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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2018‒10‒15
28 papers chosen by |
| By: | Francisco J. Beltrán Tapia (Norwegian University of Science and Technology); Alfonso Díez-Minguela (Universitat de València); Julio Martinez-Galarraga (Universitat de València); Daniel A. Tirado-Fabregat (Universitat de València) |
| Abstract: | This study looks at human capital in Spain during the early stages of modern economic growth. In order to do so, we have assembled a new dataset on ageheaping and literacy in Spain for both men and women between 1877 and 1930 based on six population censuses with information for 49 provinces. Our results show that age-heaping was less prevalent during the second half of the 19th century than previously thought and did not increase until the early twentieth century. By contrast, literacy increased throughout the whole period. Interestingly, age-heaping and illiteracy rates depict similar spatial patterns which confirm the stark differences in human capital within Spain. Lastly, we raise critical questions as regards sources, methods, and the interpretation of age-heaping. |
| Keywords: | Spain, age-heaping, literacy, nineteenth-century |
| JEL: | I25 N9 O15 N01 I21 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0139&r=his |
| By: | Pierre van der Eng; Kitae Sohn |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the mean age at menarche as an indicator of changes in the standard of living in China during the tumultuous 20th century. It discusses the difficulties of using this indicator in terms of the quality of the available data, the processing the basic data, and the interpretation of the results. The paper finds that the mean age at menarche in China stagnated at 16 to 17 years for women born during the 1880s-1930s, although it also finds decreases in some urban areas, such as Beijing and Shanghai, indicative of an improving standard of living. The mean age at menarche increased for 1940s birth cohorts, in part due the negative effects of the China-Japan war and the civil war in the 1940s, but also the famine of 1959-1962 that affected these cohorts during puberty. The mean age at menarche decreased in a sustained way for women born during the 1950s to the early 2000s, to a level of 12.1 in 2000-03. This decrease preceded the acceleration of economic growth in the 1980s. Increased educational attainment since the 1940s explains much of the decrease in the age at menarche, ahead of improvements in nutrition, hygiene and healthcare. |
| Keywords: | China, living standards, human growth, anthropometrics, menarche |
| JEL: | I12 I31 N15 O15 |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:hpaper:071&r=his |
| By: | Josh Ryan-Collins; Frank van Lerven (None) |
| Abstract: | In the face of the perceived high public and private debt levels and sluggish recovery that has followed the financial crisis of 2007-08, there have been calls for greater fiscal-monetary coordination to stimulate nominal demand. Policy debates have been focused upon the inflationary expectations that may be generated by monetary financing or related policies, consistent with New Consensus Macroeconomics theoretical frameworks. Historical examples of fiscal-monetary policy coordination have been largely neglected, along with alternative theoretical views, such as post-Keynesian perspectives that emphasise uncertainty and demand rather than rational expectations. This paper begins to address this omission. First, we provide an overview of the holdings of government debt by both central banks and commercial banks as an imperfect but still informative proxy for fiscal-monetary coordination in advanced economies in the 20th century. Second, we develop a new typology of forms of fiscal-monetary coordination that includes both direct and less direct forms of monetary financing, illustrating this with case-study examples. In particular, we focus on the 1930s-1970s period when central banks and ministries of finance cooperated closely, with less independence accorded to monetary policy and greater weight attached to fiscal policy. We find a number of cases where fiscal-monetary coordination proved useful in stimulating economic growth, supporting industrial policy objectives and managing public debt without excessive inflation. |
| Keywords: | monetary policy, monetary financing, inflation, central bank independence, fiscal policy, debt, credit creation |
| JEL: | B22 B25 E02 E12 E31 E42 E51 E52 E58 E63 N12 N22 O43 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pke:wpaper:pkwp1809&r=his |
| By: | Bergh, Andreas (Department of Economics); Fink, Günther (Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute) |
| Abstract: | More than 50 years after independence, the majority of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa remain poor with limited rates of economic growth. One of the most striking features of economic development on the sub-Saharan subcontinent is the remarkably poor performance of French colonies relative to British ones. While British and French colonies had similar GDP per capita shortly after independence, their economic trajectories have increasingly diverged, with particularly large gaps in the post-2000 period. Neither measures of human capital, geography nor measures of institutional quality appear to explain this gap, suggesting that colonialism affected deeper societal factors that are crucial for economic growth but that are not captured in standard macroeconomic variables. |
| Keywords: | Growth; Development; Colonies; Institutions |
| JEL: | F54 O43 |
| Date: | 2018–09–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1234&r=his |
| By: | John Killick (University of Leeds) |
| Abstract: | "It has been conventional wisdom for many years that very few migrants—possibly only one per cent—returned to Europe in the sailing ship era because of the hardships of the voyage. Raymond Cohn summarized the best sources in his recent book. Mass Migration under Sail (2009), pp. 10-11, and concluded that migration ‘in virtually all cases was permanent’. The long and hazardous outward voyage made return unlikely, and often there was little to go back to. Nearly all migration historians agree with this low rate, but a minority have suggested there was a larger return migration. In particular, Wilbur Shepperson, Emigration and Disenchantment (1965) researched the biographical accounts of 50 returnees – including many famous names – Cobbett, Kemble, Nuttall, Trollope etc. to show what they thought of the US, and why they left. This is convincing as social analysis, but is too small a number for statistical conclusions. Shepperson shows how they came in many varieties – farmers, mechanics, professionals etc. – each with personal reasons for return, but it is arguable they were in the main a special literary group. The aim of this paper is to buttress Shepperson’s case from more mundane sources– first from the Cope packets which kept passenger lists from all their eastbound packets – about 25000 names over 50 years; Second by checking the British press for return passenger details more fully– which probably Shepperson was not able to do,- and thirdly from some British government reports in the mid and late 1850s, not yet thoroughly utilised. For this see the final section of Killick, ‘Transatlantic steerage fares’. My thesis is that the return migration was larger than previously thought, and was strongly tied to general trade and migration conditions. A small proportion of those attracted by the booms, fled immediately during the following financial crisis, and more in the subsequent depressions. This has implications for what we think about the transatlantic crossing pre steam. This was less arduous and horrific than often painted - the new packet ships after 1818 made return relatively easy, and even re-emigration possible. Similarly frequent returns suggest the Anglo-American contrast were less marked, and the economic gains from emigration less obvious than often suggested at least in the east. The social and political contrasts remained of course, and there were huge differences between groups." |
| JEL: | N00 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehs:wpaper:18003&r=his |
| By: | Bruno Prati (LSH - Laboratoire des sciences historiques - UFC (EA 2273) - UFC - Université de Franche-Comté) |
| Abstract: | Cet éditeur universitaire a été créé en 1997 en tant que service commun de l'Université de Franche-Comté. Dans le pays de Proudhon ou des cousins Fourier, les Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté s'inscrivent donc à Besançon dans une ancienne tradition d'édition scientifique. La Maison des sciences de l'homme et de l'environnement Claude Nicolas Ledoux a été reconnue par le CNRS en 2004 et fait partie du réseau national depuis 2008. Sa collection intitulée « Les Cahiers de la MSHE Ledoux », dirigée par Philippe Barral, se décline en cinq séries correspondant aux cinq pôles de recherche de la structure : la série "Dynamiques territoriales" qui correspond au pôle 1 ; la série "Environnement : ressources et paysages" qui correspond au pôle 2 ; la série "Normes, Pratiques et Savoirs" qui correspond au pôle 3 ; la série "Archive, bases, corpus" qui correspond au pôle 4 ; et la série "Comportements, risques, santé" renvoyant au pôle 5. La série« Dynamiques territoriales » a déjà publié 9 ouvrages. Le présent livre est donc le vingt-sixième de la collection et le neuvième de la série. Issu d'une thèse de doctorat soutenue en 2013 sous la direction du Professeur Jean-Claude Daumas, cet ouvrage a bénéficié d'un soutien financier de l'Association française pour l'histoire des entreprises, et du prix Crédit Agricole d'histoire des entreprises. Il comporte donc de nombreuses illustrations en couleur et d'un papier d'une bonne qualité qui en fait un objet agréable à lire, dont la couverture de couleur blanche, verte et jaune orangée décrit bien l'ambiance du récit qui suit. Il s'agit de l'histoire longue d'une PME familiale dont l'auteur estnte. En effet, Bruno Prati est directeur de la stratégie et du développement de cette entreprise. Après des études de management et d'histoire il a soutenu cette thèse d'une excellente facture. Comme il est d'usage en histoire des entreprises, le plan suit un ordre chronologique. Il comporte trois parties à la difficulté de lecture progressive. La première porte sur le passage de la « boutique » (terme spécifique pour désigner la petite firme de départ) à la PMI (petite et moyenne industrie) entre 1926 et 1953. Cette partie est très intéressante car elle resitue le processus de création de la firme dans le contexte très agité de l'époque. On regrettera que la biographie du premier fondateur, Emile Cossardeaux, ne soit pas assez fouillée. La deuxième partie, consacrée au passage de la première à la deuxième génération de patrons, couvre la période 1954-1990. Elle comporte trois chapitres. Le premier sur l'arrivée d'un ingénieur qui va mécaniser l'entreprise jusqu'en 1968. Le deuxième sur la difficulté des investissements en capital fixe et la déchirure de la crise de 1973-1974. Le troisième sur le processus de croissance externe dans le passage temporel difficile entre 1975 et 1986. La description d'une mutation inachevée au tournant des années 1991 à 1999. Elle comprend trois troisième partie est la mieux connue de l'auteur car il a codirigé la firme. Il s'agit de la chapitres. L'un sur l'action commerciale, le nerf de la guerre de survie dans ce secteur depuis longtemps en difficulté dans nos économies occidentales. L'autre sur l'automatisation incomplète au mitan d'un changement technologique majeur avec l'arrivée des nouvelles machines automatisées. Le dernier analyse le passage d'un homme providentiel (Gérard Grosdidier) à une direction collégiale nécessaire pour devenir un leader mondial du secteur. Au total le texte fait 494 pages d'une histoire vivante, complexe et aux nombreux rebondissements. Cela se lit comme un biopic subtil d'une aventure collective de long cours. L'appareil scientifique fait 90 pages. Il comprend des sources archivistiques très fournies, une série de 98 entretiens appelés ici « témoignages », neuf pages de sources imprimées et de sites internet, et une bibliographie mixte gestion/histoire de 444 titres. Comme le livre est assez technique, un glossaire de deux pages et un glossaire spécifique de 23 mots permet de comprendre le jargon propre à ce secteur d'activité, vu de l'intérieur avec l'âme de la profession et la fierté du métier qui remonte à loin, à des racines familiales très anciennes. La grande richesse de l'ouvrage transparaît dans la liste des figures, qui comporte 123 éléments, soit une figure toutes les quatre pages. Selon la réglementation en cours, toutes ces illustrations sont protégées en droit de la propriété intellectuelle. L'utilisation d'archives privées très difficiles à consulter est un plus pour ce livre qui fera date. La problématique est, elle aussi, très originale, puisque l'auteur arrive à faire la synthèse entre la littérature théorique gestionnaire et les références plus pragmatiques de l'histoire des entreprises. Utilisant à bon escient les concepts forgés par les professeurs de gestion, il réussit l'exploit d'en retrouver la trace dans les comptes de la firme étudiée. De ce va-et-vient entre la pensée et les faits ressortissent nombre de bonheurs d'expression et de trouvailles intellectuelles qui permettent de comprendre comment une toute petite firme devient grande dans un secteur réputé en difficulté séculaire. Cela ne s'est pas fait sans mal et la rédaction a dû demander beaucoup d'efforts et de persévérance à son auteur. Il en reste quelques scories, comme on dit dans le milieu des forgerons. Nous n'avons trouvé que très peu d'erreurs que nous signalons ici pour une future édition. A lapage 81 il s'agit de la firme américaine Mac Cormick (l'inventeur de la moissonneuse-batteuse) et non Mac Cornick. A la page 102, dans la légende de la photographie du personnel en 1929, le prénom de la noyauteuse Colson est « S » et non « M ». A la page 528 le prénom du regretté Chadeau est Emmanuel et non « Stéphane » et l'indication du millésime des ouvrages de Jean Bouvier doit être mieux précisé car il est décédé en 1986 et les ouvrages postérieurs sont donc des éditions posthumes (ou de simples rééditions). Cela n'enlève rien à la très grande qualité de cet ouvrage qui fait honneur à son auteur et à son directeur de thèse. Il est en effet rarissime qu'un dirigeant d'entreprise devienne l'historien de sa propre firme, et qu'il trouve la force de prendre de la distance avec son objet d'étude. En ayant, nous aussi, suivi la voie difficile d'une double formation en gestion et en histoire, nous ne pouvons que conseiller ce livre à tous les étudiants des grandes écoles de commerce ou des vieilles facultés d'histoire de notre pays. Ils y découvriront une claire explication des principaux concepts du management et une analyse sur documents de la dynamique de la démographie des entreprises. On retrouve là toute l'intelligence bisontine d'un Proudhon qui s'était associé au gestionnaire Duchêne pour étudier la bourse de Paris en 1853, et toute la prescience d'un Charles Fourier, qui, lui, parti de la boutique commerciale, a débouché sur une vision globale de la Société capitaliste. Bruno Prati est le digne successeur de cette glorieuse lignée. Si c'est en forgeant que l'on devient forgeron, ici c'est en écrivant le vrai que l'on devient historien. Une part de pure vérité transparaît dans ce livre qui fera date dans l'immense bibliographie du monde du fer. |
| Keywords: | PME,Entreprise familiale,Etude diachronique,Ardennes |
| Date: | 2016–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01865101&r=his |
| By: | Samuel Garrido (Universitat Jaume I, Spain) |
| Abstract: | Since the 1950s a substantial part of all European wine has come from cooperative wineries, which since their appearance around the year 1900 have mostly produced cheap, poor quality wine. This paper discusses whether this has been a consequence of their inability to solve a collective action problem. After showing that this is not so, it examines why cooperatives concentrated on the production of bad wine and studies why their market share was small before the 1950s. Lastly, it uses data from Spain to analyse the factors determining the creation of cooperative wineries in the early twentieth century. |
| Keywords: | Wine, Winemaking Cooperatives, Cooperation, Collective Action |
| JEL: | N53 N54 Q13 L66 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1807&r=his |
| By: | Corinne Boter (Wageningen University); Pieter Woltjer (Wageningen University) |
| Abstract: | "Extensive research has demonstrated that female labour force participation (FLFP) in Western Europe decreased during the second half of the nineteenth century. During this period, in the Netherlands, FLFP was even lower than in surrounding countries such as England and Belgium. Until now, most scholars have argued that social norms were driving this development. This study argues that social norms were merely one side of the coin and it combines factors of supply as well as demand in a logistic regression based on nearly 2 million marriage records from the period 1812-1929. Our results show that sectoral shifts in the Dutch economy explain almost half of the decline of FLFP over the entire period. We exploit regional variation to demonstrate the importance of considering local labour markets when investigating FLFP. Furthermore, we support our results from the logistic regression with qualitative information from nineteenth-century labour surveys. As such, this research is a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods." |
| JEL: | N00 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehs:wpaper:17015&r=his |
| By: | Edoardo Demo; Roberto Ricciuti; Mattia Viale |
| Abstract: | This article analyses trends in economic inequalities in Venice between the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries. Based on largely unpublished archive sources, changes in income and consumption inequalities have been studied, while the bootstrap method was used to determine if these changes are statistically significant. The households studied were divided into subgroups to better understand the dynamics between and within the different population components. We show that changes in consumption inequality are significant, whereas those relating to income inequality are not. We argue that this is due to the inability of the economy to generate wealth, whereas families were better able to face the major structural changes in the European economy in the last two centuries of the early modern period. |
| Keywords: | consumption inequality, Early modern period, economic inequality, Little Divergence, Venice |
| JEL: | D31 N33 N93 |
| Date: | 2018–10–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hbu:wpaper:12&r=his |
| By: | Cédric Ceulemans; Victor Ginsburgh; Juan Prieto-Rodríguez; Sheila Weyers |
| Abstract: | We study the fiction publishing sector using the top ten annual best-sold novels in the United States during the whole 20th century. We show that there is inequality in genders (especially between 1950 and 1980), and large differences in age for first and last book by bestselling authors. We also report on the number of times each writer is listed among the top ten, and find that during the 20 last years of the century, it became much more difficult for new writers to enter the list. Though we cannot show that this is caused by the very important concentration of publishers, the two phenomena are obviously correlated. We discuss at some length the reasons for which female authors almost disappeared as bestsellers after 1950, and make an incursion into the quality of bestsellers, using as measure the number of authors who were also given important literary awards. |
| Keywords: | superstar effect, winner-takes-all effect, bestseller books |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/277361&r=his |
| By: | DUDLEY, Leonard; RAUH, Christopher |
| Abstract: | Over three centuries ago, a new technology suddenly increased the amount and frequency of available information. Might such «Big Data» have disrupted the causal relationships linking economic growth and innovation? Previous research has affirmed that a society’s economic success during the Industrial Revolution depended on its institutions. Here we examine the hypothesis that by allowing people to cooperate more easily with one another, language standardization raised a society’s rate of innovation. As a result, the region could attract the resources needed to grow more rapidly. Empirical tests with 117 innovations and 251 Western cities suggest that the presence of a standardized tongue helps to explain the burst of innovation and growth observed between 1700 and 1850. Moreover, once one has accounted for language standardization, institutional quality has little further power to explain economic progress. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtl:montde:2018-14&r=his |
| By: | Mark Stelzner (Connecticut College) |
| Abstract: | "In this paper, I seek to fill a gap in the literature by analyzing how central changes in labor laws shaped increasing income inequality during the Gild Age and Progressive and New Eras. For the North, I look at the increasing activation of courts, to the detriment of many state and local legislatures, in creating and expanding the use of the labor injunction. For the South, I look at how the states, supported by the courts, created a system of peonage that directly affect large portions of southern labor and lasted well into the twentieth century. " |
| JEL: | N00 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehs:wpaper:17005&r=his |
| By: | Stephan Heblich; Stephen J. Redding; Daniel M. Sturm |
| Abstract: | Modern metropolitan areas involve large concentrations of economic activity and the transport of millions of people each day between their residence and workplace. We use the revolution in transport technology from the invention of steam railways, newly-constructed spatially-disaggregated data for London from 1801-1921, and a quantitative urban model to provide evidence on the role of these commuting flows in supporting such concentrations of economic activity. Steam railways dramatically reduced travel times and permitted the first large-scale separation of workplace and residence. We show that our model is able to account for the observed changes in the organization of economic activity, both qualitatively and quantitatively. In counterfactuals, we find that removing the entire railway network reduces the population and the value of land and buildings in Greater London by 20 percent or more, and brings down commuting into the City of London from more than 370,000 to less than 60,000 workers. |
| JEL: | O18 R12 R40 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25047&r=his |
| By: | Juan A. Rubio Mondéjar (Department of Economics, Quantitative Methods and Economic History, University Pablo de Olavide.); Jósean Garrués Irurzun (Department of Economic Theory and Economic History, University of Granada.); Luis Chirosa (Department of Economic Theory and Economic History, University of Granada.) |
| Abstract: | In the last century, Spanish society and economy have endured considerable social and economic transformations which have also affected the corporate elite. Has the professionalization of managers of large companies broke away from old practices of crony capitalism? We have analysed the profiles of managers and executives of the biggest limited liability companies in Spain from 1917 to present day in order to answer this question. Prosoprographic method applied to different social capital fields of managers allows for a better understanding of how the Spanish corporate elite evolved. The latter entails an increase of managerial skills, through training and cosmopolitan capital; nonetheless, progress in managerial capitalism has not put an end to typical aspects of crony capitalism, which was attributed to most of the twentieth century and the new business elite has uplifted a new “entrenchment” in the last decades to put their interests before those of the country as a whole. |
| Keywords: | business elite, crony capitalism, Spain, social capital. |
| JEL: | N24 P12 H10 L40 |
| Date: | 2018–10–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gra:wpaper:18/05&r=his |
| By: | Alexandra M. de Pleijt (University of Oxford, Department of Economics); Jan Luiten van Zanden (Utrecht University) |
| Abstract: | It is generally acknowledged that the degree to which women participate in labour markets and how they are remunerated are important determinants of female autonomy that may also affect their demographic behaviour. Such links have been discussed in the literature about the “European Marriage Pattern” (EMP). In order to bring about the conditions for female autonomy of the EMP (in which women have a large say in the decision when and with whom they marry), women should have had access to the labour market and have earned a decent wage. This is clearly affected by the gender wage gap and the possibility that women earn their own living and have the option to remain single. But so far no attempt has been made to compare the wages of women across Europe over the long run. In this paper we therefore provide evidence on the wages of unskilled women for seven European countries between 1300 and 1800. Our evidence shows that there were two worlds of female labour. In the South of Europe women earned about 50% of the wage of unskilled male labourers. In the Northern and Western parts of Europe this gap was much smaller during late Medieval Period, but it increased dramatically between about 1500 and 1800. |
| Keywords: | Living standards, labour market, gender inequality, pre-industrial development |
| JEL: | N13 N33 J16 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0138&r=his |
| By: | Francisco J. Beltrán Tapia |
| Abstract: | This working paper outlines the challenges faced by scholars studying issues around Spanish common lands from a historical perspective. The text is structured around found main topics: the typology of the commons, the quantification of collective resources, the role of the communal regime and the political economy of these resources. |
| Keywords: | Common lands, privatisation, Spain |
| JEL: | N53 N33 O10 |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:seh:wpaper:1804&r=his |
| By: | Billington, Stephen D. |
| Abstract: | Ascertaining whether patents encourage invention necessitates understanding the incentives inventors respond to. The British patent system prior to its reform in 1852 was cumbersome and expensive. Whether it facilitated or delayed the Industrial Revolution is hotly debated. This paper's contribution is to examine the incentives to patent, and the characteristics of patentees, by observing the entire population of British patents granted up to the patent reforms of 1852. I find inventors patented widely because they had valuable inventions. Their value was positively associated with the skills and wealth of patentees. Inventors responded to demand-side conditions, and the system's expense did not hinder invention. |
| Keywords: | Incentives,Innovation,Patents,Patent Quality,Industrial Revolution |
| JEL: | N74 O31 O34 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:qucehw:201810&r=his |
| By: | Erixon, Lennart (Dept. of Economics, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | The Stockholm-school member Erik Lundberg is the economist who devoted most attention to the economic theory and policy of the Swedish postwar model. The established view is that Lundberg was a steadfast opponent of the so-called Rehn- Meidner model, an economic and wage policy program developed by two Swedish trade-union economists in the early postwar years. The model recommends fiscal policies in the medium term, extensive labor market programs and wage policies of solidarity to simultaneously obtain price stability, full employment, income equality and high growth. This article maintains that Lundberg shared many of the premises of the Rehn-Meidner model already at the beginning of his debate with Gösta Rehn in the early 1950s. Furthermore, in their debate, Lundberg approached Rehn’s policy program and underlying theory of the working of the Swedish economy. Despite his ideological qualms, Lundberg’s ambiguous attitude to the Rehn-Meidner model turned into a complete adoption of the model in the 1960s. By highlighting the innovative nature of the Rehn-Meidner theory, Lundberg also correctly downplayed the impact of the Stockholm School. |
| Keywords: | Swedish model; Rehn-Meidner model; Stockholm School; Economic policy; Wage policy of solidarity; Labor-market policy |
| JEL: | B25 E31 E62 J23 J61 O43 |
| Date: | 2018–09–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sunrpe:2018_0004&r=his |
| By: | Alexandra López Cermeño (Lund University) |
| Abstract: | "This paper explores the impact of new universities established in the United States between 1930-2010. Differences in differences analysis on a sample of counties selected through propensity score matching enables the assessment of the impact of these universities on GDP, population, and different scales of market size. Evidence suggests that hosts of new universities grew around 20 per cent more, and the effect expanded to the nearby areas. Controlling for research quality and infrastructures shows that new cultural amenities generate growth that expands to nearby areas through the agglomeration of population but only during the short run." |
| Keywords: | "Economic Geography, Spillovers, Universities, United States" |
| JEL: | L8 N72 R12 I23 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehs:wpaper:17016&r=his |
| By: | Angelina Hackmann; Torben Klarl |
| Abstract: | Exploiting the cascade structure of cities and based on a dataset for U.S. cities between 1840 and 2016, the aim of this short paper is to answer three important questions: First, do we observe that the U.S. city size distribution exhibits a smooth transition to Zipf's law from the beginning or are there periods showing a pronounced departure from Zipf's law? Second, if we observe periods of departure, which alternative laws instead should be used to accurately describe the city size distribution? Third, employing information from the cascade structure of cities, do we always find evidence for primate cities for a specific period of time? Inter alia, we find that the exact Zipf's law has evolved over time from the more general, so-called three-parameter Zipf's law which can be traced back to Mandelbrot (1982). |
| Keywords: | city size distributions, Zipf’s law, hierachical scaling law, urban systems |
| JEL: | R11 R12 R15 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7232&r=his |
| By: | Anne Laurence (Open University) |
| JEL: | N00 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehs:wpaper:17011&r=his |
| By: | Florian Ploeckl (University of Adelaide) |
| Abstract: | "Public monopolies operate with substantial regional differences in their efficiency. This paper uses the Reichspost, the German Imperial Postal Service, to investigate what factors explain these differences. Additionally scale effects and the comparative efficiency on input and output side are investigated." |
| Keywords: | "Productivity, Public Service, Postal Service, Germany" |
| JEL: | D24 N73 N93 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehs:wpaper:17013&r=his |
| By: | Eric Kam (Department of Economics, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada); John Smithin (Department of Economics, York University, Toronto, Canada); Aqeela Tabassum (The Business School, Humber College, Toronto, Canada) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an explanation of the long-run neutrality of monetary policy in a dynamic general equilibrium model with micro-foundations. If the rate of time preference is endogenous there is no natural rate of interest. Therefore, if the central bank follows an interest rate rule this will affect the real rate of interest in financial markets and thereby the real economy. In principle, there is a negative relationship between the real rate of interest and the rate of inflation. This turns out to be nothing other than the historical “forced savings effect”, or the twentieth century Mundell-Tobin effect. |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rye:wpaper:wp074&r=his |
| By: | Michael Pammer (Johannes Kepler University) |
| Keywords: | "agriculture, productivity, distribution, inequality, Austria, 19th century, regional comparison" |
| JEL: | N53 N93 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehs:wpaper:17006&r=his |
| By: | Oliver Dunn (University of Cambridge) |
| JEL: | N00 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehs:wpaper:17021&r=his |
| By: | Andrew Odlyzko (University of Minnesota) |
| Abstract: | "Previously unknown basic statistics are obtained about the opera- tions of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in early Victorian times. Integration of data from the Bank of England Archive with price reports, press coverage, and other sources produces estimates for volume of transactions, distribution of earnings among dealers, efficiency of the market, and the coverage of avail- able price lists. For example, it is found that for some securities, prices were reported for under 20% of transactions. The LSE was surprisingly small and by some measures also surprisingly efficient. Much of its efficiency appears to have come from its deep involvement in the “shadow banking system” of that era, a connection that appears to have been misunderstood and almost com- pletely neglected in the past. The low levels of activity, the dominance of small investors, and low cost of the system show the very early stages of the “fi- nancialization” of the modern economy and provide interesting perspectives on modern developments." |
| JEL: | N00 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehs:wpaper:17002&r=his |
| By: | Bakari, Sayef; Mabrouki, Mohamed; elmakki, asma |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between industrial exports and economic growth in Tunisia. In order to achieve this purpose, annual data for the periods between 1969 and 2015 were tested using the Johansen co-integration analysis of Vector Error Correction Model and the Granger-Causality tests. According to the result of the analysis, it was determined that there is a negative relationship between industrial exports and economic growth in the long run. Otherwise, and on the basis of the results of the Granger causality test, we noted the absence of a causal relationship between industrial exports and economic growth in the short term. These results provide evidence that industrial exports, thus, are not seen as the source of economic growth in Tunisia and suffer a lot of problems and poor economic strategy. |
| Keywords: | Industrial Export, Economic Growth, Cointegration, VECM, Causality, Tunisia. |
| JEL: | F10 F11 F13 F14 O55 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:88956&r=his |
| By: | Alex Thurston (Miami University) |
| Abstract: | Military operations have not prevented the spread of jihadist insurgency in the Sahel, particularly in Mali. While some Sahelian elites favour dialogue with jihadists, hoping to negotiate political settlements that reduce or end violence, past political settlements have sometimes set the stage for future conflict. This paper analyses past settlements with jihadists in Algeria and the Sahel, distinguishing between “stabilising settlements” that remove fighters from the battlefield versus “delaying settlements” that allow jihadists to accumulate resources and recruits. Even stabilising settlements carry downsides, particularly when they push jihadists into neighbouring states. The paper also analyses recent efforts in Mali to conduct dialogue with two leading jihadists, Iyad ag Ghali and Amadou Kouffa. The paper assesses that these efforts have faltered due to logistical problems and the state’s ambivalence, rather than due to ideological factors. Although renewed dialogue is more likely to fail than succeed, the paper recommends making further attempts. |
| Keywords: | Al Qaeda, jihadism, Mali, peace negotiations, Sahara, Sahel |
| JEL: | F51 N47 |
| Date: | 2018–09–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:swacaa:18-en&r=his |