of monetary targets as part of a desperate attempt to regain market confidence. The result was to impose significant constraints on the Government’s economic policymaking freedom, as attempts were made to retain favourable money supply figures exposed to the short-term volatility of increasingly-globalised and highly-capitalized financial markets. |
| Date: | 2012–10–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nuf:esohwp:_104&r=his |
| By: | Uwe Cantner (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena); Simone Vannuccini (Graduate College "The Economics of Innovative Change", University of Jena) |
| Abstract: | The economic literature started to recognize the heterogeneity characterizing the nature of different technologies, introducing the concept of General Purpose Technologies. In this paper, we offer a "new view of General Purpose Technologies", building on the historical as well as on the recent literature, enquiring more in deep the definitional problems related to the GPTs and the conditions for their emergence, together with the characteristic for their prevalence and pervasiveness. A Schumpeterian and evolutionary view pointing at the micro and meso level of analysis - that of the dynamics of firms and industries -, is in our view the privileged perspective economists need to adopt in order to revitalize the theoretical and empirical study of GPTs. The similarities with the emergence of dominant designs and the relations with dynamics of increasing returns and path dependency in the choice between alternative technologies offer us a set of tools well suited to study the establishment of GPTs as a process unfolding in time, more than as a single homogeneous shock. |
| Keywords: | General Purpose Technologies, Long Waves, Business Cycles, Dominant design, Pervasiveness of technologies, Neo-Schumpeterian economics. |
| JEL: | E32 L16 O30 O33 O40 |
| Date: | 2012–10–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2012-054&r=his |
| By: | Maria Stella Chiaruttini |
| Abstract: | For several decades advanced economies have been undergoing a profound structural change. Its main characteristic appears to be the progressive decline of industry as the driving force of economy. The propulsory role once played by the manufacturing industry seems to have been replaced by the service sector, a phenomenon usually referred to as post-industrialism†or “tertiarisationâ€. In addition to this all-encompassing term, the growing importance of the financial sector within the framework of a service-economy has induced scholars to coin the more specific concept of “financialisationâ€. Financialisation has remarkably emerged in the case of the United States and Great Britain. Less analysed has been the case of the European countries. This paper tries to make a first attempt in this direction, considering, beyond the evolution of the single countries, the internal structural adjustment of Europe as a whole. It starts providing the first pieces of macroeconomic evidence about the alleged rise of a “financial-economyâ€, then scrutinises affinities and disparities of the countries analysed in terms of their economic structure and its evolution. GDP and employment data document the rise in Europe of a hybrid category which includes both financial and business services related to the growing importance of multinationals’ activities. By disentangling these two components, the financial boom considerably deflates. Moreover, the picture emerging from the intersectoral profit shares analysis somehow challenges the myth of a steadily superior profitability of the financial sector versus real economy. The impression that industry is not necessarily fated to a gloomy decay seems further confirmed when considering its more pronounced increase in 'value-added per hour worked' compared to that of finance. The paper then assesses the degree of financial dependence (with value-added, profit shares and trade data) of the single economies not in absolute terms but with respect to a common European benchmark. A quite precise pattern of regional specialisation emerges, where Scandinavian and German-speaking countries together with their Eastern neighbours reaffirm themselves as the industrial hard core of Europe. On the other side, together with the very specific case of Great Britain, there are the Mediterranean countries and France that are experiencing a loss of competitiveness in industry. These considerations seem to deserve attention not only within the broader context of documenting structural change, but also with regard to the political debate about the future of Europe. |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa12p245&r=his |
| By: | Irina Rosa España E; Irina Rosa España E. y Fabio Sánchez T. |
| Abstract: | This paper quantitatively shows that the 1945 regional differences in the degree of development of manufacturing industry are explained by human capital accumulation prior to industrial development. Human capital accumulation was more intense in the regions with higher presence of non white free population – the “Free of all Colors” caste - at the end of the colonial times. Once the country began industrializing at the beginning of the twentieth century the former “Free of all Colors” regions were better prepared to adapt and to use the industrial technology and hence manufacturing industry rose with greater strength in those regions. |
| Date: | 2012–09–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000089:010015&r=his |
| By: | James Foreman-Peck (Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University); Leslie Hannah (Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo) |
| Abstract: | Because ownership was already more divorced from control in the largest stock market of 1911 (London) than in the largest stock market of 1995 (New York), the consequences for the economy, for good or ill, could have been considerable. Using a large sample of quoted companies with capital of £1 million or more, we show that this separation did not generally operate against shareholders' interests, despite the very substantial potential for agency problems. More directors were apparently preferable to fewer over a considerable range, as far as their influence on company share price and return on equity was concerned: company directors were not simply ornamental. A greater number of shareholders was more in shareholders' interest than a smaller, despite the enhanced difficulties of coordinating shareholder 'voice'. A larger share of votes controlled by the Board combined with greater Board share ownership was also on average consistent with a greater return on equity. Corporate governance thus appears to have been well adapted to the circumstances of the Edwardian company capital market. Hence the reduction in the cost of capital for such a large proportion of British business conferred a substantial advantage on the economy. |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tky:fseres:2012cf864&r=his |
| By: | William F. Maloney; Felipe Valencia Caicedo |
| Abstract: | Using subnational historical data, this paper establishes the within country persistence of economic activity in the New World over the last half millennium. We construct a data set incorporating measures of pre-colonial population density, new measures of present regional per capita income and population, and a comprehensive set of locational fundamentals. These fundamentals are shown to have explanatory power: native populations throughout the hemisphere were found in more livable and productive places. We then show that high pre-colonial density areas tend to be dense today: population agglomerations persist. The data and historical evidence suggest this is due partly to locational fundamentals, but also to classic agglomeration effects: colonialists established settlements near existing native populations for reasons of labor, trade, knowledge and defense. We then show that high density (historically prosperous) areas also tend to have higher incomes today, and largely due to agglomeration effects: fortune persists for the United States and most of Latin America. Further, we show that extractive institutions, in our case, slavery, reduce persistence even if they do not overwhelm other forces in its favor. |
| Date: | 2012–09–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000089:010017&r=his |
| By: | Isabelle Devos; Christa Matthys (Department of History, Ghent University) |
| Abstract: | During the first half of the twentieth century, discourses on distinct gendered sexual experiences were particularly powerful. Sexual lust was considered an invincible element of manly nature. Women had to channel this desire into permissible behavior: while they should not stimulate lust outside marriage, they were subjected to giving in to the manly rights within marriage. This encompasses a more general ideal of men as sexually active and women as passive recipients. In contrast, when it comes to the use of birth control, it is often assumed that women were the ones who took the initiative because the burden of large families weighed heavier on them. Before the existence of modern contraception however, women depended on the cooperation of their husbands since the most common ways to control fertility were temporary abstinence and coitus interruptus. In this perspective, family limitation occurs when women were in a position strong enough to convince the men. In Flanders, fertility levels dropped from about 1900. This creates an interesting paradox: at the moment when the emphasis on female sexual obedience was at its strongest, women’s negotiation power in the bed seems to have increased enormously. The answer to this apparent inconsistency may be found in a shift of focus from merely the content of the prevailing sexual ideologies to the way they were instructed to and experienced by common people. To this end, this paper analyses (1) how dominant discourses about sexuality were shaped into practical pedagogical literature for adolescents, (2) testimonies of men and women regarding sexual lust and inhibitions outside and within marriage and (3) their negotiation of the use of birth control methods. We argue that the ideal of male activeness versus female passiveness influenced the sexual practice and family planning of men and women in the first half of the twentieth century. When women were indeed more motivated than their partners to limit the family size, they exploited their passivity by faking sleep or illness. Yet, many couples agreed on family control. This suggests that the preferences of men and women alike had altered during this period. When this was the case, the use of contraceptive practices was considered the man’s duty: he was responsible for using coitus interruptus or purchasing of condoms. This shows that changing perceptions on family limitation were not necessarily linked with more egalitarian sexual experiences. |
| JEL: | J13 N33 N34 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ghe:wpaper:2&r=his |
| By: | M. Carboni |
| Abstract: | State building and state competition during the 16th century triggered a creative moment in the history of public finance. Recent scholarship has clearly identified the Papal States and their communities as active participants both in the state building process and the reorganization of public finance. Banking on a wealth of fiscal records, it is argued that Papal authority succeeded in forging a new fiscal pact – which lasted over two centuries - between central and local authorities. Blending conservatism and innovation the papacy promoted a contractual approach: local powers were granted a large degree of autonomy in selecting fiscal instruments, the types of wealth to be taxed and the means of collecting resources, while the Apostolic Chamber secured both the control of a growing portion of the provinces’ fiscal income as well as access to a pool of financial resources at a rapidly declining cost. |
| JEL: | N23 N43 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp850&r=his |
| By: | Federico Etro (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari); Laura Pagani (Department of Economics, University Of Milan, Bicocca) |
| Abstract: | We study the art market in the Venetian Republic from 1550 to 1750 analyzing the determinants of the prices (adjusted for the cost of living measured by the cost of wheat) of figurative paintings. Reputation of the painters, size of the paintings and other quantifiable factors affect prices as expected. Other relevant factors include the placement of the paintings (on the altar, on the ceiling or on the walls), whose impact reflects differences in demand elasticities. We find evidence evidence of the law of one price confirming price equalization between high and low demand destinations and between different subjects. Finally we relate the temporal trend of the price of a representative painting with waves of artistic innovations, whose picks were in the Mannerist and Rococò periods with a dark Baroque age in the intermediate period. |
| Keywords: | Economic theory of Art history, hedonic model, Law of one price |
| JEL: | Z11 N0 D4 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2012_10&r=his |
| By: | Metin M. Cosgel (University of Connecticut); Bogac A. Ergene (University of Vermont) |
| Abstract: | We use data from the court records (sicils) of the Ottoman town of Kastamonu in the late seventeenth- and eighteenth-centuries to study the basic characteristics of litigants and the determinants of plaintiff’s chances of winning at trial. The results show that the trial outcome was influenced by the gender, elite status, religion, and religious markers of litigants. The results challenge some of the widely held presumptions about dispute resolution in Ottoman courts, such as Weber’s claim about arbitrariness of the judges’ decisions and the perception in Ottoman legal scholarship that the court may have subscribed to an egalitarian legal ideology. Kastamonu judges made decisions that can be grasped by the tools and concepts of modern scholarship on dispute resolution, and their decisions displayed systematic patterns that are consistent with those identified by quantitative analysis of court outcomes in modern societies. JEL Classification: H1, K, N45 Key words: court, litigation, trial, dispute resolution, selection effect, Ottoman Empire |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:uconnp:2012-33&r=his |
| By: | Michael Fritsch; Michael Wyrwich |
| Abstract: | Studies for established market economies such as West Germany (Fritsch and Mueller, 2007), and Sweden (Andersson and Koster, 2011) have shown that regional start-up rates tend to show a relatively high level of persistence and path dependency over periods of 10-15 years. One main reason for this high level of persistence observed could be that the region-specific determinants of entrepreneurship also remain relatively constant over time. Another explanation could be the existence of a regional entrepreneurship culture. Such an entrepreneurial culture could maybe even outwear considerable ‚jumps‘ in the conditions of the economic environment such as wars and drastic changes of the political regime. We analyze the persistence of regional entrepreneurship in three different scenarios with different degrees of changes of the economic conditions. The basic idea is that if we should find that high levels of regional entrepreneurship do persist disruptive changes of the economic conditions, this may be regarded an indication for the presence of a regional entrepreneurship culture. - The first scenario that we present is regional entrepreneurship in West Germany in the 1984-2005 period, a time that was characterized by relatively stable conditions without any major jumps. - For the second scenario we extend the period of analysis to 80 years and compare regional entrepreneurship in West Germany between the years 1925 and 2005. This period was has been characterized by some considerable disruptions such as the World Economic Crisis of the late 1920s, the Nazi regime and the Second World War that ended with destruction and occupation of the country, and, finally, German re-unification. - The third scenario, East Germany in the time period 1925-2005, was characterized by even more shocks that have probably been even more severe than what has been experienced in the West. We find long-term persistence in all three scenarios what is particularly remarkable for the third setting, the East German regions. Those East German regions with a relatively high level of entrepreneurship in the year 1925 also show high levels of entrepreneurship 80 years later, in the year 2005. Our findings can be regarded a strong indication for the existence of a regional entrepreneurial culture and its beneficial effects for economic development. Keywords: Entrepreneurship, self-employment, new business formation, persistence, culture JEL classification: L26, R11, O11 References Andersson, Martin and Sjerdan Koster (2011): Sources of persistence in regional start-up rates—evidence from Sweden, Journal of Economic Geography, 11, 179-201. Fritsch, Michael and Pamela Mueller (2007): The Persistence of Regional New Business Formation-Activity over Time – Assessing the Potential of Policy Promotion Programs, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 17, 299-315. |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa12p63&r=his |
| By: | Martin Henning; Erik Stam; Rik Wenting |
| Abstract: | The concept of path dependence has gained momentum in the social sciences, particularly in economic geography. In this paper, we explore the empirical literature on path dependence and path creation in regional economic development. We offer a critical reflection on these studies and outline commonalities and problems in research designs and empirical testing. Our review suggests that the popularity of the concept of path dependence in regional studies has led to a cacophony of studies rather than a purposeful accumulation of knowledge around the concept. To remedy this situation, we identify gaps and suggest guidelines for future empirical research on the role of path creation and path dependence in uneven regional development. |
| Keywords: | path dependence, path creation, regional development, economic geography |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1219&r=his |
| By: | Holger Strulik; Klaus Prettner; Alexia Prskawetz |
| Abstract: | Conventional R&D-based growth theory argues that productivity growth is driven by population growth but the data suggest that the erstwhile positive correlation between population and productivity turned negative during the 20th century. In order to resolve this problem we integrate R&D-based innovations into a unified growth framework with micro-founded fertility and schooling behavior. The model explains the historical emergence of R&D-based growth and the subsequent emergence of mass education and the demographic transition. The ongoing child quality-quantity trade-off during the transition explains why in modern economies high growth of productivity and income is associated with low or negative population growth. Because growth in modern economies is based on the education of the workforce, the medium-run prospects for future economic growth – when fertility is going to be below replacement level in virtually all developed countries – are much better than suggested by conventional R&D-based growth theories. |
| Keywords: | R&D, declining population, fertility, schooling, human capital |
| JEL: | J13 J24 O10 O30 O40 |
| Date: | 2012–09–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:cegedp:140&r=his |
| By: | Li Liu (Centre for Business Taxation, University of Oxford) |
| Abstract: | If the corporate income tax is set at a different rate from non-corporate income tax, it can play an important role in a firm's choice of organizational form. The impact and interdependency of income tax incentives are crucial factors to take into account when designing efficient tax policies. In this paper I exploit the substantial variation in income taxes across U.S. states in the early twentieth century to estimate these sensitivities. The potential endogeneity of state taxes is addressed using an IV approach. The results demonstrate that the relative taxation of corporate to personal income has a significant impact on the corporate share of economic activities. Raising the entrepreneur's tax cost of incorporation by 10% decreases the mean corporate share of economic activities by about 11-18%. In addition, higher personal tax rates may affect the share of corporate activities through tax evasion and tax progressivity. |
| Keywords: | Corporate income tax; Personal income tax; Incorporation; Early Twentieth Century |
| JEL: | H25 H32 H71 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:btx:wpaper:1205&r=his |
| By: | Katarzyna Iwaszko |
| Abstract: | The paper analyze the impacts of infrastructure investments on clusters of directions and development trends of contacts made through the road network. The present settlement system is a particular system of interconnected elements. These connections are part of a network of accessibility which influences the development of concentration and hierarchy of the structure. The creation or termination of new connections leads to completely different spatial characteristics of entire networks, and thus influences the possibility to create contacts and develop particular areas. Up to the 20th century the communication system was determined by the geographical space. The popularization of new means of transport and the development of infrastructure, i.e. bridges, highways, overpasses and tunnels improved the speed of traveling and reduced the dependence on geographical conditions. The accessibility of communication became equivalent to the duration of a trip rather than its distance. By introducing new, significantly faster connections or by overcoming topographical barriers, we gradually change the whole settlement structure. The paper presents results of investigation on transportation network, curried out characterization of the transport network as a factor which delimits development of areas. The studies implement an original cyclical-complex model based on T. Zipser’s theory of contacts and theory of spherical projection. The method refers to the ways of standardization of descriptions of states and phenomena of various research aspects concerning the same space which is particularly essential in network issues, where the anisotropy of an infrastructure is deal with. In contrast to illustrations, which do not contain any more data than the tables upon which they are based, this analysis is in itself a research tool. Owing to visual integration and theoretical interpretation it enables us to read the morphology of the whole structure, which is otherwise not evident. The study focuses on the region of Lower Silesia divided into communes (gminas). The study includes analyses of the communication network in the early 20th century, the network system of 1937 with the opened Berlin-Wroc³aw highway, and the current communication network with consideration of the Polish National Highway Development Plan. Keywords: communication networks, communication accessibility, communication efficacy, settlement structures |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa12p826&r=his |
| By: | Holger Strulik; Katharina Werner |
| Abstract: | We set up a simple overlapping generation model that allows us to distinguish between life expectancy and active life expectancy. We show that individuals optimally adjust to a longer active life by educating more and, if the labor supply elasticity is high enough, by supplying less labor. When calibrated to US data the model explains the historical evolution of increasing education and declining labor supply (of cohorts born 1850-1950) as an optimal response to increasing active life expectancy. We integrate the theory into a unified growth model and reestablish increasing life expectancy as an engine of long-run economic development. |
| Keywords: | longevity, active life expectancy, education, hours worked, economic growth |
| JEL: | E20 I25 J22 O10 O40 |
| Date: | 2012–09–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:cegedp:141&r=his |
| By: | Miguel Urrutia Montoya |
| Abstract: | El trabajo describe la faceta de economista empírico de Salvador Camacho Roldán, un pensador, escritor, empresario y político del siglo XIX en Colombia. Se identifica su aporte como fuente para la historia económica cuantitativa de Colombia, y sus recomendaciones para lograr el desarrollo de su país. A esto se agrega una corta biografía para relacionar al personaje con su pensamiento. |
| Date: | 2012–09–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000089:010019&r=his |
| By: | Stelios Michalopoulos; Alireza Naghavi; Giovanni Prarolo |
| Abstract: | This research examines the economic origins and spread of Islam in the Old World and uncovers two empirical regularities. First, Muslim countries and ethnic groups exhibit highly unequal regional agricultural endowments. Second, Muslim adherence is systematically higher along the pre-Islamic trade routes. We discuss the possible mechanisms that may give rise to the observed pattern and provide a simple theoretical argument that highlights the interplay between an unequal geography and proximity to lucrative trade routes. We argue that these elements exacerbated inequalities across diverse tribal societies producing a conflictual environment that had the potential to disrupt trade flows. Any credible movement attempting to centralize these heterogeneous populations had to offer moral and economic rules addressing the underlying economic inequalities. Islam was such a movement. In line with this conjecture, we utilize anthropological information on pre-colonial traits of African ethnicities and show that Muslim groups have distinct economic, political, and societal arrangements featuring a subsistence pattern skewed towards animal husbandry, more equitable inheritance rules, and more politically centralized societies with a strong belief in a moralizing God. |
| JEL: | N0 N27 N3 O0 O1 O43 Z0 Z1 Z12 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18438&r=his |
| By: | William N. Evans; Craig Garthwaite; Timothy J. Moore |
| Abstract: | We propose the rise of crack cocaine markets as an explanation for the end to the convergence in black-white educational outcomes beginning in the mid-1980s. After constructing a measure to date the arrival of crack markets in cities and states, we show large increases in murder and incarceration rates after these dates. Black high school graduation rates also decline, and we estimate that crack markets accounts for between 40 and 73 percent of the fall in black male high school graduation rates. We argue that the primary mechanism is reduced educational investments in response to decreased returns to schooling. |
| JEL: | I0 I2 I21 I28 J0 J01 J1 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18437&r=his |
| By: | Annie bellier; Wafa Sayeh; Stéphanie Serve (THEMA, Universite de Cergy-Pontoise; THEMA, Universite de Cergy-Pontoise; THEMA, Universite de Cergy-Pontoise) |
| Abstract: | Since World War II, the concept of credit rationing (CR) has been a topic of extensive investigations, both theoretical and empirical. From the theoretical point of view, several attempts have been made to define the extent to which a firm can be identified as credit rationed in macroeconomic and microeconomic financial frameworks. In the context of the current financial crisis, CR is strategically important given the financial difficulties faced by small business firms. The first purpose of this article is to provide an historical context for the theoretical frameworks of CR to analyze the existing definitions and typologies. From an empirical point of view, the main obstacle is that a direct measure of CR is not directly observable, considering that the answer is given by the firm and/or the bank. In light of the previously defined typology, the second purpose of this article is to present both the measures of CR and the main driving factors that have been tested in the empirical literature. Special attention is paid to the supply-demand interaction via the impact of the bank relationship on CR. |
| Keywords: | credit rationing, small business, bank relationship |
| JEL: | G14 G21 G32 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2012-39&r=his |
| By: | Eleni Gavra; Anastasia Bourlidou; Klairi Gkioufi |
| Abstract: | Turkey constitutes a country privileged with ekistics and cultural heritage of crucial interest that is linked to ancient civilizations. Over the past decades, the turkish government has been formatting and developing a protective institutional framework, concerning the preservation of its historical environment. However, the country has endured many political and economical alterations that have influenced the qualitative character of the monumental architecture, as well as the regional development of historical communities. Ôhis paper deals with the Greek’s cultural heritage in Turkey today, targeting on the enhancement of strategic solutions that concern the symbiosis of the dualism of greek origin ekistics heritage and tourism development in the turkish territories. The methodology approach is achieved through bibliography and in situ research and analysis that have taken place during a scientific research program concerning the Greek’s cultural presence in Asia Minor (17th- 20th centuries). In addition to that, a thorough examination is followed in the evaluation of the existing turkish and international institutional framework, regarding the protection of the Greek’s ekistics and monumental heritage in Turkey. In this context, a series of strategic measures is proposed in order to preserve and enhance the cultural value and aesthetics of the Greek’s heritage in Turkey today. The governmental administration and international legislation, the elimination of bureaucratic issues, the promotion of strategic planning on both urban and architectural level, as well as the encouragement of the interstate relations between Turkey and Greece, are some of the potential solutions highly underlined in this paper. |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa12p454&r=his |
| By: | Mucahit Yildirim; Mahir Korkmaz |
| Abstract: | Housing and its architectural characteristics physically change in step with changes in culture, social demographics, behavior and environmental structures. These physical changes influence the environment and housing because of contemporary life-styles and behaviors. The cultural identity which has been created in a long period of time is going to be lost rapidly. Cultural changes also include migration. The migration from rural areas to the downtowns causes variety in traditions and the architectural spaces. The cultural environment consists of such elements, each are affecting the evolution of the culture. These are religion, belief systems, ecology, economy and the social aspects like family structures, and cultural interaction. Vernacular architecture is a manifestation, a physical representation of the culture of a people. Malatya-Battalgazi which is the oldest habitation area in Anatolia is among the downtowns that losing its cultural identity. The civil architecture in the town has suffered but the religious architecture is nearly conserved related with the beliefs. The history of Battalgazi, which is called as Old Malatya till to 1988, goes to ancient times. The first habitation of Malatya is the artificial hill called Aslantepe in the boundary of village Bahçebaþý. Strabon, the ancient times geographer, called Malatya as Melitene. Town cannot betray its identity in nowadays. The lack of preservation consciousness, changes in the culture and searching the contemporary life style comfort in the new built environment cause deterioration on the built environment. The cultural identities are going to be disappeared in front of globalization. In Battalgazi, with the impact of the new built environment, the people want to live in new structures to have “contemporary life style†abandoning the vernacular houses. One of them is Poyrazlar House which shows the characteristics of vernacular houses that oriented with two storeys due to the bigness of the patriarchal family. The foundation of the house was constructed from stone and the wall was from mud brick. The flooring was created from wood sticks and the covering from old tile. In the upper-floor there are the recess, living room and bed room, in ground-floor; the kitchen, toilet and the stable. The recess was used as the connection space of the rooms in the upper floor. The ornamented elevation looks to the courtyard and with a bay to the street. This paper aims to research the changes in cultural, socio-economic technological conditions in the built environment and vernacular architecture within the case of Battalgazi-Turkey Keywords: Globalization, culture, vernacular architecture, sustainability. |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa12p207&r=his |
| By: | Angel de la Fuente |
| Abstract: | En el presente trabajo se recopilan y extienden diversas series históricas de los principales agregados nacionales de la Encuesta de Población Activa (EPA) y se construyen nuevas series anuales homogéneas de las mismas variables para el período 1964-2009 corrigiendo algunas de las rupturas que persisten en las series históricas más recientes del INE. |
| Keywords: | EPA, series históricas, empleo |
| JEL: | L J21 |
| Date: | 2012–10–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aub:autbar:916.12&r=his |
| By: | Bandyopadhyay, Debasis; Barro, Robert; Couchman, Jeremy; Gemmell, Norman; Liao, Gordon; McAlister, Fiona |
| Abstract: | Estimates of marginal tax rates (MTRs) faced by individual economic agents, and for various aggregates of taxpayers, are important for economists testing behavioural responses to changes in those tax rates. This paper reports estimates of a number of personal marginal income tax rate measures for New Zealand since 1907, focusing mainly on the aggregate income-weighted average MTRs proposed by Barro and Sahasakul (1983, 1986) and Barro and Redlick (2011). The paper describes the methodology used to derive the various MTRs from original data on incomes and taxes from Statistics New Zealand Official Yearbooks (NZOYB), and discusses the resulting estimates. |
| Keywords: | Average marginal tax rates, New Zealand, behavioural responses, |
| Date: | 2012–09–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vuw:vuwcpf:2423&r=his |
| By: | Adriano Giannola (Universit… di Napoli Federico II); Antonio Lopes (Seconda Universit… di Napoli); Alberto Zazzaro (Universit… Politecnica delle Marche, MoFiR) |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wmofir:74&r=his |
| By: | Óscar A. Alfonso Roa |
| Abstract: | Los procesos de investigación en ciencias sociales acostumbran distinguir el objeto de investigación del sujeto de investigación. El objeto de investigación es, en lo fundamental, una conquista teórica del sujeto de investigación. El desarrollo de la investigación, desde la misma formulación de la cuestión que preocupa al investigador o de sus hipótesis, pasando por el tratamiento de la información, sea de naturaleza estadística o no, ha sido materia de innumerables manuales de investigación que, en algunas ocasiones se asimilan y llegan a competir con los textos de estadística. Mientras tanto, las reflexiones sobre el sujeto de investigación han pasado a un segundo plano. Son escasos los autores que se preocupan por la psiquis de esa persona, por sus hábitos, por sus inclinaciones académicas y políticas y hasta por el entorno en que habitan. Esos factores, que limitan o potencian el desarrollo del sujeto de investigación, son materia de este trabajo que, entre lo teórico y lo testimonial, sugiere que el método es un enigma que subyace a la naturaleza ético-política de cada personas y que el éxito de un programa de investigación al alcance de cualquier persona radica en el inconformismo con los sentidos comunes dominantes. |
| Date: | 2012–09–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000139:010002&r=his |
| By: | Francis X. Diebold (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania) |
| Abstract: | I investigate the origins of the now-ubiquitous term ”Big Data," in industry and academics, in computer science and statistics/econometrics. Credit for coining the term must be shared. In particular, John Mashey and others at Silicon Graphics produced highly relevant (unpublished, non-academic) work in the mid-1990s. The first significant academic references (independent of each other and of Silicon Graphics) appear to be Weiss and Indurkhya (1998) in computer science and Diebold (2000) in statistics /econometrics. Douglas Laney of Gartner also produced insightful work (again unpublished and non-academic) slightly later. Big Data the term is now firmly entrenched, Big Data the phenomenon continues unabated, and Big Data the discipline is emerging. |
| Keywords: | Massive data, computing, statistics, econometrics |
| JEL: | C81 C82 |
| Date: | 2012–09–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pen:papers:12-037&r=his |
| By: | Faroek Lazrak; Piet Rietveld; Jan Rouwendal |
| Abstract: | Cultural heritage is generally considered to be an important amenity that makes a city more attractive to residents as well as tourists. Although heritage is basically something that remains from the past, and is therefore predetermined, its quantity and quality is affected by urban policy. Currently many cities invest in heritage. This paper contributes to the analysis of the role of cultural heritage in urban economies by investigating the impact of a national program that subsidizes investment in cultural heritage on the value of real estate in the proximity. We use detailed information about the size of the investments (and associated subsidies) on specific properties to study its impact on house prices in the neighbourhood in which it is located. Using a rich data set with transaction prices extending over a period of 25 years, we consider the development of house prices in small geographical areas and relate them to the presence and size of investments in cultural heritage. Keywords: Cultural heritage, listed building, valuation methods, stated preference methods, hedonic prices, spatial statistics, fixed effect model, historic buildings JEL codes: C210; R200 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa12p1163&r=his |