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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2016‒01‒18
twenty-two papers chosen by |
| By: | Irigoin, Alejandra |
| Abstract: | The article examines Spain’s colonial legacy in the long run development of Spanish America. It surveys the fiscal and constitutional outcomes of independence and assesses the relative fiscal and trade burden imposed by colonialism. Constitutional asymmetries between revenue collecting and spending agents constrained de facto governments’ power to tax. Inherent disparities embedded in colonial fiscal system worsened with vaguely defined representation for subjects and territories and troubled their aggregation into a modern representative polity. Governments with limited fiscal capacity failed to deliver public goods and to equitably distribute costs and benefits of independence. Growing indirect taxes, debt and money creation allowed them to transfer the fiscal burden to other constituents or future generations. Taxpayers realised the asymmetry between private contributions and public goods and hence favoured a low but regressive taxation. Comparisons with trajectories in the metropolis and the US are offered to qualify the legacy. Forthcoming in: Revista de Historia Económica - Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History |
| Keywords: | colonial legacies; taxation and representation; debt and monetary policy; institutions and long run development; Spain, Spanish America, USA |
| JEL: | E63 N10 N20 N40 |
| Date: | 2015–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:68639&r=his |
| By: | Erik Bengtsson (Lund University); Daniel Waldenstršm (Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between the capital share in national income and personal income inequality over the long run. Using a new historical cross-country database on capital shares in 19 countries and data from the World Wealth and Income Database, we find strong long-run links between the aggregate role of capital in the economy and the size distribution of income. Over time, this dependence varies; it was strong both before the Second World War and in the early interwar era, but has grown to its highest levels in the period since 1980. The correlation is particularly strong in Anglo-Saxon and Nordic countries, in the very top of the distribution and when we only consider top capital incomes. Replacing top income shares with a broader measure of inequality (Gini coefficient), the positive relationship remains but becomes somewhat weaker. |
| Keywords: | Wage share, Top incomes, Inequality, Wealth, Economic history |
| JEL: | D30 N30 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0092&r=his |
| By: | Ana Bela Nunes; Carlos Bastien |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to acknowledge the reflections of the Portuguese Marxist economists on the theory of economic crises. Although the references to Marx date back to the 1850s, both theoretical approaches and applied studies under this perspective were relatively late and superficial in Portugal. Relative backwardness of the Portuguese economy and other specificities to the Portuguese society were detrimental to the intellectual interest in the theory of economic crises. Anyway the approach to this subject by Marxist economists reveals the existence of three type of theories: the theory of the crisis in the business cycle, addressed from three different perspectives (the underconsumption theories, the disproportionality theories and the fall in the rate of profit theories); the theory of the crisis in the long cycle and the theory of the systemic crisis. Only after the Second World War II did the first relevant studies emerged and only after the 1970s did the academy appear sensitive to the subject. Meanwhile, the context of the late economic and financial crisis, that set in after 2007- 2008, resumed the topicality of the theory of economic crises, also from this heterodox perspective. |
| Keywords: | History of Economic Thought; Marxism; Crisis. JEL classification: B2, B5 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ise:gheswp:wp572015&r=his |
| By: | Condorelli, Stefano |
| Abstract: | The French Mississippi Bubble, British South Sea Bubble and Dutch Windhandel were part of a 1719-20 pan-European equity boom that involved many more countries than hitherto thought. Drawing on extensive archival research, the paper establishes that speculation and stock euphoria spanned from Portugal to Russia, and from Sicily to Sweden. As such, it demonstrates that 1720 European financial markets were largely driven by common forces. Comparing all the projects (successful or unsuccessful) for joint-stock companies promoted around 1720, the paper underlines three aspects that shed new light on this first transnational financial bubble. First, these projects bring to the fore a two-speed Europe: while the most advanced economies focused on innovative business sectors (in particular marine insurance), the least developed were catching up with a model that was more than one century old, namely the privileged company for long-distance trade and colonization. Second, French and British experiments with public debt engineering (that fuelled the Mississippi and South Sea Bubbles) were emulated throughout Europe; in almost every country there were schemes geared to improving public finances. Third, the timing of the global equity boom was more diachronic than previously thought, suggesting that contemporaries did not expect that a stock market crash somewhere should necessarily generate a contagion effect. |
| Keywords: | Financial history, early modern history, European economic integration, South Sea Bubble, Mississippi Bubble, financial crisis synchronicity, joint-stock companies, public debt-for-equity swap, marine insurance, long-distance trade, financial innovation. |
| JEL: | F31 F36 G01 G15 H63 M13 N23 N43 |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:68652&r=his |
| By: | Bulat V. Nazmutdinov (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Jurists and historians have rarely highlightened jural aspects of classical Russian Eurasianism. There have been several attempts to describe Eurasianist jural philosophy as a coherent system, but they were not fully relevant to the source material. The paper focuses on problems in the background of the creation of holistic Eurasianist jurisprudence during 1920s and 1930s. It emphasizes that the complexity of this process depended on different institutional and especially conceptual terms. The Eurasianists displayed several different approaches to Law whose distinctions were based on metajuridical grounds – phenomenological ideas in the work of Nickolai Alekseev, who argued for legal individualism; the “Alleinheit” theory found in the writings of Lev Karsavin; and a positivist theory in paper by Nickolai Dunaev. Based on published works of Eurasianists and unpublished archival materials, this research concludes that these juridical views were contradictory. These contradictions meant it was impossible to create a coherent Eurasianist jural theory using the terms derived from the authors mentioned, despite the fact that Eurasianist views have some specific characteristics |
| Keywords: | Eurasianism, ideocracy, legal order, legal theory, legal philosophy, legal schools, Natural Law, phenomenology, Russian philosophy. |
| JEL: | K10 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:61/law/2015&r=his |
| By: | Farley Grubb (Department of Economics, University of Delaware) |
| Abstract: | I reconstruct the data on Virginiaís paper money regime using forensic accounting techniques. I correct the existing data on the amounts authorized and outstanding. In addition, I reconstruct yearly data on previously unknown aspects of Virginiaís paper money regime, including printings, net new emissions, redemptions and removals, denominational structures, expected tax revenues, and specie accumulating in the treasury for paper money redemption. These new data form the foundation for narratives written on the social, economic, and political history of Virginia, as well as for testing models of colonial paper money performance. |
| Keywords: | bills of credit, data cloning, specie monies, tax revenues, treasury notes |
| JEL: | C82 E51 N11 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dlw:wpaper:15-11&r=his |
| By: | Adolfo Meisel-Roca |
| Abstract: | A comienzos del siglo XX la economía colombiana se encontraba afectada negativamente por las consecuencias de la Guerra de los Mil Días (1899-1902), la cual dejó la moneda completamente depreciada por una inflación que había llegado a más del 300% anual. A pesar de este panorama desolador, entre 1904 y 1922, Colombia logró estabilizar su economía y tener un sólido crecimiento exportador sobre la base del café. Esto le permitió al país, a comienzos de la década de 1920, llevar a cabo reformas económicas para atraer prestamos del exterior, mejorar la infraestructura de transporte y así ubicarse en los primeros lugares en crecimiento económico en América Latina. En este contexto se generaron las bases para la creación del Banco de la República en 1923. Este documento tiene como propósito describir los antecedentes políticos y económicos que forjaron la creación del banco central colombiano. ******ABSTRACT: In the early twentieth century Colombia’s economy experienced the negative consequences of the Guerra de los Mil Días (1899-1902), which left a highly depreciated currency and an inflation of more than 300% per year. Despite this bleak picture, between 1904 and 1922, the country was able to stabilize its economic indicators and obtaining a strong growth based on the exports of coffee. This advances allowed the country, at the beginning of the 1920s, to carry out structural economic reforms with the purpose of attracting foreign loans and improving the transport infrastructure. As a result Colombia obtained the first places in terms of economic growth in Latin America. It is under this context that the foundations were built for the establishment of the Banco de la República in 1923. The main purpose of this document is to describe the political and economic background that made possible the creation of Colombia’s Central Bank. |
| Keywords: | Banco de la República, inflación, tasa de cambio |
| JEL: | E31 E42 E58 |
| Date: | 2015–12–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000101:014179&r=his |
| By: | Leonid R. Sykiainen (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This article touches on the fundamental principles of Sharia judiciary, the modern practice of Sharia court activity in Muslim and Western countries and their establishment and functioning in Russia. The place which Sharia courts occupied in the judicial system of the Muslim state during middle ages, the general historical evolution of Sharia justice institutions and the role played by modern Sharia courts in Muslim countries, which depends on the place which Islamic Sharia occupies in their legal systems, are shown. The Sharia model of judiciary has been known in Western countries from the middle ages and today Sharia courts are still functioning in some of them. In Russia, Sharia institutions of dispute resolution were created in the 19th century. They existed in some forms until the end of the 1920s. After that, while they still existed, their decisions did not have any legal force. From the 1990s, Sharia courts began to re-emerge in Russia as religious or civil structures. Russian legislation provides the legal basis for establishing Sharia institutions of dispute resolution in the form of arbitration courts or mediation structures. Such institutions can be an alternative to illegal Sharia courts, and they could assist securing legal fundamentals and values within the Russian Muslim community |
| Keywords: | Sharia, Sharia courts, fiqh, legal doctrine, adat, Arbitration Act, arbitration tribunal, alternative methods of dispute resolution, mediation. |
| JEL: | K40 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:60/law/2015&r=his |
| By: | Daniel A. Tirado Fabregat (Dpto. Análisis Económico); Alfonso Díez-Minguela (Dpto. Análisis Económico); Julio Martínez-Galarraga (Dpto. Análisis Económico) |
| Abstract: | Using a novel dataset, this paper explores the evolution of regional income inequality in Spain, 1860-2010. We follow the growth literature and use spatial exploratory tools to analyse modality, mobility and spatial clustering. We find two clearly distinguishable periods. First, there was an upswing in regional inequality accompanied by a certain mobility between 1860 and 1930. This was followed by a period of regional convergence, in which mobility was rather low. In parallel to this, a geographical concentration of the richest and poorest regions took place, with wealthy Spain located in the north-east and poor Spain in the south. In the last decades convergence has come to a halt, mobility is quasi-non-existent and spatial polarization has tended to increase. A partir de recientes estimaciones históricas de PIB provincial, este trabajo explora la evolución de la desigualdad regional en España entre 1860 y 2010. Siguiendo a la literatura de crecimiento económico, se presentan diversos indicadores para analizar la modalidad, la movilidad y la aglomeración espacial de las provincias españolas. Nuestros resultados muestran la existencia de dos períodos claramente diferenciados. En primer lugar, entre 1860 y 1930 la desigualdad regional aumentó y este aumento se vio acompañado de una cierta movilidad en el ranking provincial. A partir de entonces se dio un proceso de convergencia, en el que la movilidad fue bastante reducida, y donde además se produjo una creciente concentración geográfica de las provincias más ricas y más pobres, situándose las primeras en el noreste peninsular y las segundas en el sur. En las últimas décadas el proceso de convergencia se ha detenido, la movilidad es prácticamente inexistente y la polarización espacial ha continuado aumentando. |
| Keywords: | Desigualdad regional, España, crecimiento regional, historia económica Regional inequality, Spain, Regional growth, Economic history |
| JEL: | C21 O18 R0 N9 N64 F14 |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ivi:wpasec:2015-05&r=his |
| By: | Richard Macve |
| Abstract: | To help understand modern financial accounting theory (FAT) and its role in the development of finance and business, I consider two current mainstream histories of its development and offer a third alternative. The standard setters' version is that increasingly FAT is rationally derived from a basically coherent conceptual framework, currently focussed on ‘comprehensive income’ as measured by ‘changes in assets and liabilities’, in turn preferably measured at fair values. However, examination here of several recent FASB/IASB standards and exposure drafts shows that instead they unavoidably bear the marks of the history of a variety of now embedded practices that have shaped thinking about, and vested interests in, what is ‘good accounting’. By contrast, some recent academic versions of history focus on how ‘conservative’, historical-cost based accounting principles have rationally evolved to provide an anchor on which to base appraisal of firms' and managers' performance, prospects and risks, and supply the kind of information that investors and other parties in the capital markets need to help overcome the information asymmetry between them and corporate managers. After analysing the limitations of this second type of history, I argue that even a brief genealogical examination of the conditions of possibility that have led to the growth and changes in accounting and auditing practices and discourses, and in the power-knowledge relations that they have engendered at different stages over the millennia of recorded history, suggests that their power has always been more that of ‘institutional rationalised myth’. The twin rational myths of the objectivity of accounting and of auditing together provide the structure that offers the comfort necessary to enable the various agents in the modern, increasingly global, economy to undertake and finance the risks of acting ‘at a distance’ and across time. This modern, grammatocentric accountability increasingly extends throughout the institutions that coordinate modern societies, in the rising East as well as in the established West. Exploring how much of FAT is rational and reflects some objective ‘economic reality’ and how much is myth and is subjectively, socially constructed; and, again, how much might be improved and how much is intractable, are the major questions now for accounting, auditing and finance policy-making and research. This requires further detailed comparative international historical understanding of how accounting and auditing have variously operated, within businesses and other organisations and in shaping markets, across different countries and cultures. |
| Keywords: | Business history; China; comparative international accounting history; conceptual framework; conservatism; fair value; Institutional rationalised myth |
| JEL: | M40 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:62740&r=his |
| By: | Carlo Ciccarelli; Alessandro Nuvolari |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the dynamics of technical change in the Italian locomotive industry in the period 1850-1913. From an historical point of view, this industry presents a major point of interest: it was one of the few relatively sophisticated "high-tech" sectors in which Italy, a latecomer country, was able to set foot firmly before 1913. Using technical data on the performance of different vintages of locomotives, we construct a new industry-level index of technical change. Our reassessment reveals the critical role played by non-tariff barriers for the emergence and consolidation of national manufacturers in this field. |
| Date: | 2014–02–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2014/23&r=his |
| By: | Bakker, Gerben (London School of Economics); Crafts, Nicholas (Department of Economics University of Warwick); Woltjer, Pieter (Wageningen University) |
| Abstract: | We develop new aggregate and sectoral Total Factor Productivity (TFP) estimates for the United States between 1899 and 1941 through better coverage of sectors and better measured labor quality, and show TFP-growth was lower than previously thought, broadly based across sectors, strongly variant intertemporally, and consistent with many diverse sources of innovation. We then test and reject three prominent claims. First, the 1930s did not have the highest TFP-growth of the twentieth century. Second, TFP-growth was not predominantly caused by four leading sectors. Third, TFP-growth was not caused by a ‘yeast process’ originating in a dominant technology such as electricity. |
| Keywords: | Harberger diagram ; mushrooms ; productivity growth ; total factor productivity ; yeast |
| JEL: | N11 N12 O47 O51 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1099&r=his |
| By: | Adolfo Meisel-Roca; Juliana Jaramillo-Echeverri |
| Abstract: | Entre 1930 y 1951 Colombia enfrentó grandes cambios y diversos choques económicos internos y externos. Este artículo estudia la política monetaria del Banco de la República y las nuevas funciones que adquirió durante esa época, dentro de las que se cuentan la administración de las salinas y las minas de esmeraldas. Por el lado de la contribución cultural se destaca su aporte por medio de la apertura de la biblioteca del Banco y el Museo del Oro. Pese a las crisis que tuvo que afrontar, el balance de la economía colombiana de este periodo fue positivo, sobre todo en el contexto de una desaceleración de la economía mundial y regional. Ese resultado se basó, en gran parte, en el buen desempeño de las exportaciones y el cambio estructural que representó la industrialización por sustitución de importaciones. ******ABSTRACT: Between 1930 and 1951 the Colombian economy faced profound changes and several national and international shocks. This paper analyzes the monetary policy carried out by Banco de la República (the Central Bank of Colombia) and its new responsibilities, such as the administration of salt and emeralds mines. On the cultural side, the Bank contributed with the creation of a public library and the Museo del Oro (Gold Museum). Despite the crisis, Colombia managed to end the period with a positive balance, a remarkable result considering the regional and world economic slowdown. These positive results can be attributed to the positive exports performance and the structural changes achieved through the import substitution industrialization. |
| Keywords: | Banco de la República, Colombia, política monetaria |
| JEL: | E31 E42 E58 |
| Date: | 2016–01–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000101:014184&r=his |
| By: | Pierre Azoulay; Christian Fons-Rosen; Joshua S. Graff Zivin |
| Abstract: | We study the extent to which eminent scientists shape the vitality of their fields by examining entry rates into the fields of 452 academic life scientists who pass away while at the peak of their scientific abilities. Key to our analyses is a novel way to delineate boundaries around scientific fields by appealing solely to intellectual linkages between scientists and their publications, rather than collaboration or co-citation patterns. Consistent with previous research, the flow of articles by collaborators into affected fields decreases precipitously after the death of a star scientist (relative to control fields). In contrast, we find that the flow of articles by non-collaborators increases by 8% on average. These additional contributions are disproportionately likely to be highly cited. They are also more likely to be authored by scientists who were not previously active in the deceased superstar's field. Overall, these results suggest that outsiders are reluctant to challenge leadership within a field when the star is alive and that a number of barriers may constrain entry even after she is gone. Intellectual, social, and resource barriers all impede entry, with outsiders only entering subfields that offer a less hostile landscape for the support and acceptance of "foreign" ideas. |
| Keywords: | economics of science, scientific fields, superstars, invisible college, cumulative knowledge production |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:857&r=his |
| By: | Becker, Sascha O (Department of Economics, University of Warwick); Pfaff, Steven (University of Washington); Rubin, Jared (Chapman University) |
| Abstract: | The Protestant Reformation is one of the defining events of the last millennium. Nearly 500 years after the Reformation, its causes and consequences have seen a renewed interest in the social sciences. Research in economics, sociology, and political science increasingly uses detailed individual-level, city-level, and regional-level data to identify drivers of the adoption of the Reformation, its diffusion pattern, and its socioeconomic consequences. This survey takes stock of the research so far, tries to point out what we know and what we do not know, and which are the most promising areas for future research. |
| Keywords: | Protestant Reformation |
| JEL: | N33 Z12 R38 D85 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1105&r=his |
| By: | Sascha O. Becker (University of Warwick); Steven Pfaff (University of Washington); Jared Rubin (Chapman University) |
| Abstract: | The Protestant Reformation is one of the defining events of the last millennium. Nearly 500 years after the Reformation, its causes and consequences have seen a renewed interest in the social sciences. Research in economics, sociology, and political science increasingly uses detailed individual-level, city-level, and regional-level data to identify drivers of the adoption of the Reformation, its diffusion pattern, and its socioeconomic consequences. This survey takes stock of the research so far, tries to point out what we know and what we do not know, and which are the most promising areas for future research. |
| Keywords: | Protestant Reformation |
| JEL: | N33 Z12 R38 D85 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chu:wpaper:15-29&r=his |
| By: | Anamaria de Aragão Costa Martins; Vicente Correia Lima Neto |
| Abstract: | O presente trabalho, com base em revisão bibliográfica, apresenta fundamentos teóricos que amparam diferentes relações entre forma urbana e sistema de transportes, e explica as principais premissas do planejamento regional da primeira metade do século XX, responsáveis pela configuração de inúmeras áreas metropolitanas. Tomando o caso de Brasília, exemplifica como esses princípios do planejamento regional influenciaram a organização espacial do território. Por fim, demonstra os efeitos da descentralização do território na crescente dependência do automóvel, desvendando os principais problemas relacionados com esse padrão de mobilidade para a capital federal. This article presents a theoretical approach towards the relation between transportation and urban form, explaining the main principles used in the regional planning during the first half of XX century, that influenced several metropolitan areas. Taking the case of Brasilia, it is exemplified how those planning principles oriented the spatial organization of the territory. The article demonstrates the effects of decentralization in the crescent dependence on private transportation, revealing the main commuting problems in the Federal Capital of Brazil. |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipe:ipetds:2163&r=his |
| By: | Claudia Olivetti (Boston College; NBER); Barbara Petrongolo (Queen Mary University; Centre for Economic Performance, LSE) |
| Abstract: | Women in developed economies have made major inroads in labor markets throughout the past century, but remaining gender differences in pay and employment seem remarkably persistent. This paper documents long-run trends in female employment, working hours and relative wages for a wide cross-section of developed economies. It reviews existing work on the factors driving gender convergence, and novel perspectives on remaining gender gaps. The paper finally emphasizes the interplay between gender trends and the evolution of the industry structure. Based on a shift-share decomposition, it shows that the growth in the service share can explain at least half of the overall variation in female hours, both over time and across countries. |
| Keywords: | gender gaps, demand and supply, industry structure |
| JEL: | E24 J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2016–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:bocoec:889&r=his |
| By: | Nina Grigoreva (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The paper deals with Muong epic tales included into the cycle of ‘The Birth of the Earth and Water’. These tales, which represent a type of ritual narrative performed during traditional mourning rites (Mo), are analyzed in the context of Vietnamese folk stories from a 15th century collection entitled ‘A Selection of Wondrous Tales of Linh Nam’. The comparative analysis of two bodies of narratives is used to suggest an alternative vision of the ethnic and cultural history of the Muong and the Vietnamese (Kinh). |
| Keywords: | Vietnam, Muong, Viet-Muong, epics, comparative analysis |
| JEL: | Z19 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:118hum2015&r=his |
| By: | David I. Stern (Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University) |
| Abstract: | The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) has been the dominant approach among economists to modeling aggregate pollution emissions and ambient pollution concentrations over the last quarter century. Despite this, the EKC was criticized almost from the start and decomposition approaches have been more popular in other disciplines working on global climate change. More recently, convergence approaches to modeling emissions have become popular. This paper reviews the history of the EKC and alternative approaches. Applying an approach that synthesizes the EKC and convergence approaches, I show that convergence is important for explaining both pollution emissions and concentrations. On the other hand, while economic growth has had a monotonic positive effect on carbon and sulfur emissions, the EKC holds for concentrations of particulates. Negative time effects are important for sulfur emissions. The EKC seems to be most useful for modeling the ambient concentrations of pollutants it was originally applied to. |
| Keywords: | air pollution; economic growth; environmental Kuznets curve; convergence; climate change |
| JEL: | Q53 Q56 |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:ccepwp:1514&r=his |
| By: | Timofey Arkhangelskiy (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Natalia Tyshkevich (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we present our fieldwork data from the Bessarabian Yiddish, formerly the main language of the Jewish population of Moldova. Social upheavals of the 20th century caused huge migration of Jews from Eastern Europe, leading to separation of survivors from their community. This situation has dramatically influenced their linguistic knowledge of Yiddish, showing structural changes characteristic for language loss. These changes include significant increase in variability and structural simplification due to paradigmatic leveling and influence of the dominant language. The paper presents two case studies that investigate these effects on different levels of language organization: the diminutive formation model and the periphrastic verbal construction |
| Keywords: | language death, Yiddish, diminutives, periphrastic constructions. |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:36/lng/2015&r=his |
| By: | Enami, Ali |
| Abstract: | The “fetal origin hypothesis” predicts that the exposure to unfavorable environments early in life negatively affects future health and non-health (e.g. income) outcomes. This paper evaluates this theory by examining the effect of in utero exposure to influenza pandemic of 1957-58, the 2nd biggest of the 20th century, on the future earnings of exposed cohort. Using data from National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79), a difference-in-differences model is estimated for four demographic groups: white and non-white males and females. While the effect of this exposure on earnings of white individuals is statistically insignificant, the effect is both (economically and statistically) significant and contradictory for non-whites. Non-white females experienced a $6100 loss in their yearly wage while the wage of non-white males increased by about $11900. |
| Keywords: | Fetal origin hypothesis; Earnings, Asian flu, NLSY79 |
| JEL: | I12 I19 N32 |
| Date: | 2016–01–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:68673&r=his |