|
on Business, Economic and Financial History |
|
Issue of 2017‒10‒22
forty papers chosen by |
| By: | Orazbayev, Sultan |
| Abstract: | This document describes the data available through RePEc and related services: CitEc, CollEc, EDIRC, IDEAS, Genealogy and EconPapers. The document is purely descriptive, and is intended as a guide to some of the data available through RePEc on authors, institutions, collaborations, and networks. |
| Keywords: | RePEc; economists; bibliometrics |
| JEL: | A1 |
| Date: | 2017–10–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:81963&r=his |
| By: | Tomohiro Machikita (Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO)); Tetsuji Okazaki (Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how trade regime change has affected the lifecycle of manufacturing plants. For this purpose, we exploited the historical event of Japan’s opening to trade in 1859 as a natural experiment. Based on plant-level data for 1902 and 1919, we explore how lifecycles of plants differ between the periods before and after 1859. It was found that lifecycles of plants were indeed different between these two periods: (1) a plant grew much faster as it aged after 1859 than before 1859; (2) this effect is larger for plants in exporting industries and plants located in metropolitan areas; (3) plant size at entry was larger for plants that entered after 1859 compared to those that entered before 1859. The difference in plant lifecycles between the periods before and after 1859 was confirmed by long-term time series data covering both periods. Based on these findings, we argue that access to markets and advanced technologies affected the lifecycle of plants. |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tky:fseres:2017cf1068&r=his |
| By: | Stefano Comino; Alberto Galasso; Clara Graziano |
| Abstract: | What factors affect the diffusion of new economic institutions? This paper examines this question exploiting the introduction of the first regularized patent system which appeared in the Venetian Republic in 1474. We begin by developing a model which links patenting activity of craft guilds with provisions in their statutes. The model predicts that guild statutes that are more effective at preventing outsider’s entry and at mitigating price competition lead to less patenting. We test this prediction on a new dataset which combines detailed information on craft guilds and patents in the Venetian Republic during the Renaissance. We find a negative association between patenting activity and guild statutory norms which strongly restrict entry and price competition. We show that guilds which originated from medieval religious confraternities were more likely to regulate entry and competition, and that the effect on patenting is robust to instrumenting guild statutes with their quasi-exogenous religious origin. We also find that patenting was more widespread among guilds geographically distant from Venice, and among guilds in cities with lower political connection which we measure exploiting a new database on noble families and their marriages with members of the great council. Our analysis suggests that local economic and political conditions may have a substantial impact on the diffusion of new economic institutions. |
| Keywords: | patents, competition, guilds, institutions |
| JEL: | O33 O34 K23 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6612&r=his |
| By: | Eoin McGuirk; Nathaniel Hilger; Nicholas Miller |
| Abstract: | Why do wars occur? We exploit a natural experiment to test the longstanding hypothesis that leaders declare war because they fail to internalize the associated costs. We test this moral hazard theory of conflict by compiling data on the family composition of 3,693 US legislators who served in the U.S. Congress during the four conscription-era wars of the 20th century: World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. We test for agency problems by comparing the voting behavior of congressmen with draft-age sons versus draft-age daughters. We estimate that having a draft-age son reduces legislator support for pro-conscription bills by 10-17%. Legislators with draft-age sons are also more likely to win reelection, suggesting that support for conscription is punished by voters. Our results provide new evidence that agency problems contribute to political violence, and that elected officials can be influenced by changing private incentives. |
| JEL: | N42 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23904&r=his |
| By: | Dakshina Garfield De Silva; Marina Gertsberg; Georgia Kosmopoulou; Rachel Pownall |
| Abstract: | We apply network theory to study auction outcomes in the fine art market. Using a unique historical data set, of London-based art auctions that took place between 1741 and 1913, we investigate the drivers of strategic network formation between dealers (buyers) and sellers and the effect of network structure on artwork prices and market exit. The network size and similarities in art specialization between trading partners strongly influence the decision to form links. A larger network and a higher degree of specialization exacerbate informational asymmetries across buyers leading to higher rents through lower prices and facilitate longer market presence. |
| Keywords: | Auctions, Art Dealers, Networks |
| JEL: | D44 D82 L14 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:198144199&r=his |
| By: | Kenny, Seán (Department of Economic History, Lund University); Lennard, Jason (Department of Economic History, Lund University); Turner, John D. (Queen's University Belfast) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the macroeconomic effects of UK banking crises over the period 1750 to 1938. We construct a new annual banking crisis series using bank failure rate data, which suggests that the incidence of banking crises was every 32 years. Using our new series and a narrative approach to identify exogenous banking crises, we find that industrial production contracts by 8.2 per cent in the year following a crisis. This finding is robust to a battery of checks, including different VAR specifications, different thresholds for the crisis indicator, and the use of a capital-weighted bank failure rate. |
| Keywords: | banking crisis; bank failures; narrative approach; macroeconomy; United Kingdom |
| JEL: | E32 E44 G21 N13 N23 N24 |
| Date: | 2017–10–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:luekhi:0165&r=his |
| By: | Lanouar Charfeddine (College of Business and Economics, Qatar University); Karim Ben Khediri (CEROS, Université Paris Nanterre, France and FSEG Nabeul, University of Carthage, Tunisia); Goodness C. Aye (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, South Africa); Rangan Gupta (University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa) |
| Abstract: | Bonds have become an important part of investment portfolios for individuals as well as for institutions, particularly after the recent financial crisis. This paper empirically investigates the Adaptive Market Hypothesis (AMH) in two of the most established bond markets in the world: the US and UK and two emerging markets: South Africa and India, using monthly data series spanning very long time periods. We examine the long memory properties of the series using GPH, ELW and FELW and multiple structural breaks technique to examine possibility of structural breaks. We then examine the weak-form efficiency of government bond markets, using a time varying approaches namely the state-space generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity in mean (GARCH-M) to date the time varying behavior of bond market efficiency. Results show that efficiency of these markets has been changing over time, depending on the prevailing economic, political and market conditions. Further, we observe that the degree of the weak-form efficiency of these markets has been gradually improving recently. In particular, the US government bond market has been highly efficient, showing the highest degree of market efficiency among the four bond markets. Overall, our results suggest that the AMH provides a better description of the behavior of government bond returns than the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH). |
| Keywords: | Adaptive market hypothesis, Bond Market, GARCH-M, Long memory, Market Efficiency, State-space Model, Time-varying |
| JEL: | C22 G12 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:201771&r=his |
| By: | Pies, Ingo |
| Abstract: | 1942 hat Joseph A. Schumpeter 'Kapitalismus, Sozialismus und Demokratie' veröffentlicht. Dieses Buch vermag auch nach rund 75 Jahren immer noch zu faszinieren. Allerdings ist es nicht leicht zu verstehen, weil dem heutigen Lesepublikum viele Hintergrundinformationen nicht mehr ohne weiteres verfügbar sind. Insbesondere die ironische Grundstruktur des Buches hat zahlreiche Missverständnisse produziert. Vor diesem Hintergrund entwickelt der vorliegende Beitrag eine umfassende Interpretation, die Schumpeters Aussagen über Karl Marx, über den kapitalistischen Prozess der schöpferischen Zerstörung, über die Möglichkeit einer sozialistischen Ordnung sowie über die unwahrscheinliche Vereinbarkeit von Sozialismus und Demokratie allgemein verständlich rekonstruiert. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:mlucee:201704&r=his |
| By: | Duoduo Xu (Division of Social Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Institute for Advanced Study, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology); Xiaogang Wu (Division of Social Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Institute for Emerging Market Studies, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) |
| Abstract: | The impact of market transition on the changing order of social stratification in post-socialist regimes has been a highly prominent topic in sociology in recent decades. However, the debate has yielded no concrete conclusions, due in part to the lack of substantive institutional analysis. In this article, we aim to provide new answers to this age-old question by specifically examining how the economic opportunities available to former political elites have been shaped by the process of privatization. Based on firm-level data from a national representative survey on Chinese private enterprises, we show that nomenclatures in some regions successfully converted their political power into personal wealth by acquiring privatized firms, and the extent to which they could exploit the opportunities available to them was contingent upon how the privatization process was structured and regulated in a local context. Further analysis reveals important institutionalized inequality among private entrepreneurs, with former nomenclatures at the top of the social hierarchy in post-reform China. |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hku:wpaper:201745&r=his |
| By: | Kürschner, Kathleen |
| Abstract: | This paper exploits the natural experiment provided by the unexpected disintegration of socialist East Germany to study the impact that immigration has on residential housing rents in recipient regions. Using a spatial correlation approach, annual district-level migration data and rental price indicators, we find strong evidence for a positive and sizeable effect of immigration on housing rents. An exploration of exogenous origin-region push factors yields IV estimates of even larger magnitude. |
| JEL: | J61 R21 R23 R31 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168092&r=his |
| By: | Serge REY; Sofiane HAZEM |
| Abstract: | On s’intéresse à l’impact de la productivité sur la dynamique de la croissance économique en Algérie sur la période 1984-2015. Le premier objectif de cet article a été de mesurer cette productivité à la fois pour l’ensemble de l’économie et pour différents secteurs. On a ensuite procédé à des estimations originales du stock de capital en s’appuyant sur la méthode de l’inventaire permanent, ce qui a permis de déduire les évolutions de la productivité globale des facteurs. A partir de ces estimations, on montre que si globalement l’économie algérienne a connu d’assez bonnes performances en matière de croissance économique, cela a été plus le résultat d’une augmentation des facteurs de productions, essentiellement de la main d’oeuvre, que de la croissance de la productivité du travail qui a été très limitée. Ce résultat reflète en partie les faibles performances du secteur des hydrocarbures qui a connu une diminution de la productivité du travail depuis le début des années 2000, tandis que d’autres secteurs comme l’agriculture ont connu à l’inverse de forts gains de productivité. This paper addresses the empirical question of whether the productivity can help explain economic growth dynamics in Algeria over the 1984-2015 period. The first objective of this article is to measure productivity for both the economy as a whole and for different sectors. Then original estimates of the capital stock are made using the permanent inventory method, which led to inferring evolutions in total factor productivity. On the basis of these estimates, it is shown that while the Algerian economy as a whole has performed fairly well in terms of economic growth, this was more the result of an increase in production factors, i.e. labor force, than of labor productivity growth, which was very limited. This partly reflects the weak performance of the hydrocarbons sector, which has experienced a decline in labor productivity since the early 2000s, while other sectors such as agriculture have experienced strong productivity gains. |
| Keywords: | Growth rate, Algeria, hydrocarbons, labor productivity, TFP |
| JEL: | D24 O14 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tac:wpaper:2017-2018_2&r=his |
| By: | Macdonald, Ryan |
| Abstract: | Le Canada est une nation commercante qui produit des quantites importantes d?extrants liees aux ressources. Ainsi, le comportement des prix des ressources qui revetent de l?importance pour le Canada est pertinent, afin de comprendre les progres de la croissance des revenus reels et la prosperite du pays et des provinces. Les brusques variations de la demande et de l?offre ou les changements a la politique monetaire sur les marches internationaux peuvent avoir une enorme influence sur le prix des ressources. Les fluctuations sont un facteur important de transmission des bouleversements externes au sein de l?economie nationale. Le present document comporte des estimations historiques de l?indice des prix des produits de base de la Banque du Canada (IPPB) et les couple a des estimations modernes. Au moyen d?un ensemble de sources de donnees historiques, il evalue les poids et les prix d?une maniere suffisamment coherente pour permettre l?etablissement d?estimations a long terme qui pourraient etre couplees a l?IPPB de Fisher moderne. |
| Keywords: | Economic accounts, History and context, Prices and price indexes, Statistical methods |
| Date: | 2017–10–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3f:2017399f&r=his |
| By: | Lehmann-Hasemeyer, Sibylle; Opitz, Alexander |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we provide the first overview over all political connections for all firms listed on the Berlin stock exchange in 1924 and for the same sample of firms four years later. In contrast to anecdotal evidence which suggest that these political connections had a positive effect on firms' performance, an event study based on the election in December 1924 and May 1928 shows only little evidence that political connections had a positive impact on firm value. These results complement previous research emphasizing that political connections might have mattered less in democracies. Indeed, this seems true for Germany's first democracy - even though it was a very unstable one. |
| Keywords: | Political Connections,Interwar Germany,Stock Market Performance |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hohdps:242017&r=his |
| By: | Macdonald, Ryan |
| Abstract: | Canada is a trading nation that produces significant quantities of resource outputs. Consequently, the behaviour of resource prices that are important for Canada is germane to understanding the progress of real income growth and the prosperity of the country and the provinces. Demand and supply shocks or changes in monetary policy in international markets may exert significant influence on resource prices, and their fluctuations constitute an important avenue for the transmission of external shocks into the domestic economy. This paper develops historical estimates of the Bank of Canada commodity price index (BCPI) and links them to modern estimates. Using a collection of historical data sources, it estimates weights and prices sufficiently consistently to merit the construction of long-run estimates that may be linked to the modern Fisher BCPI. |
| Keywords: | Economic accounts, History and context, Prices and price indexes, Statistical methods |
| Date: | 2017–10–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2017399e&r=his |
| By: | Stephanie Carlson (University of Minnesota); Yuichi Shoda (University of Washington); Ozlem Ayduk (University of California at Berkeley); Lawrence Aber (New York University); Catherine Schaefer (Pennsylvania State University); Anita Sethi (The Happy Montessori School); Nicole Wilson (University of Washington); Philip Peake (Smith College); Walter Mischel (Columbia University) |
| Abstract: | In the 1960s at Stanford University’s Bing Preschool, children were given the option of taking an immediate, smaller reward or receiving a delayed, larger reward by waiting until the experimenter returned. Since then, the "Marshmallow Test" has been used in numerous studies to assess delay-of-gratification. Yet, no prior study has compared the performance of children across the decades. Common wisdom suggests children today would wait less long, preferring immediate gratification. Study 1 confirmed this intuition in a survey of adults in the U.S. (N = 354; Median age = 34 years). To test the validity of this intuition, in Study 2 we analyzed the original data for average delay-of-gratification times (out of 10 min) of 840 typically developing U.S. children in three birth cohorts from similar middle-high socioeconomic backgrounds, tested 20 years apart (1960s, 1980s, and 2000s), matched on age (3-5 years) at the time of testing. In contrast to popular belief, results revealed a linear increase in delay over time, such that children in the 2000s waited on average 2 min longer than children in the 1960s, and 1 min longer than children in the 1980s. This pattern was robust with respect to age, sex, geography and sampling effects. We posit that increases in symbolic thought, technology, and public attention to self-regulation have contributed to this finding, but caution that more research in diverse populations is needed to examine the generality of the findings and to identify the causal factors underlying them. |
| Keywords: | delay of gratification, Marshmallow Test, executive function, cohort effect, preschool |
| JEL: | C91 D03 I21 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2017-077&r=his |
| By: | Huning, Thilo R.; Wahl, Fabian |
| Abstract: | To better understand the role of taxation in the emergence of states, this article presents an incomplete contract model of an agricultural society in which information asymmetries cause inefficient taxation, and hence outmigration, uprisings, and rent-seeking, but also urbanization. We propose a geographic index of information costs, observability, to test our model. Our case study is the Holy Roman Empire, which had a relatively homogeneous institutional framework, state of technology, culture, and ethnic composition across hundreds of observed states, for over 500 years. We find a robust link between observability and states' tax capacity, their size, and their survival. |
| Keywords: | state capacity,principal-agent problem,taxation,Holy Roman Empire |
| JEL: | O42 D73 Q15 N93 D82 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hohdps:222017&r=his |
| By: | Moritz Kuhn; Moritz Schularick; Ulrike I. Steins |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the distribution of U.S. household income and wealth over the past seven decades. We introduce a newly compiled household-level dataset based on archival data from historical waves of the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). Complementing recent work on top income and wealth shares, the long-run survey data give a granular picture of trends in the bottom 90% of the population. The new data confirm a substantial widening of income and wealth disparities since the 1970s. We show that the main loser of rising income and wealth concentration at the top was the American middle class – households between the 25th and 75th percentile of the distribution. The household data also reveal that the paths of income and wealth inequality deviated substantially. Differences in the composition of household portfolios along the wealth distribution explain this divergence. While incomes stagnated, the middle class enjoyed substantial gains in housing wealth from highly concentrated and leveraged portfolios, mitigating wealth concentration at the top. The housing bust of 2007 put an end to this counterbalancing effect and triggered the largest spike in wealth inequality in postwar history. Our findings highlight the importance of portfolio composition, leverage and asset prices for wealth dynamics in postwar America. |
| Keywords: | income and wealth inequality, household portfolios, historical micro data |
| JEL: | D31 E21 E44 N32 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6608&r=his |
| By: | Mattauch, Linus; Klenert, David; Stiglitz, Joseph E.; Edenhofer, Ottmar |
| Abstract: | N/A |
| JEL: | D31 E21 H31 H41 H54 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168156&r=his |
| By: | Gazeley, Ian (University of Sussex); Holmes, Rose (University of Sussex); Newell, Andrew T. (University of Sussex); Reynolds, Kevin (University of Sussex); Gutierrez Rufrancos, Hector (University of Sussex) |
| Abstract: | We estimate calories available to workers' households in the USA, Belgium, Britain, France and Germany in 1890/1. We employ data from the United States Commissioner of Labor survey (see Haines, 1979) of workers in key export industries. We estimate that households in the USA, on average, had about five hundred daily calories per equivalent adult more than their French and German counterparts, with Belgian and British workers closer to the USA levels. We ask if that energy bonus gave the US workers more energy for work, and we conclude that, if stature is taken into account, workers in the US and UK probably had roughly the same level energy available for work, whereas the German and French workers most likely had significantly less. Finally we ask economic migration leads to taller children. To answer that we estimate the influence of children on calorie availability among ethnically British workers in the USA and, separately, among British workers in Britain. We find that US-based British households are at least as generous in terms of the provision of calories to their children as their Britain-based counterparts. Other things equal, this means that US-based British children would grow taller. |
| Keywords: | living standards, nutrition, international comparisons, migration |
| JEL: | J11 J61 N30 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11037&r=his |
| By: | Miguel D. Ramirez (Department of Economics, Trinity College) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the very important notion of capital from a Marxian perspective as opposed to a neoclassical one. It is argued that when capital is viewed as a historically determined social process (relation), rather than as a thing or a collection of things, it tends to assume certain specific forms more often than others depending on the particular stage of economic history. Capital thus refers simultaneously to social relations and to things. Given this frame of reference, notions such as money and property capital are more easily accommodated and consequently are not written off as financial or fictitious capital—not real capital—because they “produce nothing.” The paper also focuses on Marx’s important analysis of the time of production and the turnover of capital in terms of the production of surplus-value (profit). It then examines Marx’s equally important and prescient analysis of how the turnover speed of capital is affected by the time of circulation of commodities (the realization of surplus-value) and the growing use of credit (in its various forms) in the capitalist system. Finally, the paper turns its attention to the economic role of time as it relates to interest-bearing (loan) capital and Adam Smith’s important distinction between productive and unproductive labor—one whose clear comprehension rests on viewing capital as a social construct. |
| Keywords: | Capital; commodity capital; credit; crises; exchange-value; interest-bearing capital; money capital; productive capital; productive and unproductive labor; time of production and circulation; turnover speed of capital; rate of surplus-value (profit). |
| JEL: | B10 B14 B24 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tri:wpaper:1705&r=his |
| By: | Maya Lavrinovich (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the early stages of career of Aleksei Fedorovich Malinovskii, since 1814 Head of the Moscow Archive of the State College of Foreign Affairs. The Archive's records and diverse correspondence from the 1780s – early 1800s reveal his connections to the aristocrats – Vorontsov and Sheremetev – and to some of the highest officials of the Empire (vice-chancellor Ivan Osterman) who willingly patronized this son of a Moscow priest and later a petty official in the Archive. The career stretegies he pursued in the field of the patronage went parallel to and were no less important than those he pursued in the formal hierarchies. He sought to obtain noble status in order to acquire estates and serfs. To gain a symbolic foothold in the elite and to become its full member, he married one Islen'eva, a niece of the Vorontsovs, who became a rich heiress in 1810. Later he gave his daughter in marriage to Prince Dolgorukov, a remote relative of the Sheremetevs, thus linking himself up with both clans of his protectors. Malinovskii's relationships with his patrons were based on mutual services and benefit which are discussed in the article |
| Keywords: | Russia, 18th century, career, patronage, clientelism, patron-client relationships, Moscow Archive of the State College of Foreign Affairs, ennoblement, service, Aleksei Malinovskii |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:152/hum/2017&r=his |
| By: | Aleksandr V. Rusanov (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The article analyzes argumentation that was used by the Papal curia and the University of Lisbon in the bulls and petitions during the short period when the kingdom of Portugal supported Anti-Pope Clement VII (1380–1381). Rhetoric of observed sources includes legal concepts and images borrowed from earlier theoretical texts and academic privileges. In the Curial practice the main legal conception of medieval university, the Studium generale, could be interpreted in the different ways, as it is demonstrated by the case of the Gregory XII’s bulls addressed to the Portuguese university in 1377. In 1380 the Portuguese academic corporation expected some grants and authorization of its status in exchange for support of the Avignon Pope. But controversial formulas and concepts of Clement VII’s bull In Superne dignitatis (that de jure founded a new Studium generale in Lisbon) rather strengthen his authority in Portugal than favoured realization of proclaimed university privileges |
| Keywords: | history, medieval universities, Portugal |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:153/hum/2017&r=his |
| By: | Dalmazzo, Alberto; de Blasio, Guido; Poy, Samuele |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the case of a local secession, i.e. the birth of a new local jurisdiction by separation from an existing one. We present a stylized model in which society is composed of heterogeneous groups and individuals have an homophily bias. The model predicts that: i) separations, such as the split of a territory into distinct administrative units, occur when the costs of mixed communities are sufficiently large; ii) the smaller community drives the decision to secede; iii) welfare gains from the split are associated with positive population growth; iv) higher payoffs under separations, however, might be related to taste for sameness only, with no (or even negative) effect on economic growth. Then, we bring the model to the data by exploiting the secession of the Italian region of Molise from Abruzzo, a unique event in Italian history, which took place in 1963. Historical records document that the split was the result of pressures from Molise, the smaller community. Our evidence suggests that the split was associated with population inflows in both areas. Finally, the main empirical findings, derived by using a synthetic control approach, show that the split caused significant benefits, in both regions, in terms of per-capita GDP growth. |
| Keywords: | local jurisdictions,secessions,regional growth |
| JEL: | H77 H10 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:125&r=his |
| By: | Trevor Burnard; Laura Panza; Jeffrey G. Williamson |
| Abstract: | This paper provides the first quantitative assessment of Jamaican standards of living and income inequality around 1774. To this purpose we compute welfare ratios for a range of occupations and build a social table. We find that the slave colony had extremely high living costs, which rose steeply during the American War of Independence, and low standards of living, particularly for its enslaved population. Our results also show that due to its extreme poverty surrounding extreme wealth Jamaica was the most unequal place in the pre-modern world. Furthermore, all of these characteristics applied to the free population alone. |
| JEL: | N16 N36 O54 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23897&r=his |
| By: | Andersson, Åke E. (Jönköping International Business School (JIBS)); Johansson, Börje (Jönköping International Business School (JIBS), Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), & Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies (CESIS)) |
| Abstract: | Production theory has remained substantially unchanged since the publication of the Theory of Production by Ragnar Frisch, (1928, 1965). The theory is based on the idea of a firm deciding on the possible input and output combinations of a single unit of production. His theory was substantially copied in contributions by Sune Carlsson (1939) and Erich Schneider (1947), and later by practically all textbooks in microeconomics. The idea is to model the firm as a “black box” in which a finite number of externally purchased inputs are transformed into a finite number of outputs to be sold in the market(s). Most of the time, the prices are externally determined. Often, the production process is summarized by some simplified production function as for example in the form of a CES function. Another and conceptually richer approach is the formulation of an activity analysis model. In the latter case, simple internal interdependencies can be included. In this paper, we indicate how internal interdependencies can also be modeled within a special CES framework. In recent decades, there has been a remarkable growth in the number of production units of firms like IKEA, Walmart and Apple to name a few such global networking firms. Most of the analysis of these network firms has been modeled by logistics and other operations-research analysts and to a limited extent by researchers in business administration schools. Very little has been done in economics. We propose a modelling approach consistent with microeconomic theory. |
| Keywords: | Multilocation firm; management of network firm; collaborative advantages; economies of scale and scope |
| JEL: | D21 D23 D24 D51 D85 F23 L23 R12 |
| Date: | 2017–10–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0461&r=his |
| By: | Wisdom Akpalu; George Agbenyo; Emmanuel Maluke Letete; Mare Sarr |
| Abstract: | This report discusses the evolution of institutions and compares the quality of key formal institutions (Political and Civil Liberties, Political Instability, and Property Rights) from Ghana’s colonial era to its post-independence. The Political and Civil Liberties and Political Instability are studies from 1820 to 2010, while Property Rights were analyzed for the periods 1849-2010. It has been found that, on average, the post-independent democratic regimes guaranteed the best political and civil liberties, and property rights. However, the democratic regime recorded the highest documented political instability, which includes number of lives lost, political arrests and assassinations, declaration of State of Emergency, and armed related attacks. Further analysis revealed that within the post-independent era, compared to the military regimes, democratic regimes registered significantly higher economic growth rate, all else equal. By implication, better political and civil liberties, and property rights institutions positively correlate with economic growth |
| Keywords: | Ghana, economic growth, Political instability, Civil Liberties |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:710&r=his |
| By: | Schøyen, Øivind (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | This paper models a game between an authority, seeking to implement its preferred morality, and a parental generation, seeking to socialize a younger generation into the their own morality. The authority chooses a coercion level for adhering to the non-state morality, whereupon the parental generation chooses whether to insurrect and, if not, how much to invest in socialization. The novel feature of this paper is that we formalize and explore the consequences of an intrinsic negative reaction to coercion: coercion resentment. The key result is to show the necessary micro Level assumptions for an inefficient interval of coercion that can account for authorities choosing to restrain their use of coercion. Furthermore, the paper characterizes the socialization and insurrection preferences needed for the long run equilibrium to be path dependent. Two historical periods are presented through the lens of the model: the Counter-Reformation in early modern France and the Holy Roman Empire (1517-1685) and the Soviet Secularization project (1922-1991). |
| Keywords: | Moral persistence; Political legitimacy |
| JEL: | D02 D10 D82 N30 N40 P16 |
| Date: | 2017–10–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2017_018&r=his |
| By: | Mamoon, Dawood |
| Abstract: | General Musharraf ruled the country as a self proclaimed enlightened dictator. His politics is as repressive as has been the case of any dictatorial regime. However the paper suggests that he did make a genuine effort to uphold Pakistani economy that witnessed recessionary trends in 1990s. This paper is a critical analysis of Musharraf’s politics in contrast to his economic policies. |
| Keywords: | Politics, Macro-Economy, Institutions |
| JEL: | Z0 Z1 Z18 |
| Date: | 2017–10–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:81977&r=his |
| By: | Sirus Dehdari; Kai Gehring |
| Abstract: | We exploit the fact that disagreements in the German leadership after the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 led to a quasi-exogenous division of Alsace and Lorraine to provide rare evidence of group identity formation within historically homogeneous regions. In line with the rejection-identification hypothesis, people in the treated area which experienced a change in nation-status and were exposed to repressive homogenization policies express a stronger regional identity and support more regional autonomy today. On average, subjects with a stronger regional also express a stronger European identity, which we exploit in a regression discontinuity design at the municipal level to reveal whether these identity differences are causal. We find that support for the European Union is significantly stronger in two crucial referenda, a result that is robust across different specifications and bandwidths, and not driven by language differences, large agglomerations or distance to foreign countries. The effect seems to be the strongest for the first two age cohorts after World War II and diminishes for later generations. |
| Keywords: | group identity, identity formation, homogenization policies, assimilation, rejection-identification hypothesis, persistence of preferences, Alsace-Lorraine |
| JEL: | D91 H70 H80 N40 Z19 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6556&r=his |
| By: | Koch, Christian; Nikiforakis, Nikos; Kamm, Aaron |
| Abstract: | In this study, we present evidence from a novel tax experiment featuring multiple equilbria. In the field, countries such as Greece seem to be stuck in a bad equilibrium with persistent high tax evasion while countries such as Germany seem to be in good equilibrium with persistent high compliance. Relatedly, our setting enables us to study our lab societies’ initial equilibrium selection and to what extent their compliance level is path dependent, i.e. depends on historical experience. |
| JEL: | C92 H26 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168271&r=his |
| By: | Roger Fouquet |
| Abstract: | Energy transitions have led to major advances in human wellbeing. How- ever, little evidence exists about the scale of the net benefits. By developing a new method for identifying the demand curve, and by using a unique, his- torical data set, this paper estimates the consumer surplus associated with heating, transport and lighting over more than two hundred years and iden- tifies the gains from a number of key energy transitions. For certain energy transitions, the increase was dramatic, re ecting the transformations in soci- ety and lifestyles that mobility and illumination provided in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Yet, the net benefits related to heating technologies only rose modestly. Finally, due to saturation effects of the demand for en- ergy services, future technological developments and energy transitions may benefit consumers (though not necessarily society as a whole) less than those in the past. |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lsg:lsgwps:wp277&r=his |
| By: | Konstantin A. Kholodilin (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the governmental regulation of the rental housing market in the states that arose on the ruins of the Russian Empire during the Russian Civil war in 19181922. It examines and compares three major tools of the housing policy of those times: rent control, protection of tenants from eviction, and housing rationing. It shows evolution and continuity of the housing legislation of the non-Bolshevik governments and its relationship with the housing policies of Bolsheviks. |
| Keywords: | Russia; Russian Civil war; non-bolshevik governments; rental housing; housing policy. |
| JEL: | N44 O18 R38 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:151/hum/2017&r=his |
| By: | Quamrul H. Ashraf; Francesco Cinnirella; Oded Galor; Boris Gershman; Erik Hornung |
| Abstract: | This paper advances a novel hypothesis regarding the historical roots of labor emancipation. It argues that the decline of coercive labor institutions in the industrial phase of development has been an inevitable by-product of the intensification of capital-skill complementarity in the production process. In light of the growing significance of skilled labor for fostering the return to physical capital, elites in society were induced to relinquish their historically profitable coercion of labor in favor of employing free skilled workers, thereby incentivizing the masses to engage in broad-based human capital acquisition, without fear of losing their skill premium to expropriation. In line with the proposed hypothesis, exploiting a plausibly exogenous source of variation in early industrialization across regions of nineteenth-century Prussia, capital abundance is shown to have contributed to the subsequent intensity of de facto serf emancipation. |
| Keywords: | labor coercion, serfdom, emancipation, industrialization, physical capital accumulation, capital-skill complementarity, demand for human capital, nineteenth-century Prussia |
| JEL: | J24 J47 N13 N33 O14 O15 O43 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6423&r=his |
| By: | Köppl-Turyna, Monika |
| Abstract: | We test several hypotheses concerning the growth of public expenditure by the Austrian monarchy between 1870 and 1913 in relation to Wagner's law, as well as the impact of increasing public indebtedness and the expanding role of the Imperial Council towards the end of the analyzed period, using the bounds testing approach and Granger-causality analysis. We find evidence for Wagner's law in the case of public investment, but not general public expenditure. Increases in general public expenditure were mostly driven by the public debt, rather than by increasing national income. We do not find evidence that institutional reforms by the Imperial Council changed the trends in public expenditure. |
| Keywords: | Imperial Austria,Wagner's law,public expenditure |
| JEL: | N13 N43 H50 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:agawps:11&r=his |
| By: | Natalia M. Dolgorukova (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Ñest Romanz Fist Crestiens Chretien De Troyes and the Birth of the French Novel |
| Keywords: | Chretien de Troyes, “Yvain, or the Knight with the Lion”, “Lancelot, or the Knight of the Cart”, fin’amors, Breton Cycle, Celtic material, troubadours, trouveres, V. Propp, Mabinogion, parody |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:24/ls/2017&r=his |
| By: | Hubert BONIN |
| Abstract: | Beyond the facts themselves, which resulted in a grave crisis of the second French bank in 1913 and who told the implementation of the solidarity of place, it is necessary to explain how the strategic and managerial conduct of what had become a banking firm suffered from excessive risk-takings, and from maybe random methods of management. In any case, the capacities of anticipations seem to have been deficient. Thus this essay mobilizes analyses fed with the reflections of economists of management and applies them to business history and to banking history, to try to determine if current theoretical approaches could, without too much anachronism, allow a finer understanding of this event. |
| Keywords: | Bank ; management history ; risks management ; business history ; managerial culture |
| JEL: | D22 D81 G L N N |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2017-13&r=his |
| By: | Giuseppe Conti |
| Abstract: | The paper investigates some historical and philosophical foundations of the gift. In the neoliberal ideology the gift is like a merchant exchange, and evaluable in a simple scheme of supply and demand interactions. This approach was in line with an ethical change about the social consideration of ancient and Thomistic contempt of the chrematistics, opposed to good life. From this reversal of ancient ethos descends the main aspects of a new way of governance of society that narrows personal rights. |
| Keywords: | Innerworldly asceticism, Capitalism as religion, Gift and exchange. |
| Date: | 2017–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pie:dsedps:2017/224&r=his |
| By: | Lechler, Marie |
| Abstract: | We identify indirect and direct colonial rule as causal factors in shaping support for democracy by exploiting a within-country natural experiment in Namibia. Throughout the colonial era, northern Namibia was indirectly ruled through a system of appointed indigenous traditional elites whereas colonial authorities directly ruled southern Namibia. Using this spatial discontinuity, we find that individuals in indirectly ruled areas are less likely to support democracy and turnout at elections. |
| JEL: | F54 N27 N47 P16 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168216&r=his |
| By: | Albrecht Glitz; Erik Meyersson |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate the economic returns to industrial espionage by linking information from East Germany’s foreign intelligence service to sector-specific gaps in total factor productivity (TFP) between West and East Germany. Based on a dataset that comprises the entire flow of information provided by East German informants over the period 1970-1989, we document a significant narrowing of sectoral West-to-East TFP gaps as a result of East Germany’s industrial espionage. This central finding holds across a wide range of specifications and is robust to the inclusion of several alternative proxies for technology transfer. We further demonstrate that the economic returns to industrial espionage are primarily driven by relatively few high quality pieces of information and particularly strong in sectors that were closer to the West German technological frontier. Based on our findings, we estimate that the average TFP gap between West and East Germany at the end of the Cold War would have been 6.3 percentage points larger had the East not engaged in industrial espionage. |
| Keywords: | espionage, productivity, R&D, technology diffusion |
| JEL: | D24 F52 N34 N44 O30 O47 P26 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6525&r=his |
| By: | León Tamayo, Dorian Fernando; Moreno, Jose Luis |
| Abstract: | The capability approach developed by Sen represents a proposal for the evaluation of individual well-being and social development centered on people and away - but not exclusive- of materiality. In the present article describes the capability approach developed by Sen and examines the importance for the evaluation of human development. |
| Keywords: | capability approach,Sen's capability approach,functioning,Amartya Sen |
| JEL: | I31 I32 D63 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:169373&r=his |