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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2015‒11‒01
28 papers chosen by |
| By: | Claude Diebolt; Michael Haupert |
| Abstract: | Economic history is a subset of history. Both economists and historians are trying to tell plausible stories about the past, and they succeed or fail by narrative standards to connect one event to another. Cliometrics has transformed the study of economic history from a narrative to a mathematical format. In the process, cliometricians have contributed to the development of both economics and history by combining theory with quantitative methods, constructing and revising databases, and adding the variable of time to traditional economic theories. This has made it possible to question and reassess earlier findings, thus expanding the frontier of our knowledge of the past and its ability to portend the future. The use of history as a crucible to examine economic theory has deepened our knowledge of how, why and when economic growth and development has and will occur. |
| Keywords: | Cliometrics, Economic History, Historical Economics, Econometric History, Economics, History, Epistemology, Methodology. |
| JEL: | N |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2015-21&r=his |
| By: | Flora Macher (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to analyze the causes of the Hungarian financial crisis of 1931. The prevailing view is that the episode was caused by monetary forces. After the October 1929 Wall Street crash, the already indebted country with high government deficits was unfavorably impacted by the reduced availability of foreign capital and deteriorating terms of trade. These factors together depleted the foreign currency reserves of the country and culminated in a currency crisis in 1931. Using a large macroeconomic dataset and relying on a database for the banking sector, both manually built from contemporary statistical publications and archival records, this paper develops a new interpretation to the Hungarian crisis of 1931 and shows that the financial system had a central role in this episode and it was, in fact, in the banking system where the origins of the crisis can be located. The causes behind banksÕ distress were a restrictive monetary policy in the aftermath of an early currency crisis in October 1928, an agricultural crisis in 1930, and an unorthodox fiscal policy which offered state-guarantees to banks and thereby further increased their exposure to the crisis-ridden agriculture. |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0086&r=his |
| By: | Stuetzer, Michael; Obschonka, Martin; Audretsch, David B.; Wyrwich, Michael; Rentfrow, Peter J.; Coombes, Mike; Shaw-Taylor, Leigh; Satchell, Max |
| Abstract: | There is mounting evidence demonstrating that entrepreneurship is spatially clustered and that these spatial differences are quite persistent over long periods of time. However, especially the sources of that persistence are not yet well-understood, and it is largely unclear whether persistent differences in entrepreneurship are reflected in differences in entrepreneurship culture across space as it is often argued in the literature. We approach the cluster phenomenon by theorizing that a historically high regional presence of large-scale firms negatively affects entrepreneurship, due to low levels of human capital and entrepreneurial skills, fewer opportunities for entry and entrepreneurship inhibiting formal and informal institutions. These effects can become self-perpetuating over time, ultimately resulting in persistent low levels of entrepreneurship activity and entrepreneurship culture. Using data from Great Britain, we analyze this long-term imprinting effect by using the distance to coalfields as an exogenous instrument for the regional presence of large-scale industries. IV regressions show that British regions with high employment shares of large-scale industries in the 19th century, due to spatial proximity to coalfields, have lower entrepreneurship rates and weaker entrepreneurship culture today. We control for an array of competing hypotheses like agglomeration forces, the regional knowledge stock, climate, and soil quality. Our main results are robust with respect to inclusion of these control variables and various other modifications which demonstrates the credibility of our empirical identification strategy. A mediation analysis reveals that a substantial part of the impact of large-scale industries on entrepreneurship is through human capital. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; entrepreneurship culture; Industrial Revolution; industry structure; personality |
| JEL: | L26 L64 N13 N53 N94 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:67425&r=his |
| By: | Weber, Warren E. (Bank of Canada, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, University of South Carolina) |
| Abstract: | The period from 1914 to 1935 in the United States is unique in that it was the only time that both privately issued bank notes (national bank notes) and central-bank-issued bank notes (Federal Reserve notes) were simultaneously in circulation. This paper describes some lessons relevant to e-money from the U.S. experience during this period. It argues that Federal Reserve notes were not issued to be a superior currency to national bank notes. Rather, they were issued to enable the Federal Reserve System to act as a lender of last resort in times of financial stress. It also argues that the reason eventually to eliminate national bank notes was that they were potentially a source of bank reserves. As such, they could have threatened the Federal Reserve System's control of the reserves of the banking system and thereby the Fed's control of monetary policy. |
| Keywords: | Bank notes; e-money; financial services |
| JEL: | E41 E42 E58 |
| Date: | 2015–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedacf:2015_003&r=his |
| By: | Roncaglia, Alesandro |
| Abstract: | Mainstream views concerning the uselessness or usefulness of HET are illustrated. These rely on a hidden assumption: a ‘cumulative view’ according to which the provisional point of arrival of contemporary economics incorporates all previous contributions in an improved way. Critiques of positivism led philosophy of science to recognise the existence of different approaches – in economics, as in other sciences. Conceptualisation, recognised by Schumpeter as the first stage in economic theorising, is the stage in which the different visions of the world underlying the different approaches, take shape – and are better recognised. In this, HET plays an essential role. As an illustration, the differences between the classical and marginalist conceptualisations of the economy are illustrated. Thus HET is essential in both undergraduate and graduate economic curricula, as a decisive help towards a better understanding and evaluation of formalised theories/models in the first case, and as an education to the philological method of research, essential in the first stage of theorising, in the case of graduate curricula Resumen: Este artículo discute los puntos de vista de la corriente de pensamiento dominante respecto a la utilidad o inutilidad de la Historia del Pensamiento Económico (en adelante HPE). Estos puntos de vista se basan en un supuesto oculto: una “visión acumulativa” según la cual el punto de llegada provisional de la economía contemporánea debe incorporar todas las contribuciones teóricas anteriores de una forma mejorada. Los críticos del positivismo le permitieron a la filosofía de la ciencia reconocer la existencia de diferentes enfoques, tanto en la economía como en otras ciencias. La conceptualización, reconocida por Schumpeter como la primera etapa en la teorización económica, permite que las diferentes visiones del mundo en las cuales se basan los diversos enfoques, tomen forma y alcancen un mayor reconocimiento. Es aquí donde la HPE juega un papel esencial. En este artículo se toma como ejemplo las diferencias entre los enfoques clásicos y marginalistas de la Economía. De esta forma, la HPE resulta esencial en los Planes de Estudio de Economía tanto a nivel de pregrado como de posgrado. En el primer caso como una ayuda decisiva para una mejor comprensión y evaluación de los teorías/modelos ya formalizados y, en el segundo caso, como una formación en el método filológico de investigación, esencial en la primera etapa de la teorización. |
| Keywords: | history of economic analysis, undergraduate curricula, graduate curricula, heterodox approaches, stages of economic theorising. Historia del análisis económico, Planes de estudios de Economía de pregrado, Planes de estudios de Economía de posgrado, Enfoques heterodoxos, Etapas de la teorización económica. |
| JEL: | A20 B30 |
| Date: | 2015–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:67384&r=his |
| By: | Reinhart, Carmen M.; Trebesch, Christoph |
| Abstract: | Two centuries of Greek debt crises highlight the pitfalls of relying on external financing. Since its independence in 1829, the Greek government has defaulted four times on its external creditors – with striking historical parallels. Each crisis is preceded by a period of heavy borrowing from foreign private creditors. As repayment difficulties arise, foreign governments step in, help to repay the private creditors, and demand budget cuts and adjustment programs as a condition for the official bailout loans. Political interference from abroad mounts and a prolonged episode of debt overhang and financial autarky follows. We conclude that these cycles of external debt and dependence are a perennial theme of Greek history, as well as in other countries that have been “addicted” to foreign savings. |
| Keywords: | Bailouts; Crisis Resolution; External Debt; Sovereign Default |
| JEL: | E6 F3 H6 N0 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10898&r=his |
| By: | Hansen, Casper Worm; Strulik, Holger |
| Abstract: | This paper exploits the unexpected decline of deaths from cardiovascular diseases since the 1970s as a large positive health shock that affected predominantly old-age mortality; i.e., the fourth stage of the epidemiological transition. Using a differences-in-differences estimation strategy, we find that U.S. states with higher levels of cardiovascular-disease mortality prior the 1970s experienced greater increases in adultlife expectancy and higher education enrollment. Our estimates suggest that the cardiovascular revolution caused an increase in life expectancy of 1.5 years and an increase in education enrollment of 9 percentage points, i.e. 52 percent of the observed increase from 1960 to 2000. |
| Keywords: | adult life expectancy,higher education,cardiovascular diseases,differences-in-differences strategy |
| JEL: | I15 J24 N30 O10 O40 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cegedp:261&r=his |
| By: | Vyara Kalfina (University of Sofia \) |
| Abstract: | The text explores the way ancient literary, historical or mythological stories and personages are being used in modernity. The research focuses on two types of artistic reception of the epoch. The first one is the representation of ancient stories in the frames of culture industry: it explores some cinematographic implementations of ancient stories explaining the differences between the literary sources and their modern interpretations. Some emblematic examples illustrate the social or political allusions which are to be recognized in the modern artistic representations of ancient stories. The second part of the text explores local Bulgarian festivals that include some ancient divine or heroic personage, e. g. Dionysos, Sabasius, Roman warriors, etc. The slightly altered focus of the research is due to the lack of significant cinematographic representations of antiquity in modern Bulgaria. Nevertheless, the importance of local festivals “reconstructing” or merely related to ancient rituals constantly increases in the last few years. The explored cases include for instance traditional “Roman” festivals celebrating the might of Roman army located in ancient provinces Thrace and Dacia (covering the territory of modern Bulgaria), some religious feasts connecting “ancient” elements and personages with Christian saints and traditional folklore practices, etc. The curious amalgam of various religious rituals is interpreted in terms of the attempt to “reconstruct”, i. e. to compose the past in order to gain local prestige and to fabricate a coherent religious, cultural and even political history of Bulgaria. |
| Keywords: | ancient mythology, modern cinema, Dionysos, local festivals in Bulgaria |
| JEL: | Y90 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:3105460&r=his |
| By: | Leslie Hannah (Department of Economic History, London School of Economics and Political Science) |
| Abstract: | In 1914 the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was only a modestly-sized equity market (considering it served what had for decades been the world's largest economy), but those deducing that overseas securities markets led the US miss the (non-NYSE) majority of US-quoted equity and the unusually high leverage of US corporations. As contemporaries understood, US corporate securities (especially bonds) had substantially increased in the decades before 1914 and those quoted nationwide naturally exceeded those of the smaller economies of France, Britain or Germany in absolute terms. A comparison of corporate finance in the four leading industrial economies-across the full spectrum of corporations and their securities-suggests conditional convergence on high ratios of stock exchange financing to GDP, led by the Anglosphere, but differently articulated in ways a) not captured by standard revealed preference modelling and b) with uncertain qualitative effects. |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tky:fseres:2015cf994&r=his |
| By: | Metin Aksoy (Selcuk Üniversity) |
| Abstract: | Turkey is the only pluralist secular democracy in the Moslem world and has always attached great importance to developing its relations with other European countries. Historically, Turkish culture has had a profound impact over much of Eastern and Southern Europe. Turkey began "westernising" its economic, political and social structures in the 19th century. Following the First World War and the proclamation of the Republic in 1923, it chose Western Europe as the model for its new secular structure. Turkey has ever since closely aligned itself with the West and has become a founding member of the United Nations, a member of NATO, the Council of Europe, the OECD and an associate member of the Western European Union. During the Cold War Turkey was part of the Western alliance, defending freedom, democracy and human rights. In this respect, Turkey has played and continues to play a vital role in the defence of the European continent and the principal elements of its foreign policy have converged with those of its European partners. Having thus entered into very close cooperation with Western Europe in the political field, it was therefore only natural for Turkey to complete this in the economic area. Thus, Turkey chose to begin close cooperation with the fledgling EEC in 1959. |
| Keywords: | History of Relations urkey and the European Union |
| JEL: | F22 N90 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:3105351&r=his |
| By: | Jose Pedro Pontes; Armando J. Garcia Pires |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyse Friedrich List's contribution to the modern theory of economic development. We argue that Friedrich List saw economic development as a combination of a sectorial division of labour (following Adam Smith, 1776) and a geographical division of labour across regions and countries. In this sense, the passage from a traditional economy to an industrial one consists of balanced growth at both the sectorial and geographical level, as we see in modern development economics (see Rosentein-Rodan, 1943; and Murphy et al., 1989). In addition, List highlights the role of transport costs in the industrialization process not only in terms of the costs incurred by firms, but also how industrialization affects these costs, since modern technology produces goods that are ?lighter? to transport than goods produced with traditional technology. In this sense, contrary to what is usually attributed to List, tariffs are not the central part of his argument for industrialization. He puts more emphasis on the creation of a larger internal market via for instance a customs union and the complementarities between resources and sectors in a country. We illustrate these arguments with a model. |
| Keywords: | Friedrich List; Economic Development; Industrial Agglomeration; Labor Division |
| JEL: | O14 R11 R30 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p144&r=his |
| By: | Charles Goodhart; Meinhard Jensen |
| Abstract: | The Chicago Plan and Laina’s full-reserve banking proposal are themselves extensions of Ricardo’s earlier proposal for separating money creation from bank intermediation, as incorporated in the 1844 Bank Act. This was the key Currency School position, which was opposed then and subsequently by the Banking School. In this Commentary we outline the criticisms which Banking School supporters have made over the centuries of the Currency School, and indicate what alternative principles the Banking School has proposed. |
| Keywords: | Currency School and Banking School; rules vs discretion; money vs quasi-money; evolutionary vs static banking structure. |
| JEL: | N0 F3 G3 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:64068&r=his |
| By: | François-Xavier De Vaujany (Management & Organisation - DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - CNRS - Université Paris IX - Paris Dauphine); Nathalie Mitev (ISIG - Information Systems and Innovation Group - Department of Management - London School of Economics and Political Science) |
| Abstract: | Between 1946 and 1953, leading scientists met in New York in the context of the so-called ‘Macy conferences’, often linked to the emergence of cybernetics. They hankered for a new vision of mind and society. The traumatism of WW2 was implicit but omnipresent, and the Cold War was beginning. Macy key tools and concepts about information, the value of information, and computer artefacts have finally produced a new world, in particular an organisational world, which is far removed from their original dreams. Organisational members are now involved in difficult situations in terms of organising, i.e. new modes of performativity which are difficult to comprehend and deal with; a transformation of meaning and knowledge in collective activity; and a threat to well-being and happiness as mental activities, cognition and bodies are increasingly disconnected. We use the Macy conferences as an entry point to reflect on the ‘longue durée’ evolution of the material underpinnings of information and their relationship with organising. We first explore the new conceptualisations at the core of the Macy conferences, information, value of information, and computer artefacts. We then put the Macy conferences into a socio-historical perspective by means of two theoretical approaches, iconographical and semiotic; this involves a historical comparison between the ‘screen-images’ or our Information Age and the ‘object-images’ of medieval cathedrals. We show that there are important disruptions in organising grounded in a new semiosis which emerged over the longue durée of collective activity, and was articulated further during the Macy conferences. We describe this long-term evolution as the post-Macy paradox. |
| Keywords: | Information, Macy conferences, post-Macy paradox, materiality, object-images, screen-images, history, semiosis, organizing |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01215546&r=his |
| By: | Elizaveta Blagodeteleva (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The complex and seemingly inconsistent use of the social vocabulary has been on the research agenda of those who study the Russian Empire for quite some time. Historians have long believed that the indiscriminate use of such terms as “estate” (“soslovie”) and “corporation” reflected Russian backwardness and eventually impeded further social and economic development, especially when it came to professional groups. The paper examines this assumption by focusing on the terminology deployed for the designation of Russian lawyers, in comparison to their French counterparts. Therefore, it dwells at length on the references to the French Bar in the bureaucratic discussion and in current press at the time of drafting the basic principles of the future Bar organization in Russia between 1857 and 1864. The comparison of the two sets of references provided plenty of evidence that the French notion of the estate (l'ordre des avocats) had a dramatic impact on the interpretation of Russian soslovie of legal practitioners. The French model seemed to spur social imagination and eventually helped Russian political and intellectual elites envisage a new type of social organization encompassing free, well-educated and politically engaged men. |
| Keywords: | Russian Empire, France, legal profession, lawyers, the Bar, estate, estate paradigm |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:110hum2015&r=his |
| By: | Ferrandino, Vittoria; Sgro, Valentina |
| Abstract: | Since the end of World War II, Argentina has been through an uninterrupted series of financial/fiscal and monetary crises that have gradually eroded the credibilityof the economic institutions of the country. In the period from 1970 to 1990 alone, the Argentine economy experienced seven currency crises and three banking crises. The main objective of this contribution is to investigate the reasons for economic policy choices that, since the military dictatorship of Colonel Perón, have led the country to default, causing unemployment, runs on banks and popular uprisings. |
| Keywords: | monetary policy,financial crisis,Argentina |
| JEL: | N16 N26 N46 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:eabhps:1503&r=his |
| By: | Zsolt Krajcsik (University of Miskolc) |
| Abstract: | The analysis of economic growth and development is coeval with economics. The importance of it is shown by the constant development of theories concerning economic growth during the ages. In my paper I introduce the most important models of the field. I summarise the change from the early development models which depended on the homogenous factors of production - land, labour, capital - to the current ones which depend on the human capital growth and development. Nowadays there are two path in the mentioned research. One of them is dealing with the Solow growth model and think toward and explain the developing countries economic growth with the human capital and its characteristics. The other line of analysis deals with the distribution of income between the factors of production. In the second part of the last century a new wave of theories appeared. According to them in the globalised world it is unwise to deal with economic growth in a narrow way - within the borders of a country - because the international trade, distribution of labour and dependence relations have a big effect on it (Girco and Keohane in: Bartha et al., 2013). Institutional economics marks new ways of research as well, so the education becomes the centre of attention during the research of economic development. The main goal of the review of the literature of growth and development economics is to lay the foundations of my research modelling on the relation of future economic growth and the higher education system. |
| Date: | 2015–10–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mic:etpdsw:13&r=his |
| By: | Josh Ryan-Collins |
| Abstract: | Historically high levels of private and public debt coupled with already very low short-term interest rates appear to limit the options for stimulative monetary policy in many advanced economies today. One option that has not yet been considered is monetary financing by central banks to boost demand and/or relieve debt burdens. We find little empirical evidence to support the standard objection to such policies: that they will lead to uncontrollable inflation. Theoretical models of inflationary monetary financing rest upon inaccurate conceptions of the modern endogenous money creation process. This paper presents a counter-example in the activities of the Bank of Canada during the period 1935-75, when, working with the government, it engaged in significant direct or indirect monetary financing to support fiscal expansion, economic growth, and industrialization. An institutional case study of the period, complemented by a general-to-specific econometric analysis, finds no support for a relationship between monetary financing and inflation. The findings lend support to recent calls for explicit monetary financing to boost highly indebted economies and a more general rethink of the dominant New Macroeconomic Consensus policy framework that prohibits monetary financing. |
| Keywords: | Monetary Policy; Monetary Financing; Inflation; Central Bank Independence; Fiscal Policy; Debt; Credit Creation |
| JEL: | B22 B25 E02 E12 E31 E42 E51 E52 E58 E63 N12 N22 O43 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_848&r=his |
| By: | Ben R. Martin (SPRU (Science Policy Research Unit), School of Business, Management and Economics, University of Sussex, UK) |
| Abstract: | With the field of innovation studies now half a century old, the occasion has been marked by several studies looking back to identify the main advances made over its lifetime. Starting from a list of 20 advances over the field’s history, this discussion paper sets out 20 challenges for coming decades. The intention is to prompt a debate within the innovation studies community on what are, or should be, the key challenges for us to take up, and more generally on what sort of field we aspire to be. It is argued that the empirical focus of our studies has failed to keep pace with the fast changing world and economy, especially the shift from manufacturing to services and the increasingly urgent need for sustainability. Moreover, the very way we conceptualise, define, operationalise and analyse ‘innovation’ seems somewhat rooted in the past, leaving us less able to grapple with other less visible or ‘dark’ forms of innovation. |
| Keywords: | innovation studies; science policy; research challenges; dark innovation |
| JEL: | O30 O32 O38 Q55 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sru:ssewps:2015-30&r=his |
| By: | Josias Alves Jesus; Noelio Dantasle Spinola |
| Abstract: | The theory of poles of growth appeared in a seminal work of François Perroux in 1955 and had a great influence on the Latin American thought in the decades of 1960 and 1970 as an important tool for reducing regional inequalities. In Brazil was no different. By possessing an extensive territory, with depressed regions and with an economy that is highly concentrated in the Southeast region of the country, especially in São Paulo, the theory of the Poles was used as a way to mitigate latent regional problems. Proof of the importance of the theory of the poles can be proven through the urban and Regional Planning seminar on Latin America organized by the Latin American Institute of Economic and Social Planning (ILPES) in 1972 in Chile in which is discussed widely its validity for Latin American economies. However, as noted by Boisier (1980) are there really growth Poles? Will attend the funeral of the theory? Does the theory of the poles is dead? At the conclusion of this same work Boisier (1980) responds to this question stating that NO, the theory of the poles is not dead, but no doubt has experienced a profound metamorphosis. Given these changes, metamorphoses, refinements and due to the importance of the theory of the Poles in economic science this investigation aims to take stock about the Theory of the growth Poles in the last 60 years (1955-2015), seeking to identify the context of its emergence, its theoretical influences, as well as their main criticisms or shortcomings, ending with the possibility of application of the theory in the present day in a globalized economy and environment oligopolizada. The problem of research that guides all of the work is: As poles of growth theory can be applied in regional analysis in the context of recent economic science? The overall objective is to identify which tools of the theory can still be applied in regional analysis and which need better refinement. The methodology used bibliographical research concerning the major publications on the theory in the last 40 years. About the work of Perroux, the research focused on their jobs 'Economic Space', 'the poles of growth', the concept of 'growth Poles' and 'Driving firm in a region and the Driving Region'. The main conclusion of this study is that the theory of the Poles still represents an important tool of regional analysis. |
| Keywords: | polos de crescimento; desenvolvimento regional; industria |
| JEL: | O18 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p343&r=his |
| By: | Constantine Bourlakis (Department of Business Administration, School of Business, Athens University of Economics and Business) |
| Abstract: | Adoption of rituals within a society results in the reinforcement or the inculcation of shared beliefs and values. Following Schelling (1960), when persons are confronted with coordination problems often seem to do surprisingly well when focal points provide to them a point of convergence for individual expectations. I argue in the present paper that Emperor Justinian I (482 CE - 565 CE) in Byzantium followed a set of carefully chosen strategic decisions essential to promote social coordination, and with the aim to convert the city of Constantinople into a strong focal point of religious rituals. Emperor Justinian I in the spirit taken initially by the founder of the City of Constantinople Emperor Constantine’s I (272 CE - 337 CE), and more or less by all of Justinian I predecessors, had to solve a coordination problem among rational players throughout the empire. The rebuilding of the third Church of St Sophia (“Hagia Sophia”) in 562 CE following the Nika revolt in 532 CE, the protection of the property rights of the Christian church including its clergy and its monasteries, alongside the exploitation of the administrative organizational structure of the Christian church that existed within the empire, and the emperor’s stance that unity of faith is a precondition for the unity of the empire, created a strong focal point of religious rituals away from the Holy Land. |
| Keywords: | Economics of Religion; Christianity; Church; Focal Points; Rituals; Economic History; |
| JEL: | B11 D70 Z12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:3105279&r=his |
| By: | Gema Aparicio; Vicente Pinilla |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to analyse the dynamics of international trade in cereals in the first third of the twentieth century. To this end we will study its evolution over this period, comparing it also with the general trade of food and agricultural products. In addition, we will examine the structure of this trade. For wheat, maize and rice we will examine the operation of their respective markets, with special attention to the import and export flows between consumers and producers. To better understand the functioning of the market for these products, we will examine the changes in supply, demand and prices. |
| Keywords: | International agrifood trade, Grain trade, Great Depression |
| JEL: | F14 N50 N70 N76 Q17 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:seh:wpaper:1504&r=his |
| By: | Laura Panza (Department of Economics, University of Melbourne); Tomasz Wozniak (Department of Economics, University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | The disruption of the Ottoman Empire caused dramatic changes to the economic and political structure of the Middle East. The newly established nations, incorporated into British and French formal and informal empires, actively implemented a range of protectionist policies, thus disrupting the regions traditional trade flows and patterns. This paper investigates the impact of this new economic setting on commodity market integration in Syria and Egypt, using Bayesian inference. After testing for co-integration through the calculation of Bayes factors and computing impulse response functions, our results point to the absence of cross border market integration. |
| Keywords: | Market integration, Middle East, interwar, Cointegration, Posterior probability |
| JEL: | N15 N75 N95 C11 C12 C32 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mlb:wpaper:1193&r=his |
| By: | Ça Benhür (Selçuk University) |
| Abstract: | During the Second World War, Turkey had tried to remain neutral and stay away from the conflict reached its borders with its balance policy. Turkey has succeeded in this policy but officially joined the war alongside the Allies in the last months of the war and took its place in the new emerging world order. In years when the hot conflict reached its borders, although Turkey purposed the policy of outages war, Turkey had tried to prepare itself economically and in military way as it was going to go to war at any moment. The mentioned precautions became quite harsh for Turkey whilst it could not completely unseat the load of the First World War and the struggle after war. One of the above-mentioned efforts for Turkey was to pass the war economy. The principle of sustainability & development of the war economy, ensuring the maximum benefit from the territory source adopted and the decision was taken as the results to be obtained would be evaluated for the possible war. A development which can be considered as the reflection of the decisions taken; A delegation consisted of the period Ministries of Parliament, has prepared a comprehensive economic measures and practices report. In this study, it will attempt to perform a detailed review and assessment of the mentioned report which is now in the Prime Ministry Republican Archives in Ankara. |
| Keywords: | Turkey, Economy, Second World War, Archive |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:3105386&r=his |
| By: | Manuel Coelho |
| Abstract: | Memory is important, also for Economics. The ephemeris can be used not only as moments of who relives the past in a single-rewind-perspective but of those who use these occasions to reflect on the past and to project the future from it. 1995 was a special year for fisheries in Portugal. Never before and never again, was the sector so under the eye of the media. First pages every day journals, opening in the TV daily informative programs?, and that, for more than three months. A unique scenario... The cause was a fish war in the NAFO area, between Spain and Canada, about a species, the turbot, that put also the Portuguese in a big tension. Two decades after the war, our proposal goes through resume the so-called turbot war and, from it, to reflect on its causes, how the problems were solved and to outlook for the guidelines of future research. Our paper therefore has the following structure. In the first and second points, the original problems of High Sea fisheries management and how they reflected in practice in the turbot war, are presented. In section 3 we reflect on how the problem was solved. Theoretically we shortly review the basic results of the literature on this issue, in particular those arising from the usual combination of the basic model of fisheries management with Game Theory. In empirical terms we draw attention to the diplomatic efforts between the EU and Canada to overcome disagreements that led to war and to promote a cooperative agreement that would avoid the problem of overfishing on the High Sea. The rationale and substance of the 1995 UN Agreement on Transboundary Resources and Highly Migratory Species, its strengths and weaknesses, is presented and discussed. Finally, in Section 4, the paper reflects on the theoretical and practical issues that still pose important questions to this problematic and ask for some perspectives on future developments. |
| Keywords: | turbot war; hgh sea; management |
| JEL: | K00 Q00 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p1028&r=his |
| By: | Patrick Santos; Luís Silva Filho |
| Abstract: | A dinâmica do desenvolvimento econômico regional encontra pressupostos teóricos na evolução da ciência regional quanto proposta de explicação dos fenômenos das aglomerações e da desconcentração das atividades produtivas. As políticas de desenvolvimento econômico implantadas no Brasil lograram desempenho satisfatório das taxas de crescimento econômico no auge do modelo de crescimento por endividamento externo, e apresentaram fracassos das ações, logo nos primeiros sinais de ausência de financiamento do crédito no mercado financeiro internacional. Nesse sentido, este artigo tem como objetivo analisar o crescimento econômico brasileiro, a partir da teoria do desenvolvimento econômico regional e do crescimento econômico em ciclos. Metodologicamente buscou-se suporte teórico no arcabouço citado e, em seguida, construíram-se indicadores de crescimento econômico regional, a partir dos dados do Produto Interno Bruto ? PIB brasileiro no recorte temporal que compreende os anos de 1950-2010. Os resultados mostraram concentração acentuadamente elevada do PIB na região economicamente mais dinâmica do país (Sudeste), mesmo com redução relativa ao longo dos anos, bem como ocorrência de mudanças estruturais nas atividades econômicas brasileiras. A indústria ganha destaque ao longo dos anos em que as políticas industriais foram induzidas no país e perde participação em meio às mudanças macroeconômicas assistidas em contexto de inflação elevada e desestabilização das contas externas brasileiras. |
| Keywords: | Desenvolvimento regional; Crescimento econômico; Políticas de des. reg. Brasil |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p1194&r=his |
| By: | Trilce Navarrete (Department of Business and Economics, University of Southern Denmark, Odense,Denmark); Karol J. Borowiecki (Department of Business and Economics, University of Southern Denmark, Odense,Denmark) |
| Abstract: | The raison d’être of memory institutions revolves around collecting, preserving and giving access to heritage collections. Increasingly, access takes place in social networked markets characterized by communities of users that serve to select and rank content to facilitate reuse. Publication of heritage in such digital medium transforms patterns of consumption. We performed a quantitative analysis on the access to a museum collection and compared results before and after publication on Wikimedia. Analysis of the difference in access showed two main results: first, access to collections increased substantially online. From a selection of the most viewed objects, access grew from an average of 156,000 onsite visitors per year (or 15.5 million in a century) to over 1.5 million views online per year (or 7.9 million in five years). Second, we find a long tail in both mediums, where 8% of objects were exhibited onsite and 11% of available objects online were used in Wikipedia articles (representing 1% of the total collection). We further document differences in consumer preference for type of object, favouring 3D onsite and 2D online, as well as topic and language preference, favouring Wikipedia articles about geography and in English. Online publication is hence an important complement to onsite exhibitions to increase access to collections. Results shed light on online consumption of heritage content by consumers who may not necessarily visit heritage sites. |
| Keywords: | Heritage consumption, Museums, Digital heritage, Access, Exhibition history, Wikipedia |
| JEL: | L31 D12 N30 Z11 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cue:wpaper:awp-10-2015&r=his |
| By: | Yvonne Sperlich |
| Abstract: | During the last decade, many scientific articles have been published in political science about the formation of BRICS and the therewith related possible change of the international order. However, this topic has attracted much less attention in the economics literature. Based on a selective literature review of articles in political science and economics we summarize their findings from both disciplines, and analyze the economic and political development of the member states before and after having formed this alliance. A conclusion is that this collaboration is in fact becoming increasingly important for the world economy, international order, and the catching-up development in poorer world regions. This entails various challenges for related research, like the study of potential trade effects of a closer BRICS cooperation. |
| Keywords: | BRICS, economic integration, trade, power transition theory |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gen:geneem:15101&r=his |
| By: | BLINOV, Sergey |
| Abstract: | People recognized the important role played by money in the economy a long time ago. However, it was only approximately 50 years ago that Milton Friedman convincingly proved that change in the quantity of money in the economy might have a very serious effect on the GDP. This paper reveals a most intimate non-linear linkage between growth of real GDP and growth of real money supply using the example of a number of countries and unions (Russia, Japan, Brazil and Eurozone). It is shown that exponential growth of real money supply corresponds to linear growth of real GDP. Hypotheses are advanced which explain such a nature of the inter-linkage. A number of practical recommendations are given which pertain, first of all, to monetary policy. |
| Keywords: | GDP, economic growth, money supply, monetary policy, Central Banks |
| JEL: | E41 E50 E51 E52 E58 O11 O23 O42 |
| Date: | 2015–10–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:67461&r=his |