|
on Business, Economic and Financial History |
Issue of 2016‒05‒28
twenty-two papers chosen by |
By: | Richard S.Grossman (Department of Economics, Wesleyan University) |
Abstract: | Financial crises have been a common feature of the economic landscape for more than two centuries. The chapter defines banking crises, considers the type of costs that they impose, and outlines the most common causes of banking crises during the past 200 years. The remainder of the chapter considers five distinct historical periods: the nineteenth century, when the “boom- bust” pattern that would typify later crises became established; the inter-war period, which was punctuated by two major sets of crises (post-World War I crisis and the Great Depression); the post-World War II financial lock-down, which was characterized by a complete absence of banking crises; deregulation and the return of crises in the 1970s; and the subprime crisis that emerged in 2008 and the subsequent euro-zone crisis. |
Date: | 2016–05 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wes:weswpa:2016-001&r=his |
By: | Savanna Washington (City University of New York) |
Abstract: | In 1915, “The Clansman,†a 3-1/2 hour film, opened at Clune’s Auditorium in Los Angeles seating 2500 people. At the time most films ran 15 minutes or less and screened at “Nickelodeans,†cheap store fronts that generally seated 200 people or less. Later re-titled, “Birth of a Nation,†it was the first movie to introduce modern shot composition, editing, and theatrics in a way audiences had never seen before. Donald Bogle writes, “The film’s magnitude and epic grandeur swept audiences off their feet.†Then president, Woodrow Wilson, said of the film, “It’s like writing history with lightning.†Only the film wasn't history, it was single-minded propaganda written by Thomas Dixon.The film was based on the book written by Thomas Dixon – a Southern white man, entitled, “The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan,†Dixon lived in North Carolina during the “Reconstruction†period immediately after the American Civil War. Reconstruction was a period marked by the beginnings of enfranchisement for former black slaves, including advances in elected office, which horrified whites in North Carolina (and throughout the South). The negative stereotypes of Blacks in Birth of a Nation, “Literal and unimaginative as some types might now appear, the naïve and cinematically untutored audiences of the early part of the century responded to the character types as if they were the real thing.†(Bogle) It is estimated that by 1930 almost 50 million Americans had seen the film – fully one-third of the population of the country. In 1934, the Payne Fund Studies argued that, “Birth of a Nation showed how great an impact films could have in encouraging audiences’ racism.†Birth of a Nation gave rise to negative black archetypes that continued to be perpetrated in the media for decades after the film and these negative archetypes still frame racial opinion, public discourse, and violence in the United States, 100 years after it was released. In 2014-2015 in the United States, several deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police renewed public discourse about race in contemporary America. How are African-American communities perceived by the police and the majority culture as a whole? Where do these perceptions emanate? This paper focuses on the history of the perception of Black people in America and how the film, “Birth of a Nation,†distributed 100 years ago this year, continue to shape the narrative of Black people in America. |
Keywords: | Black images in media, Black Lives Matter, Birth of a Nation, D.W. Griffith, |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:3605932&r=his |
By: | Jorge Álvarez (Programa de Historia Económica y Social, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República) |
Abstract: | New Zealand and Uruguay were typical settler economies and were alike in many ways throughout their histories but there were also big differences in how they developed. They were similar as regards size of population, surface area, markets, natural resource endowments, production and trade specialization patterns and the fact that they both attained high levels of income per capita in the early 20th century. They differed in that they had divergent patterns of economic growth and different agricultural productivity growth rates for their main products (wool, meat, dairy produce and leather), which accounted for around 70% of their exports in the hundred years from 1870 to 1970. The main aim of this paper is to use a systematic case-oriented comparison and the evolutionary theoretical approach to technological change to understand the development of the technological trajectories that boosted productivity in the two countries’ pastoral systems in the long-term (1870-2010). I will analyse this in interaction with geographical environment, intensity of resource use (extensive or intensive) and the institutional environment in which technological innovations to raise land productivity were produced, disseminated and adapted. My main results show that in the 19th century Uruguay had more favourable conditions for pastoral production than New Zealand and, up to the 1930s, higher production volumes per hectare. New Zealand had higher growth rates in all livestock physical productivity indicators from 1870 to 1970 and overtook Uruguay’s levels by the mid 20th century. As regards increased land productivity, New Zealand changed completely from an extensive to an intensive pastoral system. This process required technology to improve the soil, thus increasing capital and job investment and changes to the original production function of the pastoral system. In Uruguay livestock rearing was based on natural pasture, extensive production systems and low capital investment, and this stable model remained the same for a relatively long time. This inertia meant that in the long run Uruguay’s technological trajectory lagged far behind New Zealand’s in the development of soil-improvement technologies. I argue that these differences have, through different channels, conditioned the export performance and the economic growth of both countries. |
Keywords: | settler economies, technological change, pastoral production, productivity growth |
JEL: | N56 N57 O13 O33 |
Date: | 2015–12 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:doctra:43&r=his |
By: | Michel Fouquin; Jules Hugot |
Abstract: | This document provides a detailed description of the Historical Bilateral Trade and Gravity Data set (TRADHIST) that was put together for Fouquin and Hugot (2016) and designed for historical investigations of international trade. The data set is available on the website of CEPII. Specifically, the data set has been built to explore the two modern waves of globalization: the First Globalization of the nineteenth century and the post-World War II Second Globalization. The data set gathers five types of variables: i) bilateral nominal trade flows, ii) country-level aggregate nominal exports and imports, iii) nominal GDPs, iv) exchange rates, and v) bilateral factors that are known to favor or hamper trade, including geographical distance, common borders, colonial and linguistic links, as well as bilateral tariffs. This data is unique both in terms of temporal and geographical coverage. Overall, we gather more than 1.9 million bilateral trade observations for the 188 years from 1827 to 2014. We also provide about 42,000 observations on aggregate trade, and about 14,000 observations on GDPs and exchange rates respectively. |
Keywords: | Gravity;Bilateral Trade;Aggregate Trade;GDP;Exchange Rates |
JEL: | C8 F1 N70 |
Date: | 2016–05 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2016-14&r=his |
By: | Baten, Jörg; Cappelli, Gabriele |
Abstract: | How did colonialism interact with the development of human capital in Africa? We create an innovative panel dataset on numeracy across African countries before, during and after the Scramble for Africa (1730 -1970) by drawing on new sources and by carefully assessing potential selection bias. The econometric evidence that we provide, based on OLS, 2SLS and Propensity Score Matching, shows that colonialism had very diverse effects on human capital depending on the education policy of the colonizer. Although the average marginal impact of colonialism on the growth of numeracy was positive, the premium that we find was driven by the British educational system. Especially after 1900, the strategies chosen by the British were associated with faster human-capital accumulation, while other colonies were characterized by a negative premium on the growth of education. We connect this finding to the reliance of British education policy on mission schools, which used local languages and the human capital of local teachers to expand schooling in the colonies. We also show that this, in turn, had long-lasting effects on economic growth, which persist to the present day. |
Keywords: | Africa; Colonialism; Education Policy; Human Capital; Numeracy |
JEL: | N37 O15 |
Date: | 2016–05 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11273&r=his |
By: | Joseph Halevi (International University College of Turin) |
Abstract: | Luigi Pasinetti’s work has deeply affected modern economic theory. His papers on the Cambridge Capital Controversy are world renowned. But he has made many other contributions to the economic debates of the last half century, offering not only detailed criticisms of mainstream economic theory, but also the elaboration of an alternative, more complete, and coherent framework for understanding growth and income distribution, structural change, and trade relations. He has also made notable contributions to discussions of economic policy. Pasinetti’s papers are very clearly written, but many are formidably technical and often build cumulatively on his previous work. This paper provides a careful and synthetic overview of his contributions as well as a reconstruction of Pasinetti’s philosophical approach to economics as a science meant to serve humanity. |
Keywords: | Luigi Pasinetti, Capital Controversy, Piero Sraffa, Classical Economics, Vertical Integration, Theory of Value and Prices, Structural Dynamics, Trade, Growth, Crises, Maastricht Criteria. |
JEL: | B31 B4 B5 C6 E1 F1 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:thk:wpaper:40&r=his |
By: | Lee E. Ohanian |
Abstract: | This essay reviews Barry Eichengreen's recent book that compares the Great Depression and the Great Recession. Eichengreen focuses on deficient aggregate demand as the key reason for why both downturns were so deep and why they lasted so long. I assess the book's arguments regarding the causes and consequences of these episodes from a neoclassical perspective. I provide an alternative framework for analyzing these episodes, and argue that a key difference between the 1930s and today reflects the factors that continued to depress both economies after their respective troughs. The post-Depression economy featured rapid productivity growth, whereas today's economy is plagued by low productivity growth. I discuss how the post-Great Depression economy recovered to trend quickly once policies that depressed competition were removed. I also argue that returning today's economy to trend may be considerably more challenging. |
JEL: | E13 E6 N0 |
Date: | 2016–05 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22239&r=his |
By: | Patrice Bougette (Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (UNS)); Marc Deschamps (Université de Lorraine (UL)); Frédéric Marty (OFCE) |
Abstract: | In this article, the authors interrogate legal and economic history to analyze the process by which the Chicago School of Antitrust emerged in the 1950s and became dominant in the United States. They show that the extent to which economic objectives and theoretical views shaped the inception of antitrust law. After establishing the minor influence of economics in the promulgation of U.S. competition law, they highlight U.S. economists’ caution toward antitrust until the Second New Deal and analyze the process by which the Chicago School developed a general and coherent framework for competition policy. They rely mainly on the seminal and programmatic work of Director and Levi (1956) and trace how this theoretical paradigm became collective—that is, the “economization” process in U.S. antitrust. Finally, the authors discuss the implications and possible pitfalls of such a conversion to economics-led antitrust enforcement. |
Keywords: | Chicago School of Antitrust; Antitrust law |
Date: | 2015–06 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/1op860fg2l8f4p3acvk2hj0tmn&r=his |
By: | Markus Brueckner |
Abstract: | Rent extraction by capitalists is present if the capital income share exceeds the capital output elasticity. Based on a sample of 111 countries during the period 1970-2010, this paper provides estimates of the capital output elasticity and compares these to countries' capital income shares. Three findings arise: (i) for the average country in the sample, the capital income share significantly exceeds the capital output elasticity; (ii) the difference between the capital income share and the capital output elasticity has increased since the 1980s; (iii) in democracies the capital income share is not significantly different from the capital output elasticity. |
Keywords: | Capital output elasticity, capital income share, rent extraction. |
JEL: | E0 O4 |
Date: | 2016–05 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:camaaa:2016-20&r=his |
By: | Richard G. Anderson; Michael Bordo; John V. Duca |
Abstract: | This study offers a single, consistent model that tracks the velocity of broad money (M2) since 1929, including the Great Depression, the global financial crisis, and the Great Recession. The model emphasizes the roles of changes in uncertainty and risk premia, financial innovation, and major banking regulations. Our findings suggest an enhanced role of a broad, liquid money aggregate as a policy guide during crises and their unwinding. Following crises, policymakers face the challenge of not only unwinding their balance sheet so as to prevent excess reserves from fueling a surge in M2, but also countering a fall in the demand for money as risk premia return to normal amid velocity shifts stemming from relevant financial reforms. |
Keywords: | money demand, financial crises, monetary policy, liquidity, financial innovation |
JEL: | E41 E50 G11 |
Date: | 2016–05 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hoo:wpaper:16111&r=his |
By: | Timo Boppart; Per Krusell |
Abstract: | What explains how much people work? Going back in time, a main fact to address is the steady reduction in hours worked. The long-run data, for the U.S. as well as for other countries, show a striking pattern whereby hours worked fall steadily by a little below a half of a percent per year, accumulating to about a halving of labor supply over 150 years. In this paper, we argue that a stable utility function defined over consumption and leisure can account for this fact, jointly with the movements in the other macroeconomic aggregates, thus allowing us to view falling hours as part of a macroeconomy displaying balanced growth. The key feature of the utility function is an income effect (of higher wages) that slightly outweighs the substitution effect on hours. We also show that our proposed preference class is the only one consistent with the stated facts. The class can be viewed as an enlargement of the well-known “balanced-growth preferences” that dominate the macroeconomic literature and that demand constant (as opposed to falling) hours in the long run. The postwar U.S. experience, over which hours have shown no net decrease and which is the main argument for the use of “balanced-growth preferences”, is thus a striking exception more than a representative feature of modern economies. |
JEL: | E21 J22 O11 O40 |
Date: | 2016–05 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22215&r=his |
By: | Samyel Lee |
Abstract: | The Korean peninsula is constantly in a dynamic discussion of identity and direction. For South Korean society, it is no surprise that the Korean War and the existential threat that North Korea poses loom large over its collective conscience. Although mostly disregarded within scholarly discussions in international relations, cinema has always been, and continues to be, an insightful, powerful, and transformative forum. This essay discusses the ways in which cinema as an art form has been able to impact the way that South Korean society evolves, especially as an interpretative medium that argues for the ways in which the Korean demos should understand its own history as well as the the ongoing struggle with the enigma that is North Korea. In particular, the essay examines two movies in detail – Brotherhood and Welcome to Dongmakgol – to reveal how the same socio-political discussions are going on beneath the surface of two seemingly completely different genres of Korean War movies. Led by these persuasive works of art, the essay argues, Korean society is already moving in a post-modern and humanist direction and suggests that as a democracy, Korean society should embrace the power of cinema in both internal and external affairs. |
Keywords: | Cinema; Film; North Korea; Welcome to Dongmakgol; Post-modernism; Korean War. |
JEL: | Y8 |
Date: | 2015–10 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gpr:journl:6&r=his |
By: | Bernhofen, Daniel M; Eberhardt, Markus; Li, Jianan; Morgan, Stephen L. |
Abstract: | This paper challenges established claims of comparable degrees of market integration in Europe and China on the eve of industrialization. Our empirical strategy focuses on the dynamics of price convergence and accounts for general equilibrium effects arising from common shocks and network effects. Using monthly grain prices for 1740-1820, our analysis uncovers a secular process of market disintegration in 221 prefectures of Qing China. Comparing our results with those for grain price panels from Western Europe we conclude that in terms of market integration the Great Divergence was well under way decades before the start of the 19th century. |
Keywords: | China; common factor model; cross-section dependence; Europe; market integration; price convergence; the Great Divergence |
JEL: | C23 F15 L11 O10 |
Date: | 2016–05 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11288&r=his |
By: | William Lazonick (University of Massachusetts Lowell and The Academic-Industry Research Network.) |
Abstract: | In Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Joseph Schumpeter asserts: “perfect competition is not only impossible but inferior, and has no title to being set up as a model of ideal efficiency.†For neoclassical economists, the large corporation is a “market imperfection†that, compared with “perfect competition,†should result in higher product prices and lower industry output. Yet business history reveals the capability of the most productive enterprises to generate massive quantities of output at low costs to attain large market shares with buyers benefiting from low prices even as employees receive higher pay and shareholders ample dividends. By integrating the history of industrial development in Britain and the United States with the ideas of leading economic thinkers, this essay demonstrates the absurdity of perfect competition as the ideal of economic efficiency. Indeed, I show that, in their desire to make the market rather than the firm the main arbiter of resource allocation, neoclassical economists have enshrined the sweatshop as the foundation of their analysis, with profoundly negative consequences for understanding how a modern economy actually operates and performs. In doing so, neoclassical economists ignore not only the economic history of capitalism but also the intellectual history of their own discipline. I conduct a journey through two hundred years of economic thought – from Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations (1776) to Alfred Chandler’s The Visible Hand (1977) – to derive analytical foundations for a theory of innovative enterprise that can explain and explore firm-level sources of productivity growth in the economy. What then do more sophisticated theories of the firm rooted in the neoclassical tradition have to offer? In a section of this essay that I call (borrowing a phrase from Adolf Berle and Gardiner Means) “Economic Theory for ‘an Era of Corporate Plundering’,†I outline the shortcomings of Williamsonian transaction-cost theory and Jensenian agency theory for analyzing the role of the business corporation in the operation and performance of the economy. From the perspective of the theory of innovative enterprise, I demonstrate how the methodology of constrained optimization trivializes the business enterprise while the ideology that companies should be run to maximize shareholder value legitimizes financial predators, many senior corporate executives among them, in the looting of the industrial corporation. The “era of corporate plundering†since the mid-1980s has contributed to extreme concentration of income among the richest households and the erosion of middle-class employment opportunities. Finally, I call for a transformation of economic thinking so that the innovative enterprise is at the center of economic analysis. The theory of innovative enterprise exposes as costly intellectual failures “perfect competition†as the ideal of economic efficiency, “constrained-optimization†as the prime tool of economic analysis, and “maximizing shareholder value†as the ideology of superior corporate governance. The theory of innovative enterprise provides, moreover, a clear and compelling rationale for sharing the gains of business enterprise among stakeholders in the broader community, in conjunction with government policies that seek to support sustainable prosperity, characterized by stable and equitable economic growth. |
JEL: | B10 B20 B41 D01 D23 D40 L2 O30 |
Date: | 2015–10 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:thk:wpaper:25&r=his |
By: | Metin Akız (Bozok University); Ahmet Erdoğan (Bozok University) |
Abstract: | Earth, from its formation, has been in the solar system and moving in space based on the motions of the sun. Some changes has occured in the orbit and axial tilt of earth during this travel . By this way, there are some differentations on climate changes, big natural events and ambient conditions.Human, as a part of the universe, has been effected by these critical changes. Throughout history, human searching clue for making sense of not only his position in universe but also his existence purpose, has reflected these changes onto his history, voluntary and involuntary. Milankovitch theorized mathematically that earth’s motion, axial tilt and changes of axial dislocation specifie the climate formation with the orbital press. In this study, we purpose to show that this reasons generate important changes in human history in a long process, based on Milankovitch theory. |
Keywords: | Axial tilt, Milankovitch Theory, human history |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:3606143&r=his |
By: | Gratiela Boca (Department of Economics and Physics, Technical University of Cluj Napoca) |
Abstract: | Innovation has become the industrial religion of the late 20th century. Business sees it as the key to increasing profits and market share. Governments automatically reach for it when trying to fix the economy. Around the world, the rhetoric of innovation has replaced the post-war language of welfare economics. Innovation: nothing new? Recent years have seen much focus on how innovation can lead to improvements in productivity assisting in economic development The article present the big difference between making culture in a particular field and practicing it. Innovation is the instrument of entrepreneurship. It invests resources with a new capacity to produce prosperity. |
Keywords: | cost, open innovation, quality, product life cycle. quality, cross culture, management change |
Date: | 2014–06 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clj:icmmae:1407&r=his |
By: | Metaxas, Theodore; Kechagia, Polyxeni |
Abstract: | International capital allocation influences has a social, political and economic impact on the trading countries. Thus, it has been investigated so as to determine the key factors of capital flows and their impact on the host country’s economy. The present essay involves a literature review of 100 empirical papers focusing on capital movement and in particular in Foreign Direct Investment (F.D.I.) inflows worldwide. The papers are discussed based on the statistical method applied, the sample chosen and the trends on the variables used. More recent empirical papers include larger samples of countries and the researchers don’t tend to focus on case studies. Furthermore, it is argued that the empirical studies involve countries of every geographical region despite the fact that most of them focus on the largest recipients of F.D.I., that is to say the Asian and the Latin American countries. |
Keywords: | Foreign Direct Investment, Empirical Studies, Literature Review, Statistical Method |
JEL: | F21 O47 |
Date: | 2016 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:71414&r=his |
By: | Lindgren, Karl-Oskar (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy); Oskarsson, Sven (Uppsala universitet); Persson, Mikael (Göteborgs universitet) |
Abstract: | How does availability of education affect who becomes a political representative? Theorists have pointed out access to education as a key to a well-functioning democracy, but few empirical studies have examined how changes in the access to education influence the chances of becoming a politician. In this paper we analyze the effects of a substantial series of school openings during the early 20th century in Sweden which provided adolescents with better access to secondary education. We use unique administrative data pertaining to the entire Swedish population born between 1916 and 1945. According to our empirical results the opening of a new lower secondary school in a municipality increased the baseline probability of running for political office by more than 10 percent and the probability of holding office by more than 20 percent. |
Keywords: | education; political representation; elections |
JEL: | H70 I20 |
Date: | 2016–04–12 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2016_007&r=his |
By: | José De Gregorio (Peterson Institute for International Economics) |
Abstract: | Data for a large sample of countries dating back to the early 1970s reveal that the large depreciations against the dollar that are occurring in many countries are not unprecedented in magnitude or duration. The pass-through to inflation from exchange rate depreciation has been slightly more muted than in previous occasions, but it is not out of line with experience since the mid-1990s. The current account adjustment has been more limited than in the past, possibly suggesting that the period of weak currencies may be prolonged. |
Keywords: | Current account adjustment, depreciation, exchange rate pass-through, inflation |
JEL: | E31 F31 F32 F41 |
Date: | 2016–05 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iie:wpaper:wp16-8&r=his |
By: | Hisahiro Naito; Yu Takagi |
Abstract: | This study re-examines racial salary discrimination of National Basketball Association players by constructing a long unbalanced panel covering the 1985--1986 to 2015--2016 seasons. Contrary to the results of previous studies, we find that non-white players are paid equally to white players with similar characteristics in the 1980s and 1990s, but that white players started to be paid 20 percent more than non-white players in the last 10 years. Our results are robust in all specification checks such as the quantile regressions, controlling the sample selection and controlling different contract types. Non-parametrically estimated density of the counter-factual salary of non-white players confirms our results. In addition, we find that neither the employers preference nor income gap of white and black fans explain this increasing salary gap. |
Date: | 2016–04 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tsu:tewpjp:2016-001&r=his |
By: | Florian Ploeckl (School of Economics, University of Adelaide) |
Abstract: | Using the regional productivity of the Reichspost, the postal service of the German Empire, I investigate whether a public monopolist operates with uniform regional productivity. Using DEA efficiency scores we derive the relative productivity of the post, telegraph and telephone sectors from 1891 to 1908. Results show a fairly stable system with substantial raw productivity differences between postal districts and that the expansion of the service offset technological productivity increases for the mail service. |
Keywords: | Productivity, Public Monopoly, Information Technology |
JEL: | D24 L32 L87 L96 N74 |
Date: | 2016–05 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:adl:wpaper:2016-07&r=his |
By: | Gorton, Gary (Yale School of Management); Tallman, Ellis W. (Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland) |
Abstract: | “Too-big-to-fail” is consistent with policies followed by private bank clearing houses during financial crises in the U.S. National Banking Era prior to the existence of the Federal Reserve System. Private bank clearing houses provided emergency lending to member banks during financial crises. This behavior strongly suggests that “too-big-to-fail” is not the problem causing modern crises. Rather, it is a reasonable response to the threat posed to large banks by the vulnerability of short-term debt to runs. |
Keywords: | Financial crisis; bank runs; banking panic; clearing house; bank-specific information; currency premium; |
JEL: | E02 E32 E42 E52 E58 |
Date: | 2016–05–06 |
URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedcwp:1612&r=his |