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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2016‒04‒30
twenty-one papers chosen by |
| By: | Morgen Witzel (Centre for Leadership, Department of Management, University of Exeter); Malcolm Warner (Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge) |
| Abstract: | In this article, we look at the role of culture, management theory and paradigm-shift vis a vis their implications for general management. We focus in depth on the influence of the European Enlightenment on eighteenth and nineteenth century industrialism and the emergence of a possibly dominant paradigm in management theory in the twentieth century, namely 'Scientific Management' or 'Taylorism', as it became known. We also examine how, in turn, it shaped the next development in the narrative - 'Human Relations' - and its successors 'Organizational Behaviour' and 'Human Resource Management'. |
| Keywords: | culture, enlightenment, general management, management theory, paradigm shift, scientific management, Taylorism |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jbs:wpaper:201501&r=his |
| By: | Guleryuz, Ece H. |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a critical examination about the effect of externally-imposed French Revolution institutions on regional economic development variations in the 19th century by focusing on the experience of France where the Revolution originated. Acemoglu et al. (2011) take advantage of the “natural experiment” provided by the imposition of French institutions on a number of German states by the invading Napoleonic armies. The argument that the differences in the long-run economic performance of German states stem from the differences in externally-imposed French and domestic German institutions needs to be investigated further. In order to achieve this purpose, first the variation in historical urbanization rates across the French departments is examined statistically. Then a difference-in-difference estimation is used to identify a treatment effect causing growth differences between border and interior departments. The proposed treatment effect is the faster industrialization due to intensified minerals mining and railway construction in north and northeast France after 1850. It is shown that the border departments experienced higher economic growth primarily after 1850 even though the Revolution institutions and reforms were imposed uniformly across the French departments. Therefore, all the variation in economic development across German polities cannot be attributed to the externally-imposed French institutions and reforms. |
| Keywords: | French Revolution, Externally-Imposed Institutions, Regional Growth Differences, Urbanization, French Departments |
| JEL: | J11 N43 N93 O43 O52 P16 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:70870&r=his |
| By: | Kris Inwood (University of Guelph); Les Oxley (University of Waikato); Evan Roberts (University of Minnesota) |
| Abstract: | We examine physical well-being among New Zealand Maori from the 1700s to the mid-twentieth century. After colonization Maori stature declined slowly. Late nineteenth century Maori and Pakeha (European settlers) stood equally tall, but Maori stature lagged between 1900 and World War II. Stature increased after the 1920s for Pakeha and 1950s for Maori. Convergence has re-established comparable stature. Fertility decline, improvements in socio-economic status and health policy may explain convergence of stature and infant mortality. We hypothesize that the early twentieth century divergence reflects cumulative land loss, disease incidence, rural-urban migration and labour market segregation. |
| JEL: | I14 J15 N30 O57 |
| Date: | 2016–03–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wai:econwp:16/02&r=his |
| By: | Federico Barbiellini Amidei (Bank of Italy); Riccardo De Bonis (Bank of Italy); Miria Rocchelli (Bank of Italy); Alessandra Salvio (Bank of Italy); Massimiliano Stacchini (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | The paper builds annual time series of Italian monetary aggregates. While previous contributions focused on certain periods in Italy’s economic history, our work covers the years 1861-2014 uninterruptedly; we improve the quality of the existing time series and provide further details on the components of aggregates. The paper also documents the sources and methods used for the estimates. Finally, we discuss the key trends of the aggregates since 1861 and present an econometric analysis of money demand. |
| Keywords: | moneta, circolante, M1, M2, M3, domanda di moneta |
| JEL: | E51 E52 G21 N10 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_328_16&r=his |
| By: | Clay, Karen (Carnegie Mellon University); Lewis, Joshua (University of Montreal); Severnini, Edson R. (Carnegie Mellon University) |
| Abstract: | Pollution is a common byproduct of economic activity. Although policymakers should account for both the benefits and the negative externalities of polluting activities, it is difficult to identify those who are harmed and those who benefit from them. To overcome this challenge, our paper uses a novel dataset on the mid-20th century expansion of the U.S. power grid to study the costs and the benefits of coal-fired electricity generation. The empirical analysis exploits the timing of coal-fired power plant openings and annual variation in plant-level coal consumption from 1938 to 1962, when emissions were virtually unregulated. Pollution from the burning of coal for electricity generation is shown to have quantitatively important and nonlinear effects on county-level infant mortality rates. By 1962, it was responsible for 3,500 infant deaths per year, over one death per thousand live births. These effects are even larger at lower levels of coal consumption. We also find evidence of clear tradeoffs associated with coal-fired electricity generation. For counties with low access to electricity in the baseline, increases in local power plant coal consumption reduced infant mortality and increased housing values and rental prices. For counties with near universal access to electricity in the baseline, increases in coal consumption by power plants led to higher infant mortality rates, and lower housing values and rental prices. These results highlight the importance of considering both the costs and benefits of polluting activities, and suggest that demand for policy intervention may emerge only when the negative externalities are significantly larger than the perceived benefits. |
| Keywords: | mid-20th century air pollution, coal-fired electricity generation, infant mortality, housing values, tradeoffs |
| JEL: | N32 N52 N72 N92 Q40 Q48 Q53 Q56 I15 J24 J30 R11 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9884&r=his |
| By: | Tang, Sam Hak Kan (University of Western Australia); Leung, Charles Ka Yui (City University of Hong Kong) |
| Abstract: | We present cross-country evidence that a country’s macroeconomic volatility, measured either by the standard deviation of output growth or the occurrence of trend-growth breaks, is significantly affected by the country’s historical variables. In particular, countries with longer histories of state-level political institutions experience less macroeconomic volatility in post-war periods. Robustness checks reveal that the effect of this historical variable on volatility remains significant and substantial after controlling for a host of structural variables investigated in previous studies. We also find that the state history variable is more important in countries with a higher level of macroeconomic volatility. |
| Date: | 2016–04–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:feddgw:271&r=his |
| By: | Mari Carmen Pérez Artés (Universidad de Almería) |
| Abstract: | From 1888 until 1920 Almería threw out 22% of its population. It becomes the province with the largest gross rate of emigration of Spain. The paper analyzes this phenomenon with the objective to contribute to the literature on external and internal migrations in Spain. The source used are population censuses and 1888’s corrections census of Almeria, source not studied until today. We have obtained a database of 5,297 migrants. The source allows us to analyze the profile of migrant and family groups, social, economic, political and physical factors and the role of networks migration. We present a new empirical evidence, causes and characteristics of migration in late 19th century in Spain. |
| Keywords: | Migrations, 19th Century, Almería. |
| JEL: | N0 N3 N5 N7 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1606&r=his |
| By: | Tiago Neves Sequeira (Departamento de Gesta˜o e Economia and CEFAGE-UBI. Universidade da Beira Interior.); Pedro Mazeda Gil (University of Porto, Faculty of Economics, and CEF.UP); Oscar Afonso (University of Porto, Faculty of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We eliminate scale effects in the Balanced Growth Path of an expanding-variety endogenous growth model using the concept of entropy as a complexity effect. This allows us to gradually diminish scale effects as the economy develops along the transitional dynamics, which conciliates evidence of the existence of scale effects long ago in history with evidence for no scale effects in today’s economies. We show that empirical evidence supports entropy as a stylized form of the complexity effect. Then we show that the model can replicate well the take-off after the industrial revolution. Finally, we show that a model with both network effects (as spillovers in R&D) and entropy (as complexity effects) can replicate the main facts of the very long-run evolution of the economy since A.D. 1. Future scenarios may help to explain (part of) the growth crises affecting the current generation. |
| Keywords: | Endogenous economic growth, network effects, complexity effects, entropy. |
| JEL: | O10 O30 O40 E22 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:por:fepwps:575&r=his |
| By: | Bigsten, Arne (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University) |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the historical roots of development economics and how it has changed over the last half century. We first identify the most important changes in orientation within development economics and discuss whether there are important areas that have been side-lined. Then we look at current work in development economics and discuss where the field should go in the future. |
| Keywords: | development economics; review; methodology |
| JEL: | B12 O11 O12 O13 O14 O15 O16 O17 O18 O19 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0653&r=his |
| By: | Richard Bird (University of Toronto, Department of Economics); Michael Smart (University of Toronto, Department of Economics); Jorge Martinez-Vazquez |
| Abstract: | The introduction of the VAT in Canada, initially in the form of the federal GST in 1991, did not signify a major change in the tax mix even after most provincial sales taxes also became VATs. Canadians do not pay much if any more in taxes on their consumption than they did 25 years ago. Although the GST and its provincial companions are not perfect, the evidence is that they create fewer barriers to investment and growth than the taxes they replaced so that Canadians appear as a whole to be better off than they were before setting off down the road to VAT. Nonetheless, perhaps in part because the VAT in Canada unlike in other countries is generally quoted separately (like retail sales taxes in the US) and hence highly visible, it continues to be politically unpopular and considered undesirably regressive. The major contribution of this paper is to examine in some detail and with some new evidence the incidence of Canada’s sales and excise taxes, a question that has received surprisingly little analysis. Because the share of total consumption taxes coming from sales rather than excise taxes has increased, these taxes are now less regressive than they were before the move to VAT, regardless of how incidence is measured. More importantly, there are solid arguments for using consumption than income as a basis for evaluating the progressivity of consumption taxes, and on this measure the GST and its companion taxes appear to be mildly progressive. However because the remaining excises are quite regressive even on this basis, on the whole the sales and excise system remains mildly regressive. |
| Keywords: | sales tax, excise tax, value-added tax, incidence, progressivity |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ays:ispwps:paper1604&r=his |
| By: | Angel De la Fuente |
| Abstract: | En este trabajo se elaboran series homogeneas de distintos agregados de empleo, output y rentas del trabajo a precios corrientes y constantes para las comunidades autonomas espanolas mediante el enlace de las diversas bases de la Contabilidad Regional de Espana (CRE). |
| Keywords: | Analisis Macroeconomico , Analisis Regional , Documento de Trabajo , Espana , Investigacion |
| JEL: | E01 R1 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bbv:wpaper:1606&r=his |
| By: | Díaz-Giménez, Javier; Kirkby, Robert |
| Abstract: | Between 1960 and 2013, in the United States the inflation rate was essentially proportional to the growth rate of money in the long run, but that relationship did not hold in the short run. We ask whether three standard monetary model economies from the Cash-in-Advance, the New-Keynesian, and the Search-Money frameworks replicate these two facts. We find that all three deliver the first fact, but that they fail to deliver the second fact, since in all three of them the inflation rate is proportional to the growth rate of money both in the long run and in the short run. This is because in all three model economies the price level responds too quickly to changes in the growth rate of money. |
| Keywords: | Monetary Economics, Quantity Theory of Money, Cash-in-Advance, New-Keynesian, Search-Money, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vuw:vuwecf:5047&r=his |
| By: | Miguel Martín-Retortillo (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain); Vicente Pinilla (Universidad de Zaragoza and Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón –IA2, Spain); Jackeline Velazco (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Perú, Peru); Henry Willebald (Universidad de la República, Uruguay) |
| Abstract: | Since 1950 profound changes, such as new technological innovations or changes in agricultural and trade policies took place in the Latin American agriculture. This article aims to analyse the dynamics of the growth of Latin American agricultural production between 1950 and 2008. It explores whether the increases in agricultural production have been due to increases in the use of production factors, or whether production increases have been due to efficiency gains. Our findings suggest that efficiency gains made a rather modest contribution to the important increase in production; this increase was principally the result of the use of capital. This was the most important productive factor in explaining increases in output, together with more moderate increases in the use of land and labour. |
| Keywords: | Latin American economic history, Latin American agriculture, Agricultural productivity, Agricultural growth |
| JEL: | N56 O13 Q11 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1610&r=his |
| By: | Tetsuji Okazaki (Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo) |
| Abstract: | This chapter surveyed the literature on income distribution, focusing on the research on the prewar period. From the literature, it has been established that the prewar Japanese society exhibited high income inequality and that the inequality increased over time. This evidence is consistent with the findings on the functional distribution of income, which indicated that the capital share was increasing in Japan in this period. In addition, this chapter expanded on the existing research by using a new individual-level data set to explore the relationship between assets and income. It was found that a substantial part of the income of the core top income earners was from their assets. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tky:fseres:2016cf1011&r=his |
| By: | Guglielmo Barone (Bank of Italy); Sauro Mocetti (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | We examine intergenerational mobility in the very long run, across generations that are six centuries apart. We exploit a unique dataset containing detailed information at the individual level for all people living in the Italian city of Florence in 1427. These individuals have been associated, using their surnames, with their pseudo-descendants living in Florence in 2011. We find that earnings elasticity is about 0.04, much higher than predicted by traditional models of intergenerational mobility. We also find an even stronger role for real wealth inheritance and evidence of persistence in belonging to certain elite professions. Our results are confirmed when we account for the quality of the pseudo-links and when we address the potential selectivity bias due to the differential survival rates across surnames. We argue that the quasi-immobility of pre-industrial society and the positional advantages in the access to certain professions might explain (in part) the long-lasting effects of ancestors’ socioeconomic status. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational mobility, earnings, wealth, professions, informational content of surnames, Florence |
| JEL: | J62 N33 D31 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1060_16&r=his |
| By: | TAKEDA Haruhito |
| Abstract: | This study focuses on the change in the principles of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI)'s policy around 2000 with the establishment of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), looking back at policy development during 1970-2000. Corresponding to the change in the international economy, MITI's policy takes an important role in establishing a national macroeconomic policies framework, which was required to coordinate the balance between domestic economic problems and trade friction with the United States and the European Union. Moreover, paying attention continually to coordination between the freedom of business activity and macroeconomic policies, MITI tried to respond to the mission expected. The adopted policy has the same characteristic in that MITI materialized it through the promotion of deregulation. In doing so, MITI selected the policy means to cut deeply into structural problems such as trade conflict, environment problems, and energy problems, which resulted in MITI's policy to control government intervention and entrust the private sector and market coordination. When the Japanese economy faced a recession in the 1990s, reforming the country's economic structure became the main political issue to restore economic vitality. MITI took on this issue as its own subjective mission and strived to tackle economic recovery and restore economic growth. MITI's measures taken showed flexibility in finding out the solutions for newly emerging issues, which extended to its previous policy making process. Although there was a decisive change of policy subject, deregulation and the limitation of government control were strengthened as the basic principle of policy. |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:16026&r=his |
| By: | Hein, Eckhard |
| Abstract: | Starting from a review of the main strands of orthodox and heterodox distribution and growth models and their distinguishing features, with the post-Kaleckian Bhaduri/Marglin (1990) (and Kurz 1990) model as a specific, but highly flexible variant of heterodox distribution and growth theories, we develop a simple modelling framework in which we can treat these different theories as different variants of model closure. In a simple closed private one-good economy model, each theory is presented drawing on the relationship between the rate of profit and the rate of growth, as well as on the consideration of one major adjusting variable allowing for the convergence of the endogenous variables of the model to their equilibrium values. This allows for a systematic comparison of exogenous and endogenous variables, of the 'logic' or the chain of causalities in each of the approaches, and of the generation of the long-run equilibrium positions of the system. It is finally shown that the post-Kaleckian model is able to cover many, but not all of the results generated by the old neoclassical growth model, new neoclassical growth theories, classical/Marxian distribution and growth approaches, and post-Keynesian Kaldor-Robinson and Kalecki-Steindl distribution and growth theories. |
| Keywords: | distribution,growth,model comparison,Bhaduri/Marglin model |
| JEL: | E21 E22 E25 O41 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ipewps:662016&r=his |
| By: | Andrey Yu. Vinogradov (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The article is dedicated to two topics. One is the legend about Apostle Simon, who preached on Cymmerian Bosporus according a 4th-c. tradition later forgotten and replaced by the legend about Apostle Andrew, where Simon was only one of his companions. The second part is concerning future critical edition of the Martyrium of St. Marina including classification of its manuscripts. |
| Keywords: | hagiography, Byzantium, Apostle Simon, St. Marina, Bosporos, Caucasus, Crimea, manuscripts, critical edition |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:127hum2016&r=his |
| By: | Hester, Trent; Anderson, David P.; Ishdorj, Ariun; Herring, Andy |
| Keywords: | cattle, auctions, Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing, Q13, |
| Date: | 2016–01–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea16:229962&r=his |
| By: | Antonelli, Cristiano; David, Paul (University of Turin) |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201509&r=his |
| By: | Philip Mirowski (University of Notre Dame) |
| Abstract: | Why do so many people who should know better argue that Neoliberalism 'does not exist'? In this paper I examine the disinclination to treat the Neoliberal political project as a serious intellectual project motivating a series of successes in the public sphere. Economists seem especially remiss in this regard. |
| Keywords: | Neoliberalism, Angus Burgin, Leo Strauss, Friedrich Hayek, Mont Pelerin, classical liberalism. |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:thk:wpaper:23&r=his |