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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2015‒11‒21
35 papers chosen by |
| By: | Oscar Gelderblom; Joost Jonker |
| Abstract: | We analyze the evolution of payments in the Low Countries during the period 1500-1800 to argue for the historical importance of money of account or ghost money. Aided by the adoption of new bookkeeping practices such as ledgers with current accounts, this convention spread throughout the entire area from the 14th century onwards. Ghost money eliminated most of the problems associated with paying cash by enabling people to settle transactions in a fictional currency accepted by everyone. As a result two functions of money, standard of value and means of settlement, penetrated easily, leaving the third one, store of wealth, to whatever gold and silver coins available. When merchants used ghost money to record credit granted to counterparts, they in effect created a form of money which in modern terms might count as M1. Since this happened on a very large scale, we should reconsider our notions about the volume of money in circulation during the Early Modern Era. |
| Keywords: | Money, cashless payments, coins and credit, Early Modern Low Countries |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucg:wpaper:0074&r=his |
| By: | Johan Fourie |
| Abstract: | Big Data can be consequential for the field of history. The surge in computing power and access to data processing software and online resources have enabled historians over the past two decades to capture historical statistics on a much larger scale than before. Here I argue that the data revolution is especially valuable when applied to regions where written records are fairly scarce, such as sub-Saharan Africa. The tools of data transcription, augmentation, and collaboration have revealed much we did not know about the African past and its echoes in the present. The continuing projects to transcribe and digitize large numbers of colonial and post-colonial records are likely to teach us much more about Africa’s economic past over the coming decade. |
| Keywords: | Data Revolution, Economic History, Sub-Saharan Africa |
| JEL: | N01 C80 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:555&r=his |
| By: | Morgan Kelly; Joel Mokyr; Cormac Ó Gráda |
| Abstract: | We analyze factors explaining the very different patterns of industrialization across the 42 counties of England between 1760 and 1830. Against the widespread view that high wages and cheap coal drove industrialization, we find that industrialization was restricted to low wage areas, while energy availability (coal or water) had little impact Instead we find that industrialization can largely be explained by two factors related to the human capability of the labour force. Instead of being composed of landless labourers, successful industrializers had large numbers of small farms, which are associated with better nutrition and height. Secondly, industrializing counties had a high density of population relative to agricultural land, indicating extensive rural industrial activity: counties that were already reliant on small scale industry, with the technical and entrepreneurial skills this generated, experienced the strongest industrial growth. Looking at 1830s France we find that the strongest predictor of industrialization again is quality of workers shown by height of the population, although market access and availability of water power were also important. |
| Keywords: | Industrial revolution; Economic history; Economic growth |
| JEL: | N N13 O52 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201524&r=his |
| By: | Bhattacharyya, Sambit |
| Abstract: | In this chapter I explore the causal relationships between historical factors (for eg., geography, disease, colonial history, and technology) and poverty in developing countries. I start with a review of the existing theories. This is followed by a novel unified framework in order to causally relate these historical factors in explaining the process of development in Western Europe and the New World colonies. The final section applies this framework to explain why Africa, Latin America, and Russia fell behind. My central argument is that Western Europe benefitted from favourable geography which led to highly productive agriculture, food surplus, and institutions conducive to development. In contrast, Africa continues to suffer from unfavourable geography and disease. Institutional weaknesses in Latin America and Russia explain their relatively weak long term economic performance. I also argue that these historical factors matter for contemporary patterns of development across the globe. The chapter concludes with some suggestions for future research on this topic. |
| Keywords: | root causes, poverty |
| JEL: | N0 O1 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:67902&r=his |
| By: | Mauro Boianovsky |
| Abstract: | The origins of “capital fundamentalism’ – the notion that physical capital accumulation is the primary determinant of economic growth – have been often ascribed to H arrod’s and Domar’s proposition that the rate of growth is the product of the saving rate and of the outpu t - capital ratio. I t is argued here that development planners in the 1950s reinterpreted and adapted the growth formula to their agenda in order to calculate “capital requirements”. Development economists at the time (Lewis, Hirschman, Rostow and others) were aware that Harrod’s and Domar’s growth models addressed economic instability based on Keynesian multiplier analysis, which diff ered from their concern with long - run growth in developing economies. Harrod eventual ly applied his concept of the natural gro wth rate to economic development . He claimed that the growth of developing economies was determined by their ability to implement technical progress – not by capital accumulation, subject to diminishing returns. Dom ar pointed out that the increm ental capital - output ratio was more likely a passive result of the interaction between the propensity to save and technological progress, instead of a causal factor in the determination of growth. |
| Keywords: | Capital fundament alism, Harrod, Domar, development economics, saving |
| JEL: | B22 B31 O10 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hec:heccee:2015-12&r=his |
| By: | Kostadis J. Papaioannou; Michiel de Haas |
| Abstract: | A rapidly growing body of research examines how weather variability, anomalies and shocks influence economic and societal outcomes. This study investigates the effects of weather shocks on African smallholder farmers in British colonial Africa and intervenes in the debate on the mediating effect of cash crops on resilience to shocks. We employ a dual research strategy, involving both qualitative and econometric analysis. We analyse original primary evidence retrieved from annual administrative records and construct a panel dataset of 151 districts across West, South-central and East Africa in the Interwar Era (1920-1939). Our findings are twofold. First, we qualitatively expose a range of mechanisms leading from drought and excessive rainfall to harvest failure and social upheaval. We then test the link econometrically and find a robust U-shaped relation between rainfall deviation and social upheaval, proxied by annual imprisonment. Second, we review a long-standing and unsettled debate on the impact of cash crop cultivation on farmersÕ resilience to environmental shocks and find that cash crop districts experienced lower levels of social tension and distress in years of extreme rainfall variability. |
| Keywords: | Environmental and economic history, Africa, colonialism, tropical agriculture, social upheaval |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucg:wpaper:0076&r=his |
| By: | E. Roy Weintraub |
| Abstract: | In this review essay of Medema’s and Waterman’s collection of some of Samuelson’s writings in the history of economics, the author argues that Samuelson’s claim to have written “Whig History” is spurious. Moreover the author argues that Samuelson’s own writings on modern economics are , whether explicit or not, profoundly autobiographical. Samuelson, in constructing a literature ostensibly about c ontemporary economics, was simultaneously constructing a literature in which he and contemporary economics could be jointly considered and appraised. |
| Keywords: | Paul A. Samuelson, historiography, Whig History, aut obiography, history of economics |
| JEL: | B2 D5 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hec:heccee:2015-14&r=his |
| By: | Dribe, Martin (Department of Economic History, Lund University); Olsson, Mats (Department of Economic History, Lund University); Svensson, Patrick (Department of Economic History, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | The first part of this paper aims at identifying the timing of famines in the Nordic countries since the middle ages. This is done by using qualitative famine reports from the literature since quantitative data on famines are scarce or non-existent, at least before the early modern period. We supplement the reports with climate data and price data. Our survey indicates that widespread famine was always a rare occurrence in the Nordic countries, despite frequent crop failures. The second part studies the regional famine pattern and its demographic characteristics in Sweden 1750–1910. This part is based on demographic data on parish level from the official statistics and price data. We identify two periods of excess mortality: the last major famine in Sweden in the early 1770s and the excess mortality in 1809 due to epidemic outbreaks. Examining the age-specific mortality and seasonality pattern in these two years of mortality crises in Sweden we show a highly similar pattern explained by similar causes of death being involved: dysentery and typhus. All age groups were affected during the crisis, but children over the age of one were hardest hit. Mortality was highest during the summer and early fall as epidemics spread rapidly through water and food. Thus, while Nordic people clearly were vulnerable to economic fluctuations, conditions rarely deteriorated to famine levels, which can be explained as a combination of a reasonably well-functioning market, a diversified economy, a population density in line with resource availability and the absence of serious political or war-related conditions conducive to famine. |
| Keywords: | famine; mortality; climate; food prices; harvests; Nordic countries; Middle Ages; 19th century |
| JEL: | I31 N33 Q54 |
| Date: | 2015–09–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:luekhi:0138&r=his |
| By: | Tang, John P. |
| Abstract: | Economic development leads to improved health over time due to increased access to medical treatment, sanitation, and income, but in the short run the relationship may be negative given disease exposure from market integration. Using a panel dataset of vital statistics for late nineteenth century Japan, I find mortality rates increased during the country's early industrialization period and that railroad access accounts for over five percent of average mortality. Estimates from a triple-differences framework indicate that communicable disease mortality accounts for 91 percent of the additional incidence, which suggests that improved transport may have operated as a vector for transmission. |
| Keywords: | disease contagion, market integration, mortality Kuznets curve, railroad transport |
| JEL: | J11 N75 O14 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:rcesrs:dp15-10&r=his |
| By: | Schön, Lennart (Department of Economic History, Lund University); Krantz, Olle (Department of Geography and Economic History, Umeå University) |
| Abstract: | This Working Paper presents and discusses Swedish Historical National Accounts back to 1560 in both current and constant prices. With current prices, this paper provides a major extension of our prior WP 123. It also presents some revisions and additions to earlier data. The main result from the earlier paper of a long secular cycle with troughs around 1600 and 1800 and a peak around 1700 still holds, but there are new aspects on long term development and structural changes from the analysis of both current and constant prices. Thus, the position of agriculture in the late 17th century looks even bleaker in current than in constant prices. |
| Keywords: | historical national accounts; deflating; economic growth; demand approach |
| JEL: | N01 N13 N14 |
| Date: | 2015–11–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:luekhi:0140&r=his |
| By: | Eun Mee Kim |
| Abstract: | South Korea has gained economic development despite the obstacles it faced as a wartorn country with little natural resources and capital. Poverty, lack of democracy, as well as war and conflict were challenges the country faced in the early 1960s; issues not very different from what many developing countries face in the 21st century. This paper focuses on the following topics during the most dynamic period in South Korea.s economic development from 1960s to 1980s: the developmental state and industrial policies; the role of the private businesses; and state.business relationship. |
| Keywords: | state.business relations, private sector, economic growth, Korea |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2015-103&r=his |
| By: | Roy Grieve (Department of Economics, University of Strathclyde) |
| Abstract: | This paper returns to an issue I discussed in a review article published some twenty years ago** The subject under discussion was Anthony Brewer’s 1992 study*** Richard Cantillon: Pioneer of Economic Theory. That review provided a vehicle for consideration of Cantillon’s theory of value, particularly for questioning Brewer’s rejection of Cantillon’s analysis, on the ground that he (Brewer) understood it to propose a dead-end “land theory of value†which attempted to account for equilibrium relative values in terms of quantities of “land embodiedâ€. In the present paper a fuller critique of that land-embodied interpretation of Cantillon’s value theory is presented. From what might be described as a Sraffian perspective, we – contrary to Brewer - interpret Cantillon as offering a perceptive and valid analysis of the operation of the market mechanism in the case of a surplus producing system in which distribution is determined - exogenously to the price system - by social factors of property ownership and economic power. We suggest that, given Cantillon’s view (in a pre-industrial context) of land as a country’s principal economic resource, he may be said to have told a general story associating equilibrium commodity prices (“intrinsic valuesâ€) with the quantity and quality of land employed in production. Appreciating that an approach in terms simply of physical quantities of land could not serve to explain relative values under the complexity of real world conditions, he expressed his understanding in the form of a “cost of production theory†explaining intrinsic values as represented by the costs – comprised of wages and rents measured in money – incurred by entrepreneurs for the use of heterogeneous inputs of land and labour. Labour costs can be translated into land costs via Cantillon’s “Parâ€. These production costs reflect both the use of resources and the balance of economic power within society. Thus, on the subject of “intrinsic value†we read Cantillon as following not a crude land-embodied treatment, but instead a cost of production approach, an approach which would be further developed by the Classics and Marx as appropriate to later economic and social conditions. |
| Keywords: | Richard Cantillon's Essai, Value and Distribution; the "Par", the alleged "land theory" of value |
| JEL: | B11 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:str:wpaper:1506&r=his |
| By: | Stéphane BECUWE; Bertrand BLANCHETON; Karine ONFROY |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes to give an account of Base Montesquieu project computing with annual data from Tableau General du Commerce de la France between 1836 and 1938. The article presents also key original data concerning sectoral dimensions of French foreign trade. We used different level of disaggregation to analyze product’s inflows and outflows. These data can be interesting in order to drive studies on sectors in long run perspective or to analyse annually French international trade. |
| Keywords: | international trade, France, products, countries |
| JEL: | N70 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2015-35&r=his |
| By: | Auke Rijpma; Sarah Carmichael |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the possibilities for the creation of a global dataset on family and household characteristics. This is done by scrutinizing and comparing two prominent data sources on family system classifications. We first focus on historical data, by comparing Emmanuel ToddÕs classification of countries by family systems with ethnographic data compiled in George MurdockÕs Ethnographic atlas. Qualitative and quantitative tests show that the two datasets frequently agree about family traits. Nonetheless, substantial differences exist that are mostly attributable to the focus of the datasets on different regions, and the difficulties in translating local, descriptive studies to hard data. We therefore emphasize that it is important to know the strengths and weaknesses of the two datasets and emphasize that robustness checks are necessary in empirical research into family characteristics. We also compare these historical data with present-day data. This comparison suggests that family characteristics and the values associated with them can persist over long periods. |
| Keywords: | family systems, historical persistence, ethnography, global data, culture, inheritance practices. |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucg:wpaper:0072&r=his |
| By: | Paulina Restrepo-Echavarria (Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis and The); Mark Wright (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago); Lee Ohanian (University of California Los Angeles) |
| Abstract: | Theory predicts that capital should flow to countries where economic growth and the return to capital is highest. However, in the post-World War II period, per-capita GDP grew almost three times faster in East Asia than in Latin America, yet capital flowed in greater quantities into Latin America. In this paper we propose a 3-country 2-sector growth model, augmented by 'wedges' to quantify and evaluate the importance of international capital market imperfections versus domestic imperfections in explaining this anomalous behavior of capital flows. We find that during the 1950's capital controls where important, but domestic conditions dominate. And contrary to what has been thought, after 1960 capital controls in Asia encouraged borrowing. |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed015:1377&r=his |
| By: | Marchionatti, Roberto; Mornati, Fiorenzo (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | The paper deals with the debate on the General Economic Equilibrium in the 1930s in Vienna and at the London School of Economics and offers an interpretation of it different from that of the traditional narratives. It interprets the debate as a renewed confrontation between the two different classical methodological paths of research in GEE, the Paretian and the Walrasian ones. What emerges from this examination is a picture of different approaches and theories in competition, in particular on the issue of the relationship between theory and the real world. This was the fundamental issue at stake. Herein lies also the interest in those distant controversies for the current debate in economics. |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:cesmep:201404&r=his |
| By: | Gabriel Oliva |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the ways in which c ybernetics influenced the works of F. A. Hayek from the late 1940s onwar d. It shows that the concept of negative feedback, borrowed from cybernetics, was central to Hayek’s attempt of giving an explanation of the principle to the emergence of human purposive behavior. Next, the paper discusses Ha yek’s later uses of cybernetic ideas in his works on the spontaneous formation of social orders. Finally, Hayek’s view on the appropriate scope of the use of cybernetics is considered. |
| Keywords: | Cybernetics, F. A. Hayek, Norbert Wien er, Garrett Hardin, Ludwig von Bertalanffy |
| JEL: | B25 B31 C60 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hec:heccee:2015-11&r=his |
| By: | Leonard, Carol S.; Yanovskiy, Konstantin Ė.; Shestakov, D. |
| Abstract: | In this paper we explore current understandings of the influence of political rights, among historical legacies, on economic development. We construct variables for selected political regimes for 1811-2010. We find significant association between individual rights and economic growth. We argue that current understanding of political regimes supportive of growth (Acemoglu, etc), should parse the concept of property rights to include the protection of the individual in their focus on private property rights protection, alone, respected in various forms of government, are insufficient; what matters is the security of individuals from arbitrary arrest, regardless of “type of regime”. Discretionary rights of rulers or democratic governments to arrest citizens undermines the protection of private property rights and other attributes classically given to democratic foundations of economic growth, for example, free press, freedom of the exercise of religious belief. We suggest, as a research agenda, that the power of the politically competitive system therefore comes from weakening discretionary authority over law enforcement |
| Keywords: | rule of law,Rule of Force,Personal Rights,Private Property Protection,Economic Growth |
| JEL: | P16 P50 N40 O40 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:121852&r=his |
| By: | Alberto Feenstra |
| Abstract: | The Dutch Republic is frequently depicted as an early example of a stateÕs credible commitment to debt. Yet these studies tend to overlook the implications of the RepublicÕs federal structure. This paper analyses the default by the province of Groningen during the 1680Õs, at the expense of its creditors in the province of Holland. It argues that GroningenÕs unique position within the federation prevented the market to punish the province for its misbehaviour. This was not a carefully thought-out plan, but the coincidental historical outcome of the interaction between creditors and provincial and federal authorities. Ultimately, the creditors resorted to essentially medieval sanctions to enforce a solution. |
| Keywords: | public debt, Dutch history, default, political economy, economic history |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucg:wpaper:0075&r=his |
| By: | Samuel MAVEYRAUD; François CHOUNET |
| Abstract: | We analyze the phenomenon of contagion between the main European currencies quoted against US dollar during World War 1 (WW1). The studied period goes from the start of WW1 to March 1917, before the entry of the United States into the war (April 1917). Our analysis of exchange rate correlations shows that that Gold Standard Regime has not survived the beginning of WW1. |
| Keywords: | Gold, exchange rates, World War 1 |
| JEL: | N24 F31 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2015-33&r=his |
| By: | Sarah G. Carmichael; Alexandra de Pleijt; Jan Luiten van Zanden; Tine De Moor |
| Abstract: | This reply reviews the evidence presented by Dennison and Ogilvie that the European Marriage Pattern did not contribute to economic growth in Early Modern Europe (EMP). First, we argue that the link between the EMP and economic growth is not conceptualized correctly. Age of marriage is not a correct index of the degree to which countries were characterized by EMP. Secondly, we show that our alternative interpretation of the EMP, focusing on the underlying institutions and the related balance of power between men and women, solves this problem. We find a strong correlation between economic growth and female agency. |
| Keywords: | Marriage patterns, Economic growth, Institutions |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucg:wpaper:0070&r=his |
| By: | Marchionatti, Roberto; Sella, Lisa (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | After the ‘new Great Crisis’ exploded in 2008 it is widely recognized that mainstream macroeconomics - the last result of Lucas’s anti-Keynesian revolution of the 1980s which tried to give macroeconomics sound neo-Walrasian microeconomic bases - has failed to anticipate and then appraise the crisis. Has this crisis revealed a failure of this macroeconomics as a scientific theory? Mainstream macroeconomists defend their models on the basis of their alleged superiority in terms of clarity and coherence. The thesis of this paper is that this claim about superiority is false. The paper argues that the reasons for the failure of mainstream macroeconomics – in particular its poor predictive performance and interpretative weakness - reside in the implications of the neo-Walrasian legacy and the problems connected with the implementation of that programme |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:cesmep:201502&r=his |
| By: | José Antonio Espín-Sánchez |
| Abstract: | In 1966, after over 700 years, the irrigation community in Mula (Spain) switched from auctions to a quotas to allocate water from its river. This change happened in the absence of either political or technological change. Quotas were more efficient but required that farmers own water property rights. A farmer would promise to pay over time and became a borrower. However, she would not work hard because the output went to the lender. Anticipating this outcome, the lender would not sell the water rights. A temporary increase in output prices increased their collateral solving the commitment problem. |
| Keywords: | Institutions, Natural Resources, Water, Financial Institutions |
| JEL: | N23 N53 Q25 D02 G23 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:seh:wpaper:1506&r=his |
| By: | Farley Grubb (Department of Economics, University of Delaware) |
| Abstract: | I use denominational structure (the spacing and size of monetary units) to explain how the Continental Congress attempted to manage a successful common currency when sub-national political entities were allowed to have separate currencies and run independent monetary policies. Congress created a common currency that was too large to use in ordinary transactions. Congress hoped this currency would be held for post-war redemption and would not circulate as money during the war. As such, it would not contribute to wartime inflation. By contrast, individual state currencies were emitted in small enough denominations to function as the domestic medium of exchange. |
| Keywords: | bills of credit, legal tender, paper money, quantity theory of money, zero-coupon bonds. |
| JEL: | E42 E52 H77 N11 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dlw:wpaper:15-10&r=his |
| By: | Giulia Prelz Oltramonti |
| Abstract: | This thesis focuses on a key component of societal relations, namely the creation and exploitation of economic leverage. It explores how, in the context of protracted territorial conflicts, relevant actors craft it and use it. Finally, it examines to what ends economic leverage is exploited, if at all. Generally, economic leverage can translate into a considerable form of power. This thesis scrutinizes how this occurs in more specific contexts post-ceasefire agreement conflict protraction, and what the finalities of the actors concerned are. It does so by focusing on a number of relevant actors, and by treating conflict protraction as the specific context in which economic power is exploited. Two cases are examined, namely those of the South Ossetian and the Abkhaz protracted conflicts. This thesis does not focus on the historical conditions and political events that caused the separatist conflicts in Georgia, but on their consequences and on the periods following the ceasefire agreements (signed respectively in 1992 and 1993), which came to a close with the Russo-Georgian war over South Ossetia in August 2008. |
| Keywords: | Political economy of conflict; Caucasus; Georgia |
| Date: | 2015–10–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/217139&r=his |
| By: | Gareth Austin; Ewout Frankema; Ewout Morten Jerven |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the Ôlong twentieth-centuryÕ development of ÔmodernÕ manufacturing in Sub-Saharan Africa from colonization to the present. We argue that classifying Africa generically as a Ôlate industrializerÕ is inaccurate. To understand the distinctively African pattern of manufacturing growth, we focus our discussion on the dynamic interplay between the regionÕs specific endowment structures, global economic relationships and government policies. We conclude that the case of Sub-Saharan Africa is best characterized as interrupted industrial growth instead of sustained convergence on world industrial leaders. This is partly because, until very recently, the factor endowments made it very costly for states to pursue industrialization; and partly because successive rulers, colonial and post-colonial, have rarely had both the capacity to adopt and the dedication to sustain policies that modified the regionÕs existing comparative advantage in primary production, by using their fiscal and regulatory powers effectively to promote industrialization. |
| Keywords: | Manufacturing, Sub-Saharan Africa, Colonial institutions, Economic History |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucg:wpaper:0071&r=his |
| By: | Isabella Weber (Peterhouse College, University of Cambridge) |
| Abstract: | This paper argues that both Smith and Marx find money to be necessary for the specialization of individual producers and the regulation of social production by market exchange. Increasing returns to scale constitute an incentive towards individual specialization of production and social division of labor. However, specialization is conditioned on the ability of specialized producers to provide their needs by exchange. A stable equilibrium of individually diversified production can emerge when social norms or limits to exchange prevent specialization. Specialization under conditions of barter constitutes a highly unstable equilibrium since the specialized producers fail regularly to provide their needs by exchange. It tends to either collapse back into a diversified equilibrium or to give rise to a socially accepted general equivalent, i.e. money. Money greatly increases the strategic complementarity of specialization by providing sufficient exchange certainty and a relatively stable specialized equilibrium can emerge. |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:new:wpaper:1527&r=his |
| By: | Hein, Eckhard |
| Abstract: | The principle of effective demand, and the claim of its validity for a monetary production economy in the short and in the long run, is the core of heterodox macroeconomics, as currently found in all the different strands of post-Keynesian economics (Fundamentalists, Kaleckians, Sraffians, Kaldorians, Institutionalists) and also in some strands of neo-Marxian economics, particularly in the monopoly capitalism and underconsumptionist school In this contribution, we will therefore outline the foundations of the principle of effective demand and its relationship with the respective notion of a capitalist or a monetary production economy in the works of Marx, Kalecki and Keynes. Then we will deal with heterodox short-run macroeconomics and it will provide a simple short-run model which is built on the principle of effective demand, as well as on distribution conflict between different social groups (or classes): rentiers, managers and workers. Finally, we will move to the long run and we will review the integration of the principle of effective demand into heterodox/post-Keynesian approaches towards distribution and growth. |
| Keywords: | effective demand,employment,distribution,growth,Marx,Kalecki,Keynes |
| JEL: | E20 E21 E22 E24 E25 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ipewps:602015&r=his |
| By: | Kevin D. Hoover |
| Abstract: | The Great Recession and the financial crisis of 2007-09 prompted ca lls for fundamental reforms of economic theory. The role of theory in economics and in recent economic events is considered in light of two recen t books: the sociologist Richard Swedberg’s The Art of Social Theory and the economist André Orléan’s The Empire of Value: A New Foundation for Economics . |
| Keywords: | economic theory, neoclassical economics, sociology, abduction, mimetic hypothesis, monetary economy, fina ncial crisis, Great Recession |
| JEL: | A12 B41 A11 B40 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hec:heccee:2015-15&r=his |
| By: | Luis N. Meloni |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the existence of elite capture at local levels of government in the context of the Brazilian dictatorship, a particular interesting context because during the dictatorship the mayors of some municipalities were appointed by the regime, while others were elected directly. This is done comparing measures of inequality after redemocratization between municipalities that had appointed mayors with (a subset of) municipalities where mayors were elected directly. To overcome the issue of the selection of municipalities, a combination of geographic regression discontinuity (GRD) design with matching techniques is employed, relying on the hypothesis that the main source of selection is related to the geographic characteristics of the municipalities. The main results indicate income inequality increased more in municipalities that had mayors appointed by the regime and that was mainly due to an increase in the share of income earned by the richest. Although lack of more detailed data does not allow to explore the channels through which this wealth concentration occurred, the results are consistent with the hypothesis of elite capture. |
| Keywords: | Political Economy; Institutions; Inequality |
| JEL: | P16 D02 D63 |
| Date: | 2015–11–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spa:wpaper:2015wpecon41&r=his |
| By: | Yoshio Takigawa (Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University) |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koe:wpaper:1532&r=his |
| By: | Atsuko Suzuki (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | Naraya-Sugimoto family who was kimono fabrics dealer in Kyoto established two branch stores in Kanto region in the Edo period. Focusing on the statement of the settlement of accounts of Naraya, this paper examines the pricing process of Naraya, referring the instances of Daikokuya (the Tomiyama family) and Echigoya (the Mitsui family). I pointed out two important matters in this paper: first the markup pricing method of kimono, and second the convention of changing price in price tag. There were two kinds of markup pricing method of kimono retailers in the Edo period, namely [1]guchi-mashihand [2]gsoto-mashih. [1] guchi-mashih : Cost € (1| Markup) Selling price [2] gsoto-mashih : Cost ~ (1{ Markup) Selling price Assuming that the cost of kimono purchased is 100(Monme) and the markup rate is 20%, the calculation formulas are as follows; [1] 100 € (1|0.2) 125 [2] 100 ~ (1{0.2) 120 Naraya traded in gKudari-monoh(kimonos produced in Kyoto) and gKanto-monoh (kimonos produced in Kanto region), and priced gKudari-monoh at guchi-mashih price, while gKanto-monoh at gsoto-mashih price. To be exact, Naraya classified kimonos and applied a set percentage for each kimono category. (To be more precise, using the markup pricing as a standard, Naraya priced each kimono respectively according to quality, the mode, etc.) For instance, gKanto-monoh were classified into 3 categories from c. 1793. (category) (markup rate) gKanto-monoh category 1 ---> 25% gKanto-monoh category 2 ---> 20% gKanto-monoh category 3 ---> 17% The main store of Naraya in Kyoto purchased kimonos (gKudari-monoh) and put price tags on them and then sent them to the branch stores in Kanto region. However, the price on the tag was not the selling price. The main store priced gKudari-monoh double the selling price, neverthless the branch stores sold them correctly at the selling price. That is to say that the pricing on the tag in Kyoto was a conventional style. The convention was seen only in gKudari-monoh between Kyoto and Kanto region and lasted until 1842. ex. 200 (Monme) on the tag in Kyoto ----> sell it at 100 (Monme) in Kanto region |
| Keywords: | pricing policy, price tag, markup rate, kimono-fabric, long-distance trade |
| JEL: | N9 M31 M41 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:1529&r=his |
| By: | Sarah Carmichael; Auke Rijpma; Lotte van der Vleuten |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the quantity-quality trade-off and other household-level influences on educational outcomes of children. Nineteenth and early-twentieth century census micro-data is used, providing material from Western and Eastern Europe, the USA and Canada. This is the time-frame of the demographic transition and the onset of modern economic growth; when the quantity-quality trade-off should be most important. Besides the number of siblings, other household features can be of influence as well, such as the gender composition, the inclusion of members outside the nuclear family and the position of women in the household. We find mixed evidence for the quantity-quality trade-off, as well as positive effects of the presence of (upwards) extended family members and parental, especially maternal, literacy. |
| Keywords: | human capital, fertility, demographic transition, economic history |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucg:wpaper:0073&r=his |
| By: | Claude MORANGE (Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris 3), France) |
| Abstract: | En 1811, se publicaron, casi simultáneamente, en Santiago de Compostela y Palma de Mallorca, dos traducciones de La Politique naturelle, del barón de Holbach, aunque sin mencionar el nombre del autor. En realidad, se trataba de la traducción de un compendio de la obra, editado en 1790. El examen detenido de las dos traducciones revela, no solo que son muy distintas, sino que los traductores censuraron el original, especialmente en todo lo que contenía de anticlericalismo. Nuevo ejemplo de la complejidad de las vías de penetración en España del pensamiento de la Ilustración.. |
| Keywords: | 1811, Holbach, La Política natural, Santiago de Compostela, Palma de Mallorca, Ilustración |
| JEL: | B1 B31 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1515&r=his |
| By: | Gregory Clark; Neil Cummins |
| Abstract: | Using educational status in England from 1170 to 2012, we show that the rate of social mobility in any society can be estimated from knowledge of just two facts: the distribution over time of surnames in the society and the distribution of surnames among an elite or underclass. Such surname measures reveal that the typical estimate of parent–child correlations in socioeconomic measures in the range of 0.2–0.6 are misleading about rates of overall social mobility. Measuring education status through Oxbridge attendance suggests a generalized intergenerational correlation in status in the range of 0.70–0.90. Social status is more strongly inherited even than height. This correlation is unchanged over centuries. Social mobility in England in 2012 was little greater than in preindustrial times. Thus there are indications of an underlying social physics surprisingly immune to government intervention. |
| Keywords: | social mobility; intergenerational correlation; status inheritance |
| JEL: | N0 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:60593&r=his |