|
on Business, Economic and Financial History |
|
Issue of 2016‒02‒23
28 papers chosen by |
| By: | Waldenström, Daniel (Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses new data on Swedish national wealth over a period of two hundred years to study whether the patterns in wealth-income ratios previously found by Piketty and Zucman (2014) for some very rich and large Western economies extend to smaller countries that were historically backward and developed a different set of political and economic institutions during the twentieth century. The findings point to both similarities and differences. In the pre-industrial era, Sweden had much lower wealth levels than the rest of Europe, and the main explanation is that the Swedes were too poor to save their income. Over the twentieth century, Swedish aggregate trends and levels are much more similar to those of the rest of Europe, but the structure of national wealth differs. In Sweden, govern-ment wealth grew much faster and became more important, not least through its relatively large public pension system. This suggests an explicit role of historical economic and political institutions for the long-run evolution of wealth-income ratios. |
| Keywords: | Wealth-income ratios; National wealth; Household portfolios; Pension wealth; Welfare state; Institutions; Economic history |
| JEL: | D30 E01 E02 N30 |
| Date: | 2015–10–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2015_004&r=his |
| By: | Enflo, Kerstin (Department of Economic History, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides the first consistent long-run estimates of Finnish regional GDPs, from 1880 to 2010. Estimates are provided for 12 historical counties as well as for the 5 current-border NUTS 2-regions. The main results from the analyses of the long-run evolution of regional GDPs are the following. Firstly, it is clear that Finland’s geographical position, in the intersection between Eastern and Western Europe, has led to a history of balancing between the two powers. A long-run economic decline of the historically important regions of the west is documented. Simultaneously access to Russian markets advanced the East, but trade was subject to several large shocks, notably with the Finnish independence of 1917 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Over the long run, the paper finds that the southern part of the country has been the winner in the Finnish regional growth league. Secondly, the paper analyses regional inequality and finds that Finland’s counties and regions were relatively unequal in European comparison during early industrialization. Rapid convergence in GDP per capita only took place after the Second World War, but was interrupted by the 1980s and replaced by a new tendency for divergence. |
| Keywords: | Industrialization; Regional inequality; Regional income; Economic growth; |
| JEL: | N93 N94 R11 |
| Date: | 2014–09–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:luekhi:0135&r=his |
| By: | Dmitriy Tulyakov (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This article considers Wyndham Lewis’s autobiography Blasting and Bombardiering (1937) as an instrument for reassessing modernism and representing it to the wider readership of popular literature. Lewis’s employment of autobiography to conceptualise modernism and position himself within/towards it is a marked step away from his criticism where modern subjectivity, historical approach to the self, and fictionalisation of autobiography are repudiated. Such change cannot be explained only by Lewis’s pragmatic motives of raising his profile in the recent literary history and making money by catering to the audience’s taste for autobiographies. This choice of genre also reflects Lewis’s disillusionment with transformative yet detached modernism, which the First World War proved to have been utopian, but with whose aesthetic standards Lewis wanted to maintain association. In this context, the populist intent of the autobiography can be seen as a means of rethinking the failed modernist attempt at objectivity. With the help of the form of popular autobiography, Lewis playfully subjects to detachment modernism itself, undermining the assumptions of its commitment to difficulty, elitism, and autonomy and highlighting the related tensions within his own aesthetics |
| Keywords: | modernist autobiography, Wyndham Lewis, detachment, popular literature |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:13/ls/2015&r=his |
| By: | Porzecanski, Arturo C. |
| Abstract: | In the 1970s, while a leftist military dictatorship ruled Peru, more than 22 million acres of cultivated or grazing farmland -- one-third of Peru’s total agricultural acreage -- were expropriated from thousands of large owners as part of a property reform intended to benefit up to 400,000 landless peasant families. The compensation provided to landowners was miserly, however: on average, it was less than one-tenth the then-prevailing market price of water-accessible, cultivated land. Moreover, about 85 percent of total recognized land values were settled not in cash but with long-term Agrarian Debt Bonds, which committed future governments to honor fixed coupons on obligations maturing in 20 to 30 years. These bonds became worthless during the 1980s, however, because hyperinflation raged and the Peruvian currency lost most of its value. In the wake of the filing of hundreds of lawsuits seeking judicial redress, in 2001 the country’s Constitutional Tribunal ruled that the government should resume payment of the land-reform debt after updating its nominal value on an actuarial basis. And yet, successive administrations did not act on this ruling, despite the fact that since the mid-1990s Peru has exhibited vigorous economic growth, significantly strengthened public finances, and substantially improved creditworthiness, such that governments have had more than the necessary ample fiscal resources to redeem the land-reform bonds at their full, original value. This paper examines the evidence and concludes that we are in the presence of a case of blatant unwillingness to pay, one which undermines Peru’s claim to be a nation that is creditworthy, investor-friendly, and respectful of the rule of law. |
| Keywords: | Peru, Latin America, default, debt, sovereign, litigation, land reform, credit rating |
| JEL: | D23 E6 F34 F51 H63 K4 N26 Q15 |
| Date: | 2016–01–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:69583&r=his |
| By: | Henry Willebald (Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay); Marc Badia-Miró (Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona,Spain); Vicente Pinilla (Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain) |
| Abstract: | In this work, we highlight the “lessons from history” that can be drawn from a historical discussion and understanding of the past and present of resource-rich developing economies to obtain conditions for successful natural resources-based development. The conceptual core of our answer to those questions will be based on three key ideas. First, abundance of natural resources is closely associated with levels of economic development. Second, we emphasize that an abundance of natural resources is not a fixed situation. It is a process that reacts to changes in the structure of commodity prices and factor endowments, and progress requires capital, labour, technical change and appropriate institutional arrangements. Finally, history shows that institutional quality is the key factor to deal with abundant natural resources and, especially, with the rents derived from their use and exploitation. The ways in which natural resources interact with economic development are mediated by the performance of institutional arrangements in at least three dimensions: (i) institutions’ ability to limit rent-seeking opportunities that divert innovation and resources from productive avenues; (ii) political competition and participation relate to rules governing chief executive recruitment and selection, the fairness and impartiality of electoral processes, and constraints on executive power; and (iii) the characteristics of institutions that reduce transactional risk through proper enforcement of property rights. In sum, history is very clear in showing that natural capital is non-neutral for economic performance but it is a systemic component of economic development where institutional quality is the key component to deal with and create “curses” and “blessings” of natural resources. |
| Keywords: | Palabras clave: Natural Resources and Economic Growth, Natural Resources Curse, Economic Development. |
| JEL: | E02 N50 O13 Q32 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1504&r=his |
| By: | Jordi Planas (Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain) |
| Abstract: | In the early twentieth century winegrowersin Europe faced a crisis of overproduction, with steeply falling prices and sharp increases in wages and production costs. Since the markets showed no signs of correcting themselves, the winegrowers called for state intervention. In the major wine producing countries such as France and Spain, large winegrowers’ associations were created which lobbied their governments to regulate domestic wine markets through tariffs, quality controls, the creation of regional appellations and bodies investigating fraud in winemaking, and also promoted other measures to increase the consumption of unadulterated wine. However, while winegrowers in France were highly successful in obtaining government support to protect their market interests, in Spain the legislation introduced was much more eclectic; it aimed to satisfy on the one hand the winegrowers and on the other the alcohol producers, wine merchants and exporters, even though the interests of these groups often clashed head on. This paper aims to explain the differences in state intervention and wine market regulation in these two major producer countries in the early twentieth century, by analysing the particular features of their markets and productive systems in the aftermath of the phylloxera plague, as well as the winegrowers’ collective action and the political framework in each country. |
| Keywords: | Palabras clave: state intervention, market regulation, winegrowers, collective action, France, Spain. |
| JEL: | L15 N53 N54 Q18 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1503&r=his |
| By: | Depetris-Chauvin, Emilio; Özak, Ömer |
| Abstract: | This research explores the emergence and prevalence of economic specialization and trade in pre-modern societies. It advances the hypothesis, and establishes empirically that population diversity had a positive causal effect on economic specialization and trade. Based on a novel ethnic level dataset combining geocoded ethnographic and genetic data, this research exploits the exogenous variation in population diversity generated by the ``Out-of-Africa'' migration of anatomically modern humans to causally establish the positive effect of population diversity on economic specialization and the emergence of trade-related institutions, which, in turn, facilitated the historical formation of states. Additionally, it provides suggestive evidence that regions historically inhabited by pre-modern societies with high levels of economic specialization have a larger occupational heterogeneity and are more developed today. |
| Keywords: | Economic Specialization, Division of Labor, Trade, State Formation, Population Diversity, Economic Development, Population Heterogeneity, Genetic Diversity, Diversity, Emergence of State, Persistence, Out of Africa |
| JEL: | D74 F1 N0 N4 O1 O4 Z10 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:69565&r=his |
| By: | Michael Bordo |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the historical record on Federal Reserve governance and especially the relationship between the Reserve banks and the Board from the early years of the Federal Reserve to the recent crisis. From the record I consider some lessons for the current debate over reform of the Federal Reserve. It was prepared for the May 21, 2015 Hoover Institution conference, "Central Bank Governance and Oversight Reform: A Policy Conference." |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hoo:wpaper:15107&r=his |
| By: | Zhang, Yaguang (Peking University); Fan, Guo (Peking University); Whalley, John (University of Western Ontario, Canada) |
| Abstract: | We discuss business cycles in ancient China. Data on Ancient China business cycles are sparse and incomplete and so our discussion is qualitative rather than quantitative. Essentially, ancient debates focused on two types of cycles long run political or dynastic cycles of many decades, and short run nature induced cycles. Discussion of the latter show strong parallels to Jevons’ conception of sun spot cycles. The former has no clear contemporary analogue, were often deepin impact and of long duration. The discussion of both focused on agricultural economies. Ancient discussion on intervention focused on counter cyclical measures, including stockpiling, and predated Keynes and the discussion in the 1930s by centuries. Also, a strongly held belief emerged that cycles create their own cycles to follow, and that cycles are part of the inevitable economic order, a view consistent with Mitchell’s view of the business cycle in the 1940s. Current debates on how best to respond to the ongoing global financial crisis draw in part on historical precedents, but these are largely limited to the last 150 years for OECD countries and with major focus on the 1990’s. Here we also probe material on Ancient China to see what is relevant. |
| Keywords: | JEL Classification: |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:262&r=his |
| By: | Evans, Trevor |
| Abstract: | This study examines the development of the US economy since the prolonged recession in the early 1980s. This period was characterised by a serious weakening in the bargaining position of waged workers and a major expansion of the financial sector. Most of the economic gains accrued to top earners and economic growth became increasingly dependent on the expansion of credit. This precarious constellation led to short recessions in 1990 and again in 2001, but then in 2007 and 2008 the failure of highly complex securities led to the most serious financial crisis since 1929. The study reviews the development of profitability, income distribution and other key macroeconomic variables in the period leading up to, during and immediately after the crisis. It then identifies the main channels by which the crisis was transmitted form the US to other advanced capitalist economies and concludes with a brief review of the policy measures introduced by the US government in response to the crisis. |
| Keywords: | United States,finance-led capitalism,financial crisis |
| JEL: | E25 E32 E44 E58 F44 G01 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ipewps:512015&r=his |
| By: | Shaikh, Salman Ahmed |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we comparatively analyze the views and role of labor in Marxian, mainstream and Islamic economics. We argue that Marxian view of labor undermines the role of entrepreneur. Indeed, the slave trade, industrialization and Colonialism resulted in exploitation of the labor. But, to correct matters, undermining the role of entrepreneur to the extent of abandoning private property rights is not the right solution either as it was also proved in the later part of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, mainstream economics too is unable to create an equitable balance between the capitalists and the labor class, especially in the presence of extractive institutions like interest based earnings on accumulated wealth and incapacitated wealth redistribution mechanisms. These extractive institutions perpetuate the dominance of wealthy capitalists by making their accumulated wealth immune to entrepreneurial risks. This also results in concentration of wealth, increase in income inequality and low levels of capital formation. Indeed, the recent evidence of jobless growth, high youth unemployment despite high per capita income and high income inequality supports this view. In Islamic economic framework, prohibition of interest encourages productive enterprise and capital formation. These factors boost the labor demanded by the firms. In the microeconomic decisions in consumption-leisure choice framework, Islamic institutions positively boost the labor supply. In an Islamic economy, wealth redistribution through Zakat and inheritance laws ensures circulation of wealth. Prohibition of interest closes the door for riskless non-labor income on money capital. This increases the cost of leisure and encourages the person to supply more labor and/or invest money capital in productive enterprise. Finally, we discuss the impact of Islamic work ethics on dealing with the problems of moral hazard, labor shirking and rigidity in the labor market due to efficiency wages and insider-outsider relationships. |
| Keywords: | Labor Economics, Labor Market, Labor Value, Marxian Economics, Islamic Economics, Wage Inequality |
| JEL: | J22 J23 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2015–04–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:68750&r=his |
| By: | Horioka, Charles Yuji |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I find (1) that Japan showed massive and persistent current account surpluses from at least 1981 and until at least 2011, (2) that Professor Ronald McKinnon was correct, at least in the case of Japan, and that these large and persistent current account surpluses were due primarily to Japan's large and persistent IS imbalances (the excess of saving over investment), (3) that the specific causes of the IS imbalances have changed dramatically over time, and (4) that future trends in Japan's IS imbalances (current account surpluses) are difficult to project but that they will probably not change dramatically in either direction in the foreseeable future. |
| Keywords: | IS imbalances, IS balances, saving-investment balances, global imbalances, current account surpluses, current account balances, trade balances, saving, household saving, corporate saving, government saving, investment, population aging, Ronald McKinnon, Japan |
| JEL: | D14 D91 E21 F21 F32 H62 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:agi:wpaper:00000036&r=his |
| By: | José Miguel Martínez-Carrión (Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain); Antonio D. Cámara (Universidad de Jaén, Jaén, Spain) |
| Abstract: | Anthropometric history has shed light on some consequences of industrialization and urbanization on the biological dimensions of living standards across different areas of Spain. Yet the impact of these processes on specific segments of the population together with the magnitude of intra-urban differences, remain largely unexplored in this country. This paper presents and discusses male height differentials by occupation and urban districts in the industrial town of Antequera (Andalusia, Southern Spain) between 1879 and 1899 (cohorts born between 1859 and 1879). This period witnessed the halt of the growth experienced by wool-based manufacturing and its subsequent decline in this town. Anthropometric and socio-demographic data are utilized that were compiled from military enlistments held over that period which included more than five thousand young males aged 18-20. Descriptive analyses and multivariate linear regression analysis are conducted. Results illustrate the influence of two components of inequality and poverty in past urban societies during the dynamics of industrialization: income levels and physical environment. For the most part, the peasantry exhibits the lowest height averages. Within this group, those living in the industrial periphery of the town display lower mean statures. |
| Keywords: | Anthropometric history, industrialization, biological living standard, Andalusia, 19th century. |
| JEL: | I31 O14 N33 N43 |
| Date: | 2015–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1508&r=his |
| By: | Yves Jégourel |
| Abstract: | West African countries, on top of which is Côte d’Ivoire, represent the bulk of the world supply of cocoa beans. From the end of the nineteenth century to their independence, and to recent times, their histories have been marked by boom and bust cycles that were sometimes desynchronized from one country to another, especially for Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, due to differentiated political and economic backdrops. As for now, cocoa producers seem to be insulated from the rout which has hit nearly all the commodities, amidst fears of a shortfall by 2020. |
| Keywords: | Commodities, History, Economy, Markets, Cocoa, Price, Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ocp:ppaper:pb-16/07&r=his |
| By: | Charles W Calomiris; Mark A Carlson |
| Abstract: | The unit banking structure of the United States gave rise to a uniquely important interbank correspondent network, which linked banks throughout the country during the National Banking Era. During normal times, these interbank network relationships provided banks with access to money markets, facilitated payment processing, and helped banks meet legal reserve requirements. We collect and analyze data on individual correspondent relationships of national banks to map the structure of the network, identify the factors that led banks to adopt different correspondent network structures, and examine the consequences of network choices for bank liquidity risk. Banks' network profiles differed according to the range of services they needed or provided to their customers. For instance, banks providing more checking services focused their interbank relationships on banks in New York City, which was central to the payment clearing system. Location characteristics also mattered; banks in areas with more manufacturing firms maintained more network connections. Differences in network profiles propagated liquidity risk during the Panic of 1893, one of the most severe panics of the National Banking Era. Banks with relatively high two-sided interbank liquidity risk - those that both held more of their liquid assets with their correspondents and were funded to a greater extent by the deposits of other banks - were more likely to close. New York City banks suspended convertibility during the crisis. Banks that relied more heavily on New York correspondents as a source of liquidity were more likely to close. |
| Keywords: | interbank networks, correspondent banking, banking panics, contagion, National Banking Era |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bis:biswps:535&r=his |
| By: | Karnani, Mohit |
| Abstract: | I exploit the exogenous characteristic of a natural disaster occurred in Chile in order to explain its effects on general unemployment over affected and unaffected regions of the country in a mid-run timespan of 5 measured years. By using a fixed effect panel data regression model, I find that regions closer to the epicentre of the 27F earthquake showed signicantly deeper reductions of unemployment over the time in comparison to those regions which are further from the epicentre. This effect was not observed in a signicant way when using a short-run subsample of two years. I also perform diverse robustness checks over the estimates, all of which strongly support these findings. Thus, I conclude that more affected regions received a prime on unemployment reduction in the mid-run lapse of these four years after the earthquake. |
| Keywords: | earthquake, unemployment, exogenous variation |
| JEL: | J64 O54 Q54 R11 R15 |
| Date: | 2015–07–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:68935&r=his |
| By: | Jaelani, Aan |
| Abstract: | Market mechanisms in the era of globalization associated with the paradigm of the market economy along with the development of socialist economy, capitalist, or mixed. The market mechanism is a problem when the inefficient allocation of resources, market imperfections, and the cause of economic backwardness. With the approach of Islamic history of economic thought in reading the "text" and analyze the "context" could find that the institution has historically experienced hisba institutional transformation as a market watchdog agencies and religious institutions that represent the social and economic role in anticipating market problems. This hisba institution or whatever his name to the current context is very significant in creating the equity market. |
| Keywords: | hisbah, market mechanism, globalization of economic, business ethic |
| JEL: | B2 B21 B25 D4 D6 D63 N2 N25 |
| Date: | 2011–10–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:69526&r=his |
| By: | Giovanni Federico; Antonio Tena Junguito |
| Abstract: | This paper presents our data-base on world trade from 1800 to 1938. We have collected or estimated series of imports and exports, at current and constant (1913) prices and at current and at constant (1913) borders, for 149 polities. After a short review of the available series, we describe the methods for the construction of the data-base. We then deal with the criteria for the inclusion of polities, the representativeness of our series, the main types of sources, the procedures of deflation and, when necessary, of adjustments to 1913 borders. We discuss the details of the estimation of our polity series in Appendix B. Following Feinstein and Thomas (2001), we assess the reliability of our polity estimates. In the last two sections we present our trade series at current and 1913 borders and compare them with other available series. All data are available on: http://hdl.handle.net/10016/22230. |
| Keywords: | World Trade , new series , 19th and 20th Century |
| JEL: | F14 N10 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:whrepe:wp16-01&r=his |
| By: | Susan Newman (University of West England, Bristol; University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an overview of some of the long-run changes in the relationship between the financial and non-financial aggregate sectors of the South African economy. In particular the paper considers the impact of financialisation on capital investment, consumption, inequality and the capital account. The growth trajectory of the apartheid and post-apartheid periods are considered. It is argued that the nature and form of financialisation that has taken placed in South Africa is conditioned by the nature of industrial and financial developments before 1994 |
| Keywords: | distribution of income, inequality, finance-dominated capitalism, financialisation, industrial development, South Africa |
| Date: | 2014–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fes:fstudy:fstudy26&r=his |
| By: | Lambert, Thomas |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes that one major explanation of growing inequality in the United States (US) is through the use of the concept of economic surplus. The economic surplus is a neo-Marxian term which combines the traditional Marxian tenet of surplus value with other ways that surplus value can be invested in a mature, advanced capitalist economy. A rising economic surplus that is not absorbed through growing consumer spending, luxury spending or government spending results in stagnant wages and growing inequality via higher levels of underemployment and greater monopoly and monopsony power among a decreasing number of huge, powerful corporations. Therefore, the politics surrounding the growth of inequality in the US has to be understood first by understanding over accumulation of the economic surplus by those at the top of the US capitalist class. This research note gives estimates of the rising economic surplus over the last several decades in the US as well as how these correlate with the level of inequality. The growth of the economic surplus gives rise and form to the politics of inequality and austerity. As time goes by, the politics of inequality and austerity in the US will be manifested by greater corporate influence in the political system, greater political polarization, less government effectiveness, and more debates about welfare spending, corporate taxation, taxes on upper income households, and taxes on wealth. |
| Keywords: | alienation, economics, fascism, inequality, monopoly capital, occupy movement, political science, socialism, tea party |
| JEL: | B51 B59 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:69615&r=his |
| By: | Opitz, Alexander |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the attitude of investors towards Democratic change by performing an event study using Russian government bonds. The Revolution of 1905 offers an ideal occasion as, alongside the related revolutionary events, it was accompanied by two opposing constitutional changes within a short period of time. This study contributes to the debate as to whether Imperial Russia could possibly have followed other Western European states, i.e. gradually adopting a democratic rule, or whether a revolution was inevitable - as the writing of Soviet history suggests. Furthermore, the Russo-Japanese War is taken into consideration. The results are basically in line with the literature on the impact of wars on capital markets. Prices of two types of bonds on both the Saint Petersburg and the Berlin stock exchange are employed. As it turns out, investors in the East and West were largely consistent in their reactions. |
| Keywords: | russian economic history,political stock market,Democratic change,impact war on stock markets |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hohdps:152015&r=his |
| By: | Miguel Sanchez-Martinez; Philip Davis |
| Abstract: | This paper critically analyses the views of poverty adopted by different economic schools of thought which are relevant to the UK, as well as eclectic theories focused on social exclusion and social capital. We contend that each of the economic approaches has an important contribution to make to the understanding of poverty but that no theory is sufficient in itself; a selective synthesis is needed. Furthermore, economics by its nature omits important aspects of the nature and causes of poverty. |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsr:niesrd:435&r=his |
| By: | Rafael Vallejo Pousada (Universidad de Vigo, Vigo, Spain) |
| Abstract: | Este trabajo estudia las relaciones entre Hacienda y agricultura en España durante el siglo XIX, a través de la presión fiscal soportada por la renta agraria. Un primer apartado es de carácter metodológico. El segundo describe brevemente la reforma tributaria de 1845 que implantó en España la Hacienda liberal, y analiza la valoración de los contemporáneos sobre si la agricultura pagó más al fisco antes o después de la misma. En los apartados tercero y cuarto, se mide la presión fiscal sobre el sector agrario desde un punto de vista macroeconómico, y estimamos cuánto pagó aquél en relación a la industria entre 1850 y 1900, para valorar si el sistema fiscal tuvo o no un sesgo industrialista. El apartado quinto aborda la presión fiscal desde una perspectiva microeconómica, utilizando datos aportados por las contabilidades privadas de grandes patrimonios, en distintos puntos de la geografía española. Las cifras arrancan, en algunos casos, de 1801; esto nos permitirá presentar las grandes líneas de evolución de la carga fiscal soportada por las rentas de los grandes propietarios durante todo el siglo XIX. |
| Keywords: | Palabras clave: Política fiscal; fiscalidad y agricultura; presión fiscal; Hacienda Pública Liberal; Rentas Agrarias |
| JEL: | N5 N10 H22 H31 N53 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1501&r=his |
| By: | Caroline Freund (Peterson Institute for International Economics); Sarah Oliver (Peterson Institute for International Economics) |
| Abstract: | This working paper presents a new dataset on the sources of billionaire wealth and uses it to describe changes in extreme wealth in the United States, Europe, and other advanced countries. The data classify wealth as either self-made or inherited and identify the company and industry from which it comes. Among self-made billionaires, individuals are further classified as company founders, executives, politically-connected, or in finance. Data analysis shows that the superrich in the United States are more dynamic than in Europe. Just over half of European billionaires inherited their fortunes, as compared with one-third in the United States. The median age of a company of a European billionaire is nearly 20 years older than that of an American billionaire. Traditional sectors explain more than half of the rise in wealth in Europe; the financial sector and technology-related sectors together are largely responsible for the rise in US wealth. There is some evidence that rents are higher in the United States than Europe, as not only is the number of US billionaires expanding rapidly, but US billionaires are also getting richer on average over time, especially when wealth is connected to resources, nontradables, or finance. |
| Keywords: | wealth inequality, top 1 percent, extreme wealth, crony capitalism |
| JEL: | D63 O57 P48 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iie:wpaper:wp16-1&r=his |
| By: | Grodecka, Anna (Financial Stability Department, Central Bank of Sweden); Kotidis, Antonis (Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effects of the abolition of double liability requirement imposed on bank shareholders in Canada on bank risk-taking and lending behavior. Under the double liability rule, the shareholders of a bank were liable up to twice the amount of their subscribed shares in the case of bankruptcy. With the establishment of the Bank of Canada in 1934, the double liability requirement became less stringent and depended on the pace of the redemption of notes in circulation issued by the individual chartered commercial banks. Using historical balance sheet and accounting data, we show that the abolition of double liability was not accompanied by increased bank risk taking in Canada. Our ndings are consistent with the literature that focuses on uniform regulations and nationwide branching as key nancial stability elements in Canada. |
| Keywords: | Double Liability; Bank Risk-Taking; Leverage; Canadian banks; Financial Stability |
| JEL: | E44 G21 G28 N22 |
| Date: | 2016–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:rbnkwp:0316&r=his |
| By: | Domingo Gallego Martínez (Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain) |
| Abstract: | Obstáculos comerciales a la transición nutricional en la España de comienzos del siglo XX. |
| Keywords: | Palabras clave: precios subsistencias, abastos públicos, política de comercio exterior, salarios, dietas. |
| JEL: | N33 N53 Q11 Q13 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1421&r=his |
| By: | Rose, Jonathan D. (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.)) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the economic issues related to systemically important insurance companies, using an example from the Great Depression, the National Surety Company. National Surety was a large and diverse insurance company that experienced a major crisis in 1933 due to losses from its guarantees of mortgage-backed securities. A liquidity crisis ensued, as policyholders staged a massive run on the company, demanding the return of their unearned premiums. The New York State Insurance Commissioner stepped in with a reorganization plan that split the company in two, out of fear that a disorderly liquidation would have systemic consequences given the sheer number of the company's counterparties, scattered all across the United States. A key dynamic of the crisis was that policy holders at an insurance company have a dual role as holders of liabilities and as providers of income. |
| Keywords: | Insurance; great depression; surety; systemic importance |
| JEL: | G01 G22 H12 |
| Date: | 2016–02–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2016-05&r=his |
| By: | Reinhart, Carmen M.; Reinhart, Vincent; Trebesch, Christoph |
| Abstract: | Capital flow and commodity cycles have long been connected with economic crises. Sparse historical data, however, has made it difficult to connect their timing. We date turning points in global capital flows and commodity prices across two centuries and provide estimates from alternative data sources. We then document a strong overlap between the ebb and flow of financial capital, the commodity price super-cycle, and sovereign defaults since 1815. The results have implications for today, as many emerging markets are facing a double bust in capital inflows and commodity prices, making them vulnerable to crises. |
| Keywords: | capital flows; commodity prices; financial crises; sudden stops |
| JEL: | E3 E44 F44 G01 N10 N20 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11096&r=his |