nep-his New Economics Papers
on Business, Economic and Financial History
Issue of 2015‒08‒19
twenty papers chosen by



  1. Was Thatcherism Another Case of British Exceptionalism? A Provocation By Bernardo Batiz-Lazo; Andrew Edwards
  2. 2014-16: Piketty in the Netherlands - The first reception By Paul Beer; Wiemer Salverda
  3. Moral Capital in the Twenty-First Century By Acs, Zoltan J.
  4. South-Eastern European monetary and economic statistics from the nineteenth century to WWII By Costache, Brindusa; Dimitrova, Kalina; Lazaretou, Sophia M.
  5. French Political Economy and Positivism By Christophe Salvat
  6. The critique of capital in the twenty first century in search of the macroeconomic foundations of inequality By Guillaume Allegre; Xavier Timbeau
  7. Family Background, Academic Ability, and College Decisions in the 20th Century U.S. By Todd Schoellman; Christopher Herrington; Lutz Hendricks
  8. Newspapers in Times of Low Advertising Revenues By Charles Angelucci; Julia Cage
  9. Does Compulsory Licensing Discourage Invention? Evidence From German Patents After WWI By Joerg Baten; Nicola Bianchi; Petra Moser
  10. Разрыв между Югом и Западом по уровню экономического развития сокращается? By Popov, Vladimir
  11. Neoliberalism, ‘Digitization’, and Creativity: the Issue of Applied Ontology By Juniper, James
  12. Ernst Bloch, for the Messianic time to the concrete utopia By Sébastien Broca
  13. Merchant Guilds, Taxation and Social Capital By Dessi, Roberta; Piccolo, Salvatore
  14. Death, Bereavement, And Creativity By Kathryn Graddy
  15. A Review of James Forder’s Macroeconomics and the Phillips Curve Myth By Kevin D. Hoover
  16. Priests or bankers? The ecclesiastical credit in modern Spain By Cyril Milhaud
  17. FOMC Responses to Calls for Transparency By Acosta, Miguel
  18. Emergence and evolution of new industries: The path-dependent dynamics of knowledge creation. An introduction to the special section By Jackie Krafft; Sebastien Lechevalier; Francesco Quatraro; Cornelia Storz
  19. Large shocks in the volatility of the Dow Jones Industrial Average index: 1928–2013 By Amélie Charles; Olivier Darné
  20. Droit naturel, morale rationnelle et origine de l'économie politique : l'exemple de Locke By Claude Roche

  1. By: Bernardo Batiz-Lazo (Bangor University); Andrew Edwards (Bangor University)
    Abstract: This paper splits into two main ideas. First, provide a broad overview of the history of management thought in the UK, from its early manifestation in the 19th century to the establishment of the first business schools in London and Manchester in 1965. The second part of the paper deals with developments in the 1980s. Anecdotal evidence suggests that during the governments of Margaret Thatcher there was a radical shift in British management practice and thinking. Some of these changes ran in parallel to global trends in capitalism (and specifically the advent of neo-liberalism). Others were idiosyncratic to the UK. But there is no systematic evidence to clarify whether these changes resulted from deliberate action by the Thatcher government and its supporters in British industry or whether Mrs Thatcher became a rallying point for an episode of globalization. In short, was the era of the ÒWashington ConsensusÓ (Williamson, 1989) in Britain an episode of exceptionalism? Rather than offering empirical evidence to solve this question, the second and last part of the chapter puts forward a research agenda to explore changes in British management at the end of the 20th century.
    Keywords: History of Management Thought, Neo-liberalism, globalization, Thatcher, UK
    JEL: N4 N8
    Date: 2015–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bng:wpaper:15008&r=all
  2. By: Paul Beer (AIAS, Universiteit van Amsterdam); Wiemer Salverda (AIAS, Universiteit van Amsterdam)
    Abstract: The two papers brought together here are revised versions of: * Paul de Beer, _Wat kunnen sociaaldemocraten van Piketty leren?_ * Wiemer Salverda, _Ongelijkheid in Nederland_ S&D Volume 71 Number 3 June 2014 — pages 31-38 and 49-60 respectively. h2. What can we learn from Piketty? h3. Paul de Beer _Piketty’s book tells a compelling and ‘grand’ story. The practical lesson is to aim for a more balanced distribution of wealth without impeding growth: more home ownership without debt, less tax deductions for pension premiums paid by higher earners, more profit sharing for employees._ Capital in the Twenty-First Century by French economist Thomas Piketty has created a shockwave among economists. A few have already welcomed the book as the most important economic work since Marx’s Das Kapital. It is not just the title that has prompted this response, it is also the breadth and depth of Piketty’s analysis. In an age in which ‘big stories’ are supposed to have been dispensed with because today’s world is too complex to be expressed solely in simple formulas, this is exactly what Piketty has done. The essence of his book can be summarised in three elementary formulas: α = r x β, β = s/g and r > g. The latter inequality in particular has captured the imagination of the economist community in the past year, as if it were the formula for the holy grail. The Huffington Post even compared it with Einstein’s E = mc2. The formula has already appeared on hipsters’ T-shirts! Reducing the analysis of modern capitalism to three simple formulas that can be explained fairly easily to non-economists would seem to be an impossible task. Many economists who sang the praises over Piketty’s book seem to be desperately wondering why they had not hit upon the idea themselves, as it is not as if the formulas contain anything that is really new. h2. Wealth/income inequality – the significance of Piketty’s views for the Netherlands h3. Wiemer Salverda *Summary* It is not possible yet to draw a comprehensive comparison of wealth inequality in the Netherlands with the results for other countries found in Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-first Century survey, if only because consistent Dutch figures on wealth go back no further than the 1990s. By contrast, it is possible to study the ratio between national wealth and income in much the same way as Piketty has done, but from the mid-1990s on only. The results show that from an international perspective the wealth/income ratio in the Netherlands is considerable, and has been growing. Further research is required, first, to improve this comparison and extend it to earlier years and even centuries as in Piketty, and, second, to link that to the distribution of wealth over individuals and households. The discussion on Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty raises three important questions about the significance of his research for the Netherlands: What is the wealth-income ratio like; is it increasing here too? How concentrated among individuals or households is the possession of wealth, and is this concentration increasing or decreasing? How important is income from wealth in the distribution of incomes? For each of these questions, it is also relevant to know its development and level relative to other countries. I will attempt in this contribution to find a first answer to these questions, using Dutch income and wealth statistics, international macro-economic statistics (national accounts) and of course the top-income shares, which laid the foundation for Piketty’s theory about the role of wealth, economic growth and inequality. One hundred years ago, top incomes in the Netherlands accounted for an extremely high proportion of overall income, possibly due to colonialism, opportunistic profiteering from the First World War, or perhaps because that is simply how things were. In 1916, 53% of all income in the Netherlands, as in Sweden, went to the Top-10% and 29% to the Top-1%. That was considerably more than in Germany, the United Kingdom, or the United States at the time. As was the case elsewhere, the top shares showed a marked decline in the Netherlands, especially after 1945, until reaching their lowest points of 27.5% and 6.1% respectively in 1975. After that, the top-income shares diverged considerably from one country to another, as we shall shortly see. Because minor differences in definitions can have significant effects when it comes to income and wealth - the devil really is in the detail here - I will try to be as accurate as I can in what I have to say.
    Date: 2014–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aia:indrnl:2014-16&r=all
  3. By: Acs, Zoltan J. (London School of Economics)
    Abstract: This paper recasts Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century in light of Acs’ Why Philanthropy Matters: How the Wealthy Give and What It Means for Our Economic Well-Being. Philanthropy matters in this debate because, as moral capital, philanthropy offers an alternative solution to the Piketty conundrum, and it does so without relying exclusively on a wealth tax and government intervention. Moral capital over the centuries strengthened both capitalism and democracy by investing in opportunity (slavery, suffrage and civil rights), which in turn leads to long-term economic growth and greater equality. By focusing on university research—which is critical in promoting technological innovation, economic equality, and economic security—that creates a large, well-functioning middle class (The Economist, March 2015), moral capital represents the missing link in the theory of capitalism development.
    Keywords: philanthropy; competition; education; opportunity; entrepreneurship; innovation; inequality; Piketty
    JEL: J24 L26 O20 P16
    Date: 2015–08–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0418&r=all
  4. By: Costache, Brindusa; Dimitrova, Kalina; Lazaretou, Sophia M.
    Abstract: This paper introduces the Data Collection Task Force of the South-East European Monetary History Network (SEEMHN DCTF) and its first result. Good policy making should be grounded on good data. To this end, the SEEMHN DCTF works since 2006 towards establishing a SEE macro history database of 19th and 20th century key financial and monetary statistics. All task force members acknowledge that this goal could only be achieved by joining forces and through the exchange of knowledge and experience. Therefore, the SEEMHN DCTF involved cooperation between representatives from all SEE national central banks and scholars who specialise in different fields, geographical regions and time periods. Its first result concerns a new statistics publication entitled South-Eastern European Monetary and Economic Statistics from the Nineteenth Century to World War II. It contains a newly compiled, built and harmonised dataset of long-run key monetary and macroeconomic time series. The aim of this paper is threefold. First, we briefly present this new statistical database. Second, we discuss techniques and technology followed in the data compilation and building process, as well as archives and published sources used. Third, we briefly present the new data project on which the SEEMHN will keep working in the near future.
    Keywords: SEE,economic and monetary history,long-run monetary and financial data series
    JEL: E5 N13 N14 N23 N24
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:eabhps:1502&r=all
  5. By: Christophe Salvat (TRIANGLE - Triangle : action, discours, pensée politique et économique - CNRS - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Etienne - Institut d'Études Politiques [IEP] - Lyon - ENS Lyon - École normale supérieure - Lyon)
    Abstract: This paper deals with French political economy under the Second Empire. It suggests that having been seriously weakened by internal dissents over the suitability of the historical method in economics, French political economy managed to reinvent itself during the last decade of Napoléon III's reign. Threatened by the emperor's personal suspicion towards free trade and the intellectual domination of positivism, economists experienced in the 1850s one of the most difficult periods in their history. Yet, a decade later the tables seem to have turned. The institutional changes, brought forward by Victor Duruy, and the intellectual ascendance gained by economists such as Baudrillart, Wolowski or Dunoyer contributed to modernize and legitimize the outmoded and unimaginative political economy inherited from Say. They notably found in the history of economic thought a way to comply with the positive standards of the time but also to give back to political economy the respectability it had lost.
    Date: 2015–01–26
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01109614&r=all
  6. By: Guillaume Allegre (OFCE - OFCE - Sciences Po); Xavier Timbeau (OFCE - OFCE - Sciences Po)
    Abstract: Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century proposes a critical analysis of the dynamics of capital accumulation. The book has several objectives: to present the historical dynamics of capital and its distribution up to the early twenty-first century; to offer a prospective analysis of these dynamics up to the end of this century; and, finally, to discuss policy measures that would make it possible to avoid the future it lays out.
    Date: 2014–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00992367&r=all
  7. By: Todd Schoellman (Arizona State University); Christopher Herrington (Virginia Commonwealth University); Lutz Hendricks (UNC Chapel Hill)
    Abstract: We harmonize the results of a number of historical studies to document changes in the patterns of who attends college over the course of the 20th century. We find that family income was twice as important in determining who went to college at the start of the century as compared to the end, while academic ability was half as important. The importance of income declined and of academic ability rose until roughly 1960, at which point the two are equally important. We construct and calibrate a model to understand what forces can explain the magnitude and timing of these changes, including changes in the skill premium, the financial environment, and the non-pecuniary benefits of college.
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed015:465&r=all
  8. By: Charles Angelucci (Columbia Business School - Columbia University); Julia Cage (Columbia Business School - Columbia University)
    Abstract: This paper puts the recent evolution of tax revenues in developing countries in historical perspective. Using a novel dataset on total and trade tax revenues we compare the fiscal cost of trade liberalization in developing countries and in today's rich countries at earlier stages of development. We find that trade liberalization episodes led to larger and longer- lived decreases in total tax revenues in developing countries since the 1970s than in rich countries in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The fall in total tax revenues lasts more than ten years in half the developing countries in our sample.
    Date: 2015–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01173957&r=all
  9. By: Joerg Baten; Nicola Bianchi; Petra Moser
    Abstract: This paper investigates whether compulsory licensing – which allows governments to license patents without the consent of patent-owners – discourages invention. Our analysis exploits new historical data on German patents to examine the effects of compulsory licensing under the US Trading-with-the-Enemy Act on invention in Germany. We find that compulsory licensing was associated with a 28 percent increase in invention. Historical evidence indicates that, as a result of war-related demands, fields with licensing were negatively selected, so OLS estimates may underestimate the positive effects of compulsory licensing on future inventions.
    JEL: N3 N32 N34 O3 O34 O38
    Date: 2015–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21442&r=all
  10. By: Popov, Vladimir
    Abstract: This paper examines the trajectory of growth in the Global South. Before the 1500s all countries were roughly at the same level of development, but from the 1500s Western countries started to grow faster than the rest of the world and PPP GDP per capita by 1950 in the US, the richest Western nation, was nearly 5 times higher than the world average. Since 1950 this ratio stabilized – not only Western Europe and Japan improved their relative standing in per capita income versus the US, but also East Asia, South Asia and some developing countries in other regions started to bridge the gap with the West. After nearly half of millennium of growing economic divergence, the world seems to have entered the era of convergence. The factors behind these trends are analyzed; implications for the future and scenarios are considered. В статье исследуется долговременная траектория роста развивающихся стран. До 16 века все страны находились примерно на одном уровне экономического развития, но затем страны, которые мы сегодня называем западными, стали расти быстрее остальных. К 1950г. США, наиболее развитая страна Запада, достигла ВВП на душу по ППС почти 5 раз выше, чем в среднем в мире. С 1950 г., однако, рост этого соотношения прекратился: Западная Европа и Япония подтянулись в послевоенный период к уровню США по подушевому доходу; Восточная и Южная Азия, а также некоторые страны в других регионах тоже стали сокращать этот разрыв. После почти пяти столетий роста разрыва в подушевых доходах Юга и Запада, мир, похоже, вступил в период выравнивания уровней развития. В статье анализируются факторы такой неравномерной динамики, сценарии на будущее и последствия для мирового экономического порядка.
    Keywords: convergence, divergence, gap in per capita income between the West and the South, economic growth, institutional capacity of the state -------------------------------- разрыв в уровнях подушевого дохода между развитыми и развивающимися странами, Запад, Юг, экономический рост, институциональный потенциал государства, догоняющее развитие
    JEL: N0 O1 O40 O43 O47
    Date: 2015–07–31
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:65893&r=all
  11. By: Juniper, James (The University of Newcastle, Newcastle Business School)
    Abstract: The paper extends Foucault’s analysis of neoliberalism in The Birth of Biopolitics. More specifically, I construct and defend an anti-Husserlian approach to the labour process with the objective of investigating how collectively generated forms of intellectual labour have been appropriated under capitalist relations of production. I also interrogate the way that different notions of (computational) applied ontology influence both the nature of and our very conception of social creativity. What, quite wrongly, has been thought of in Spinoza as pantheism is simply the reduction of the field of God to the universality of the signifier, which produces a serene, exceptional detachment from human desire. In so far as Spinoza says—desire is the essence of man, and in the radical dependence of the universality of the divine attributes, which is possible only through the function of the signifier, in so far as he does this, he obtains that unique position by which the philosopher—and it is no accident that it is a Jew detached from his tradition who embodies it—may be confused with a transcendent love. This position is not tenable for us. Experience shows us that Kant is more true, and I have proved that his theory of consciousness, when he writes of practical reason, is sustained only by giving a specification of the moral law which, looked at more closely, is simply desire in its pure state, that very desire that culminates in sacrifice, strictly speaking, of everything that is the object of love in one’s human tenderness—I would say, not only in the rejection of the pathological object, but also in its sacrifice and murder. That is why I wrote Kant avec Sade. (Lacan, 1979: 275-6) But it is like the story of the Resistance fighters who, wanting to destroy a pylon, balanced the plastic charges so well that the pylon blew up and fell back into its hole. From the Symbolic to the Imaginary, from castration to Oedipus, and from the despotic age to capitalism, inversely, there is the progress leading to the withdrawal of the overseeing and overcoding object from on high, which gives way to a social field of immanence where the decoded flows produce images and level them down. Whence the two aspects of the signifier: a barred transcendent signifier taken in a maximum that distributes lack, and an immanent system of relations between minimal elements that come to fill the uncovered field (somewhat similar in traditional terms to the way one goes from Parmenidean Being to the atoms of Democritus). (Deleuze and Guattari,1987: 290-1). Marx was vexed by the bourgeois character of the American working class. But it turned out that the prosperous Americans were merely showing the way for the British and the French and the Japanese. The universal class into which we are merging is not the revolutionary proletariat but the innovative bourgeoisie. (McClosky, D. 2009)
    Keywords: Neoliberalism; Applied ontology; Digitization; Creativity; Foucault
    JEL: B24 B51 E11 L14 L86 O34 P11 P14 P16 P26 Z11 Z18
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbz:nbsuon:2015_2&r=all
  12. By: Sébastien Broca (CEPN - Centre d'Economie de l'Université Paris Nord - Université Paris 13 - Université Sorbonne Paris Cité (USPC) - CNRS)
    Abstract: This article reflects on the temporal discontinuity attached to the notion of utopia through a study of Ernst Bloch’s philosophy. In his early writings, the German thinker builds a « system of theoretical Messianism », which appears as a harsh critique of the ideology of progress and its vision of time as homogeneous, continuous and linear. The utopian future is then conceived as qualitatively different from the present and impossible to foresee. In The Principe of Hope, the influence of historical materialism inflects Bloch’s vision of time. Utopia becomes « concrete utopia », an attempt to actualize certain tendencies that already operate in the world. The future is no longer estranged from the present, but appears as its continuation and contestation: in other words, as its dialectical overcoming.
    Abstract: Cet article réfléchit aux formes de rupture temporelle attachées à la notion d’utopie, à travers une analyse de certains aspects de la pensée d’Ernst Bloch. Dans ses premiers écrits, celui-ci développe un « système du messianisme théorique » qui apparaît comme un critique virulente de l’idéologie du progrès et de sa vision d’un temps homogène, continu et linéaire. Le futur de l’utopie est alors conçu comme une rupture qualitative avec le présent, impossible à anticiper. Dans Le principe espérance, l’influence du matérialisme historique infléchit cette conception du temps. L’utopie devient « utopie concrète », c’est-à-dire tentative pour actualiser certaines tendances particulières dont le monde est porteur. Le futur n’est plus alors cet autre radical par rapport au présent : il en est à la fois la continuation et la contestation ou, autrement dit, le dépassement dialectique.
    Date: 2014–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01154790&r=all
  13. By: Dessi, Roberta; Piccolo, Salvatore
    Abstract: We develop a theory of the emergence of merchant guilds as an efficient mechanism to foster cooperation between merchants and rulers, building on the complementarity between merchant guilds’ ability to enforce monopoly over trade and their social capital. Unlike existing models, we focus on local merchant guilds, rather than alien guilds, accounting for the main observed features of their behavior, internal organization and relationship with rulers. Our model delivers novel predictions about the emergence, variation, functioning, and eventual decline of this highly successful historical form of network. Our theory reconciles previous explanations and the large body of historical evidence on medieval merchant guilds. In doing so, we also shed novel light on the role of the guilds’ social capital, and its importance for taxation, welfare, and the development of towns and their government in medieval Europe.
    Keywords: Merchant guild, Social capital, collusion, Political economy, Trade, Taxation
    JEL: L20 L43 N7 N8
    Date: 2015–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:29364&r=all
  14. By: Kathryn Graddy (Department of Economics, International Business School, Brandeis University)
    Abstract: Does creativity, on average, increase or decrease during bereavement? Dates of death of relatives and close friends of 33 French artists and 15 American artists were gathered from electronic sources and biographies, and information on over 15,000 paintings was collected from Blouin's Art Sales Index and the Metropolitan Museum of Art's online collection, including over 12,000 observations on price. To preview the results, an event study indicates that prices of paintings decrease by over one-third on average in the two years following the death of a friend or relative. Furthermore, paintings that were created during this bereavement period are less likely to be included in the Met's collection.
    Keywords: Auctions; economics of art
    Date: 2015–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cue:wpaper:awp-07-2015&r=all
  15. By: Kevin D. Hoover
    Abstract: A review of James Forder’s important history of the Phillips Curve.
    Keywords: Phillips curve, A.W. Phillips, Milton Friedman, inflation, unemployment
    JEL: B22 B30 E24 E31
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hec:heccee:2015-7&r=all
  16. By: Cyril Milhaud (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics, EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales)
    Abstract: This paper examines ecclesiastical credit operations in Spain in modern times to demonstrate that it is anachronistic to judge Spain's financial performance by the underdevelopment of a modern and professional banking system. My analysis of the loan portfolios of the Teresian Carmel Order and of its governance as an organization reveals the thriving market for long-term loans called censos and the sophistication of the Spanish capital market. Spanish people could do without banks because the country boasted a highly developed system of credit provision through religious institutions.
    Date: 2015–07–27
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01180682&r=all
  17. By: Acosta, Miguel (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.))
    Abstract: I apply latent semantic analysis to Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) transcripts and minutes from 1976 to 2008 in order to analyze the Fed's responses to calls for transparency. Using a newly constructed measure of the transparency of deliberations, I study two events that define markedly different periods of transparency over this 32-year period. First, the 1978 Humphrey-Hawkins Act increased the degree to which the FOMC used meeting minutes to convey the content of its meetings. Historical evidence suggests that this increased transparency reflected a response to the Act's requirement that the Fed provide greater detail in reporting with respect to its goals and objectives. Second, the 1993 decision to publish nearly verbatim transcripts also increased transparency. However, the cost was an increasing degree of conformity at each meeting, as evidenced by lower variance in content disagreement at the member level.
    Keywords: Federal Open Market Committee; transparency; latent semantic analysis; deliberation; natural language processing; conformity; central bank
    JEL: D78 D82 E58 H83
    Date: 2015–07–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2015-60&r=all
  18. By: Jackie Krafft (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - CNRS - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis); Sebastien Lechevalier (CCJ - Chine, Corée, Japon - CNRS - UP7 - Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales); Francesco Quatraro (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - CNRS - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis); Cornelia Storz (Goethe University Frankfurt - Department of Money and Macroeconomics)
    Abstract: In this introduction, we review the arguments that underpin the rationale for the special section, and provide a structured sequence for the contents of the six selected papers that comprise the section.
    Date: 2014–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01076410&r=all
  19. By: Amélie Charles (Audencia Recherche - Audencia); Olivier Darné (LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique - UN - Université de Nantes)
    Abstract: We determine the events that cause large shocks in volatility of the DJIA index over the period 1928–2013, using a new semi-parametric test based on conditional heteroscedasticity models. We find that these large shocks can be associated with particular events (financial crashes, elections, wars, monetary policies, etc.). We show that some shocks are not identified as extraordinary movements by the investors due to their occurring during high volatility episodes, especially the 1929–1934, 1937–1938 and 2007–2011 periods.
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01122507&r=all
  20. By: Claude Roche (LIP - Laboratoire d'innovation pédagogique - Université Catholique de Lille)
    Abstract: Présentation d'une communication qui sera donnée à la journée d'études "fictions originelles" de l'association C Gide L'économie, en tant que discipline a toujours accordé de l'importance à la compréhension de son origine. Il s'en est même formé au cours du XXème une vision dominante, qui la présente comme une construction conceptuelle et qui culminerait dans ce qu'on appelle l'économie politique classique. Il s'agit cependant d'une vision paradoxale qui a nié tout rapport organique entre cette construction et la philosophie politique dont elle était pourtant issue ; et nous pointons surtout le « droit naturel moderne » au sens de Strauss [2008], car il a été la matrice de nos institutions. Ce paradoxe est souvent assumé pour des raisons d'épistémologie. On considère à l'instar de Schumpeter [1983] que même élaborés à l'intérieur d'un discours philosophique, les concepts de l'économie pourraient être abstraits de leur contexte : il y aurait une histoire autonome de « l'analyse économique ». Le droit naturel et les institutions financières Or il s'agit d'une erreur : en effet ce qui caractérise ce « droit naturel moderne » est son caractère rationnel. Cela veut dire que l'on cherche à convaincre un lecteur réputé rationnel – et donc à démontrer – des thèses qui alors apparaissent à la fois globales (« interdisciplinaires ») et contextuelles, déterminées par ce statut de discussion. Mais dans ce cas, il n'est pas possible d'abstraire une notion – le travail par exemple-sans en changer le sens et celui des propositions qu'elle illustre. La thèse que nous défendons est alors celle-là : qu'en procédant de la sorte on a occulté le sens du premier libéralisme économique – qu'on dira « whig » pour simplifier-en le coupant de son enjeu d'ordre institutionnel : précisément de la construction des Institutions financières. Et derrière cet enjeu c'est la question de la finalité du marché que nous voulons pointer, et au-delà l'idée d'intérêt général.
    Date: 2014–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01140708&r=all

General information on the NEP project can be found at https://nep.repec.org. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at <director@nep.repec.org>. Put “NEP” in the subject, otherwise your mail may be rejected.
NEP’s infrastructure is sponsored by the School of Economics and Finance of Massey University in New Zealand.