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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2018‒12‒17
29 papers chosen by |
| By: | Joaquín Viloria De La Hoz |
| Abstract: | En el documento se analizan los hechos más relevantes de la colonización adelantada en la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta y Serranía de Perijá, así como en la zona agrícola al sur de Ciénaga, más tarde conocida como Zona Bananera del Magdalena. El período de estudio se extiende entre los siglos XVII y XIX. Durante el siglo XVIII, las autoridades coloniales decidieron retomar la colonización de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta y su primer paso fue la evangelización de las comunidades indígenas allí establecidas. También, en la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII, el sistema colonial ordenó establecer una colonia agrícola con irlandeses, a mitad de camino entre Santa Marta y Valle de Upar, en territorio dominado por los indígenas chimilas. Estos proyectos fundacionales cumplían propósitos militares, religiosos y económicos. Más adelante, el proceso de la Independencia generó expectativas económicas en la nueva dirigencia política colombiana, que sólo empezarían a concretarse tres décadas más tarde. Aparejado a estas nuevas dinámicas, fue ganando fuerza el proyecto de crear empresas de inmigración y colonización en diferentes zonas del país, para atraer inmigrantes europeos. Pero estas empresas tropezaron con múltiples inconvenientes como la pobreza fiscal en los diferentes niveles de gobierno y las guerras recurrentes. La Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta no fue ajena a la expansión cafetera nacional, lo que generó una colonización moderada a partir de las últimas décadas del siglo XIX. Lo cierto es que la colonización e inmigración planificada de la Sierra fue un fracaso, pero en cambio prosperó la emprendida por empresas particulares o por familias con vocación empresarial. De allí se pueden destacar las haciendas cafeteras organizadas en las cercanías de Santa Marta, Valledupar y Villanueva. **** ABSTRACT: The document analyzes the most relevant facts of the early colonization in Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and Serrania de Perijá, as well as in the agricultural area south of the Ciénaga, later known as the Magdalena Banana Zone. The period of study extends between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. During the 18th century, the colonial authorities decided to take back colonization of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, and their first step was the evangelization of the indigenous communities established there. In addition, in the second half of the 18th century, the colonial system ordered the establishment of an agricultural colony with the Irish community, halfway between Santa Marta and Valle de Upar, in territory dominated by the indigenous people known as Chimilas. These foundational projects fulfilled military, religious and economic purposes. Later, the process of Independence generated economic expectations in the new Colombian political leadership, which would only begin to materialize three decades later. Together with these new dynamics, the project of creating immigration and colonization companies in different areas of the country to attract European immigrants was gaining strength. Nevertheless, these companies encountered multiple problems such as fiscal poverty at different levels of government and recurrent wars. Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta was not unfamiliar with the national coffee expansion, which generated a moderate colonization from the last decades of the nineteenth century. It is true that colonization and the planned immigration of the Mountain range was a failure but, on the other hand, the one undertaken by private companies or families with business vocation was prosperous. As examples, it is worth mentioning coffee plantations organized nearby Santa Marta, Valledupar and Villanueva. |
| Keywords: | Colonización, inmigración, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Zona Bananera de Santa, Marta, Serranía de Perijá, café, banano. Colonization, immigration, Magdalena’s banana zone, coffee, banana. |
| JEL: | N9 N96 R23 |
| Date: | 2018–12–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000101:017006&r=his |
| By: | Stelios Michalopoulos; Elias Papaioannou |
| Abstract: | As Africa's role on the global stage is rising, so does the need to understand the shadow of history on the continent's economy and polity. We discuss recent works that shed light on Africa's colonial and precolonial legacies. The emerging corpus is remarkably interdisciplinary. Archives, ethnographic materials, georeferenced censuses, surveys, and satellite imagery are some of the sources often combined to test influential conjectures put forward in African historiography. Exploiting within-country variation and employing credible, albeit mostly local, identification techniques, this recent literature has uncovered strong evidence of historical continuity as well as instances of rupture in the evolution of the African economy. The exposition proceeds in reverse chronological order. Starting from the colonial period, which has been linked to almost all of Africa's post-independence maladies, we first review works that uncover the lasting legacies of colonial investments in infrastructure and human capital and quantify the role of various extractive institutions, such as indirect rule and oppression associated with concessionary agreements. Second, we discuss the long-lasting impact of the "Scramble for Africa" which led to ethnic partitioning and the creation of artificial modern states. Third, we cover studies on the multi-faceted legacy of the slave trades. Fourth, we analyze the contemporary role of various precolonial, ethnic-specific, institutional and social traits, such as political centralization. We conclude by offering some thoughts on what we view as open questions. |
| JEL: | N00 N10 N77 N87 N97 O10 O43 O55 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25278&r=his |
| By: | van der Eng, Pierre; Sohn, Kitae |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses long-term changes in the mean age at menarche (MAM) as a biological indicator of changes in the standard of living in Indonesia. It finds that MAM was about 15.5 for birth cohorts in the late-19th century, decreasing to 14.5 by the 1930s, at which level it stagnated until the gradual decrease resumed since the early 1960s to around 12.5 in the mid-2000s. The paper considers that long-term improvements in nutrition, educational attainment and health care explain these trends. An international comparison of long-term changes finds that MAM in Indonesia was much lower than in Korea and China until respectively 1970 and 1990, but comparable to Japan until 1950 and to Malaysia until 1930. The paper presents reasons why these differences are unlikely to be related to dissimilarities in climate and ethnicity, and concludes that they are indicative of relative standards of living. |
| Keywords: | living standards, human growth, menarche, Indonesia, Asia |
| JEL: | I12 I31 N15 O15 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hitcei:2018-12&r=his |
| By: | Nicolas Vallois (CRIISEA - Centre de Recherche sur l'Industrie, les Institutions et les Systèmes Economiques d'Amiens - UPJV - Université de Picardie Jules Verne); Dorian Jullien (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis - UCA - Université Côte d'Azur - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | Experimental economists increasingly apply econometric techniques to interpret their data, as suggests the emergence of " experimetrics " in the 2000s. Yet statistics remains a minor topic in historical and methodological writings on experimental economics (EE). This article aims to address this lacuna. To do so, we analyze the use of statistical tools in EE from early economics experiments of the 1940s-1950s to the present days. Our narrative is based on qualitative analysis of papers published in early periods and quantitative analysis of papers published in more recent periods. Our results reveal a significant change in EE' statistical methods, namely an evolution from purely descriptive methods to more sophisticated and standardized techniques. We also highlight that, despite the decisive role played by statistics in the way EE estimate the rationality of individuals or markets, statistics are still considered as involving non-methodological issues, i.e., as involving only purely technical issues. Our historical analysis shows that this technical conception was the result of a long-run evolution of the process of scientific legitimization of EE, which allowed experimental economists to escape from psychologist's more reflexive culture toward statistics. |
| Keywords: | Methodology,History of Economic Thought,Experimental Economics,Statistics,Econometrics |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01651070&r=his |
| By: | Florian Bonnet (UP1 UFR02 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - UFR d'Économie - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne, PSE - Paris School of Economics); Hippolyte D'Albis (PSE - Paris School of Economics, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | This article analyzes the evolution of spatial inequalities in mortality across 90 French territorial units since 1806. Using a new database, we identify a period from 1881 to 1980 when inequalities rapidly shrank while life expectancy rose. This century of convergence across territories was mainly due to the fall in infant mortality. Since 1980, spatial inequalities have levelled out or occasionally widened, due mainly to differences in life expectancy among the elderly. The geography of mortality also changed radically during the century of convergence. Whereas in the 19th century high mortality occurred mainly in larger cities and along a line from North-west to South-east France, it is now concentrated in the North, and Paris and Lyon currently enjoy an urban advantage. |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-01945918&r=his |
| By: | Cory Cutsail; Farley Grubb |
| Abstract: | Beginning in 1712, North Carolina’s assembly emitted its own paper money and maintained some amount of paper money in public circulation for the rest of the colonial period. Yet, data on colonial North Carolina’s paper money regime in the current literature are thin and often erroneous. We correct that here. We forensically reconstruct North Carolina’s paper money regime from original sources—providing yearly quantitative data on printings, net new emissions, redemptions and removals, and amounts remaining in public circulation. These new data provide the basis for future economic, political, and social histories of colonial North Carolina. |
| JEL: | E42 E51 N11 N21 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25260&r=his |
| By: | Billington, Stephen D. |
| Abstract: | Did the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars contribute to the Industrial Revolution? Recent scholarship argues warfare was an important factor in explaining Britain's industrialisation, by encouraging the invention and diffusion of key technologies with military applications. I re-examine this hypothesis by analysing the patenting of military inventions and inventions considered to be economically valuable during the Industrial Revolution. I find war led to a permanent increase in the rate of military and valuable patenting. War likely created a demand for superior military technologies, while increased wartime production led to demands for more valuable technologies, which both stimulated the Industrial Revolution. |
| Keywords: | Industrial Revolution,Patents,War |
| JEL: | N43 N74 O31 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:qucehw:201812&r=his |
| By: | Morgan Kelly; Cormac Ó Gráda |
| Abstract: | Although urban growth historically depended on large inflows of migrants, little is known of the process of migration in the era before railways. Here we use detailed data for Paris on women arrested for prostitution in the 1760s, or registered as prostitutes in the 1830s and 1850s; and of men holding identity cards in the 1790s, to examine patterns of female and male migration. We supplement these with data on all women and men buried in 1833. Migration was highest from areas of high living standards, measured by literacy rates. Distance was a strong deterrent to female migration (reflecting limited employment opportunities) that falls with railways, whereas its considerably lower impact on men barely changes through the nineteenth century. |
| Keywords: | Migration; Gravity; Prostitution |
| JEL: | N |
| Date: | 2018–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201810&r=his |
| By: | Cormac Ó Gráda |
| Abstract: | This short paper reviews the economic-historical literature on ancien régime French guilds and suggests some paths for future research. |
| Keywords: | Guilds; Apprenticeship; Economic history; France |
| JEL: | N33 |
| Date: | 2018–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201804&r=his |
| By: | GUISAN, Maria-Carmen |
| Abstract: | Presentamos una contribución a la historia de la investigación económica en Galicia en el período 1967-2017. Este estudio incluye la referencia a numerosas Tesis Doctorales desde el comienzo de los estudios de la primera Facultad universitaria de Estudios de Economía en Galicia. Incluye una reseña histórica, Tesis Doctorales dirigidas en varias décadas, enlanzando Directores y Autores, y numerosa información y enlaces a libros, revistas, documentos y recursos electrónicos relacionados con la divulgación de la investigación económica realizada en Galicia en temas de desarrollo regional, sectorial e internacional. We present a contribution to the history of economic research in Galicia in the period 1967-2017. This study includes the reference to numerous Doctoral Theses from the beginning of the studies of the first university Faculty of Economics Studies in Galicia. It includes a historical review, Doctoral Theses directed in several decades, linking Directors and Authors, and numerous information and links to books, journals, documents and electronic resources related to the dissemination of economic research conducted in Galicia on issues of regional, sectoral and regional development. international. |
| JEL: | A10 A11 A14 I2 I23 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eaa:ecodev:121&r=his |
| By: | Michaël Mangeon (CGS i3 - Centre de Gestion Scientifique i3 - MINES ParisTech - École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris - PSL - PSL Research University - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, IRSN - Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire); Frédérique Pallez (CGS i3 - Centre de Gestion Scientifique i3 - MINES ParisTech - École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris - PSL - PSL Research University - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | France has a historical tradition of codifying rules and regulations into an elaborate corpus of public law applied by a powerful administration. However the nuclear industry seems to have long been spared this tradition. This analysis of the development and operation of the French system for regulating nuclear risks between 1960 and 1985 brings to light a suppleness of the first rules, standards and orientations for risk-management. This French exception has two explanations: the structure of the network of the institutions involved in regulations; and the political, industrial and social context in which the "small world" of nuclear safety evolved. This analysis stimulates thought about how the French risk-regulation regime is evolving in the current context. |
| Date: | 2018–10–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01904855&r=his |
| By: | Jill Trinh (Business School, The University of Western Australia); Michael McLure (Business School, The University of Western Australia) |
| Abstract: | On the face of it, Pareto’s law and Piketty’s (r – g) law are inconsistent, with Pareto arguing that real per capita economic growth is the solution to the problem of income inequality and Piketty arguing for redistribution to be funded from a wealth tax. This study, however, establishes that when the same definition of inequality is adopted by the two scholars, Piketty’s and Pareto’s laws are the same economic law. It also establishes that Piketty’s assertion that Pareto treats income distribution as “rock stable” overlooks the critical aspects of Pareto’s law that emphasise change. |
| Keywords: | distribution, inequality, growth, Pareto, Piketty |
| JEL: | B16 B31 D30 D31 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwa:wpaper:18-06&r=his |
| By: | María Angelica Bautista; Felipe González; Luis R. Martínez; Pablo Munoz; Mounu Prem |
| Abstract: | We show that exposure to repression under dictatorship increases support for democracy and contributes to regime change when a democratic window of opportunity arises. Studying the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile, we exploit the fact that the predetermined location of military bases predicts local levels of civilian victimization, but is unrelated to historical political preferences. Using two-stage least squares, we show that increased exposure to repression during the dictatorship led to higher voter registration and higher opposition to Pinochet’s continuation in power in the 1988 plebiscite that triggered the democratic transition. Complementary survey data confirms that individuals with greater exposure to repression during the military regime continue to have stronger preferences for democracy. However, exposure to repression does not affect election outcomes after democratization. |
| Keywords: | Chile, human rights, repression, dictatorship, democratization, elections |
| JEL: | D72 N46 |
| Date: | 2018–12–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000092:017007&r=his |
| By: | Michael Spagat; Stijn van Weezel |
| Abstract: | For the past 70 years, there has been a downward trend in the size of wars, but the idea of an enduring ‘long peace’ remains controversial. Some recent contributions suggest that observed war patterns,including the long peace, could have come from a long-standing and unchanging war-generating process, an idea rooted in Lewis F Richardson’s pioneering work on war. Aaron Clauset has tested the hypothesis that the war sizes after the Second World War are generated by the same mechanism that generated war sizes before the Second World War and fails to reject the ‘no-change’ hypothesis. In this paper, we transform the war-size data into units of battle deaths per 100,000 or world population rather than absolute battle deaths – units appropriate for investigating the probability that a random person will die in a war. This change tilts the evidence towards rejecting the no-change hypothesis. We also show that sliding the candidate break point slightly forward in time, to 1950 rather than 1945, leads us further down the path toward formal rejection of the no-change hypothesis. Finally, we expand range of wars to include not just the inter-state wars considered by Clauset (2018) but also intra-state wars. Now we do formally reject the no-change hypothesis. Finally, we show that our results do not depend on the choice between two widely used war datasets. |
| Keywords: | War; Rare events; Binomial probability |
| JEL: | C10 D74 N40 |
| Date: | 2018–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201815&r=his |
| By: | Ayca Erinc Y?ld?r?m (Bülent Ecevit University) |
| Abstract: | Zonguldak has a special importance in terms of labor history. The emergence of wage labor life in the city goes back to the Ottoman period. The demand on coal as a source of energy, has brought Zonguldak forward both in the Ottoman and Turkish Republican eras. Yet, the characteristics of the area have caused formations different than the mining experiences of the West European countries; the production in the mines were conducted by the rotational workers called as ?worker-peasant? who worked in cycles largely set according to the sowing and harvest times. This type of production has totally effected the miner?s both living and working conditions.The main aim of this research is to investigate the effects of the new socio-economical atmosphere of the post Second World War Era on the mine workers in Zonguldak. How the historical period between 1946-62 led to a transformation in the working and living conditions of mine workers, is the core issue of this study. The working system in the mines of Zonguldak and the methods of struggle that the miners have developed against the working conditions will also be among the main topics of this research. |
| Keywords: | Zonguldak, labor history, mine worker, working life, daily life |
| Date: | 2018–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:6708984&r=his |
| By: | Alastair Ball (Birkbeck, University of London) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the long-term economic effects of early exposure to the Great London Smog of 1952. Cohorts born in London are tracked for up to sixty years using the Office of National Statistics Longitudinal Study. Exposure to the four day smog reduced the size of the surviving cohort by 2% and caused lasting damage to human capital accumulation, employment, hours of work, and propensity to develop cancer. |
| JEL: | Q53 I12 I18 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bbk:bbkefp:1814&r=his |
| By: | Baten, Jörg; de Pleijt, Alexandra |
| Abstract: | Many countries did not accumulate sufficient human capital to be successful, because they did not make use of the potential of the female half of their population. Other countries did the opposite and became "superstars" and pioneers in long-term economic development. This view is supported by studying female autonomy and numeracy indicators of 27 countries and 268 regions in Europe between 1500 and 1900. We approach endogeneity issues by exploiting exogenous variation in gender-biased agricultural specialization. |
| Keywords: | Early modern growth; Female autonomy; human capital formation |
| JEL: | N13 N33 O40 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13348&r=his |
| By: | Stefano Fenoaltea |
| Abstract: | This paper argues that we cliometricians have failed as economists, because we did not drag the profession out of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth; that we have failed as historians, because we do not take measurement seriously, and misapprehend “the data”; and that we failed signally as economic historians, because we backcast “GDP” as if it measured gross domestic product. |
| Keywords: | cliometrics, economic history, economics |
| JEL: | A10 B40 N01 |
| Date: | 2018–12–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hbu:wpaper:14&r=his |
| By: | Mario Chacón (New York University Abu Dhabi); Jeffrey Jensen (New York University Abu Dhabi) |
| Abstract: | We use the Southern secession movement of 1860-1861 to study how elites in democracy enact their preferred policies. Most states used specially convened conventions to determine whether or not to secede from the Union. We argue that although the delegates of these conventions were popularly elected, the electoral rules favored slaveholders. Using an original dataset of representation in each convention, we first demonstrate that slave-intensive districts were systematically overrepresented. Slave-holders were also spatially concentrated and could thereby obtain local pluralities in favor of secession more easily. As a result of these electoral biases, less than 10% of the electorate was sufficient to elect a majority of delegates in four of the six original Confederate states. We also show how delegates representing slave-intensive counties were more likely to support secession. These factors explain the disproportionate influence of slaveholders during the crisis and why secessionists strategically chose conventions over statewide referenda. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieb:wpaper:doc2017-16&r=his |
| By: | Michael McLure (Business School, The University of Western Australia); Aldo Montesano (Bocconi University) |
| Abstract: | This study enhances McLure (2017) by considering the significance Edgeworth’s reciprocal demand curves to the early history of the Edgeworth box. In short, it clarifies Edgeworth’s and Pareto’s respective contributions to the development the Edgeworth box diagram by establishing the relationship between the ‘trade’ representations of Edgeworth’s Figures 1 and 5 and the associated ‘allocation’ representations of those two diagrams. A reconstruction of Edgeworth’s Figure 1 is also provided to make the implicit aspects of his treatment of production explicit. A new early history of the Edgeworth box diagram is also presented. |
| Keywords: | Box diagram, Edgeworth, Exchange, Pareto, Production |
| JEL: | B13 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwa:wpaper:18-03&r=his |
| By: | Guido Alfani; Cormac Ó Gráda |
| Abstract: | Understanding mortality crises is an important part of understanding some fundamental aspects of preindustrial economies. Understanding the processes leading to their decline and the associated improvements in living standards and life expectancy is a precondition for knowing what is needed to prevent the re-emergence of widespread famine and lethal infectious disease. This short paper introduces a field in which policy makers and economists need to carefully consider the past, before making assumptions about the future. |
| Keywords: | Famine; Disease; Epidemics; Economic history |
| JEL: | N10 |
| Date: | 2018–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201803&r=his |
| By: | Dewez Harmony (CESCM - Centre d'Etudes Supérieures de Civilisation médiévale - Université de Poitiers - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | La conception de l'économie dans la doctrine mendiante, particulièrement franciscaine, au Moyen Âge est une question bien maîtrisée grâce aux travaux menés depuis les années 1970 par plusieurs historien. Cependant, la fonction des comptes dans l'économie conventuelle des mendiants demeure inégalement étudiée, au-delà de travaux comme ceux de Paul Bertrand sur les Mendiants liégeois. Les archives mendiantes sont partiellement en cause : souvent éparses et tardives, elles ne fournissent que rarement le substrat suffisant à une étude économique approfondie. C'est tout ce contexte qui explique l'intérêt de l'étude de Clément Lenoble sur le couvent franciscain d'Avignon entre le milieu du XIVe et la fin du XVe siècle, à travers le prisme d'une exceptionnelle série de registres des comptes journaliers de la communauté. Issu de sa thèse de doctorat dirigée par Jacques Chiffoleau et soutenue en 2010, cet ouvrage vient donc nourrir les travaux sur les rapports entre économie et religion chez les ordres mendiants. |
| Keywords: | pauvreté,Moyen Âge,Franciscians,Avignon |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01928422&r=his |
| By: | Federico Curci (Universidad Carlos III); Federico Masera (University of New South Wales) |
| Abstract: | In the post World War II period, most U.S. cities experienced large movements of population from the city centers to the suburbs. In this paper we provide causal evidence that this process of suburbanization can be explained by the rise of violent crime in city centers. We do so by proposing a new instrument to exogenously predict violent crime. This instrument uses as time variation the U.S. national levels of lead poisoning. Cross-sectional variation comes from a proxy for soil quality, which explains the fate of lead in soil and its subsequent bioavailability. Using data for more than 300 U.S. cities, results show that the increase in violent crime from the level in 1960 to its maximum in 1991 decreased the proportion of people living in city centers by 15 percentage points. This increase in crime moved almost 25 million people to the suburbs. As a result of suburbanization, we find that people remaining in the city center are more likely to be black people, consistent with the “white flight" phenomenon. We then demonstrate that this suburbanization process had aggregate effects on the city. Exploiting a spatial equilibrium model, we determine that violent crime had externalities on productivity and amenities. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieb:wpaper:doc2018-09&r=his |
| By: | Mario F. Carillo (Università di Napoli Federico II and CSEF) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the effect of agricultural policies on industrialization and economic development over the long run. I analyze the differential effect of the Battle for Grain, implemented by the Italian Fascist regime to achieve self-sufficiency in wheat production, on the development path across areas of Italy. Employing time variation, along with cross-sectional variation in the suitability of land for implementing the advanced wheat production technologies, I find that the policy had unintended positive effects on industrialization and economic prosperity which have persisted until the present day. Furthermore, I find that the positive effect of the Battle for Grain on human capital accumulation was instrumental in this process, suggesting that the complementarity between human capital and agricultural technology may be a critical mechanism through which agricultural productivity may enhance the development of non-agricultural sectors. |
| Keywords: | Economic Growth; Agricultural Policy; Human Capital |
| Date: | 2018–12–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sef:csefwp:518&r=his |
| By: | Algieri, Bernardina |
| Abstract: | The present study examines the dynamics and regulatory regimes of commodity derivatives markets through time. The historical perspective allows to identify the reasons behind the use of derivatives and the impact of changing rules on financial systems. It further permits to highlight the weaknesses and the strengths of derivatives markets and provides valuable lessons to tackle challenges, replicate practices, and prevent failures. The analysis shows that derivatives markets have a long history and have facilitated trading across time and geographical areas. The results of a quasi-experiment conducted for Japan and the US reveal that commodity price fluctuations were higher before the establishment of futures markets. The analysis further indicates that the unprecedented inflow of liquidity in derivatives markets was mainly facilitated by the deregulation policies adopted in the US, EU and elsewhere and was intensified by an increasing interest of investors in alternative asset classes. In the new millennium many product innovations flooded the market, reducing transparency and increasing market uncertainty. The study indicates that improved data quality and quantity are necessary conditions to enhance the understanding of derivatives markets. In addition, a sound legal and financial system is a must for thriving financial markets. Such a system creates a framework of checks and balances for the market, it contributes significantly to meaningful regulations and vibrant policies and helps to prevent or eradicate market manipulations. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural Finance, Financial Economics, Institutional and Behavioral Economics |
| Date: | 2018–12–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ubzefd:281139&r=his |
| By: | Shelly Lundberg (University of California Santa Barbara); Jenna Stearns (University of California, Santa Barbara) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we first document trends in the gender composition of academic economists over the past 25 years, the extent to which these trends encompass the most elite departments, and how women’s representation across fields of study within economics has changed. We then review the recent literature on other dimensions of women’s relative position in the discipline, including research productivity and income, and assess evidence on the barriers that female economists face in publishing, promotion, and tenure. While underlying gender differences can directly affect the relative productivity of men and women, due to either differential constraints or preferences, productivity gaps do not fully explain the gender disparity in promotion rates in economics. Furthermore, the progress of women has stalled relative to that in other disciplines in the past two decades. We propose that differential assessment of men and women is one important factor in explaining this stalled progress, reflected in gendered institutional policies and apparent implicit bias in promotion and editorial review processes. |
| Keywords: | gender, economics, tenure and promotion practices, promotion, tenure, publishing |
| JEL: | J16 J71 J21 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2018-090&r=his |
| By: | Bryan Kelly; Dimitris Papanikolaou; Amit Seru; Matt Taddy |
| Abstract: | We use textual analysis of high-dimensional data from patent documents to create new indicators of technological innovation. We identify significant patents based on textual similarity of a given patent to previous and subsequent work: these patents are distinct from previous work but are related to subsequent innovations. Our measure of patent significance is predictive of future citations and correlates strongly with measures of market value. We identify breakthrough innovations as the most significant patents – those in the right tail of our measure – to construct indices of technological change at the aggregate, sectoral, and firm level. Our technology indices span two centuries (1840-2010) and cover innovation by private and public firms, as well as non-profit organizations and the US government. These indices capture the evolution of technological waves over a long time span and are strong predictors of productivity at the aggregate, sectoral, and firm level. |
| JEL: | E22 E32 N1 O3 O4 |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25266&r=his |
| By: | Raphaël Maucuer (ESSCA School of Management); Alexandre Renaud |
| Abstract: | The business model (BM) concept has become a major area of interest in Management literature, leading to the publication of a host of literature reviews and essays aimed at synthesizing and interpreting the development of BM research. Yet these general analyses have largely neglected the specificities of the two main disciplines in which the BM concept is anchored: Strategic Management and Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Accordingly, this article seeks to explore the intellectual roots and current trends of these disciplines to refine our understanding of the development of the BM literature. We draw on a mixed bibliometric analysis based on two samples of respectively 208 and 345 articles published in Strategic Management and Innovation & Entrepreneurship. This analysis enables us to compare the theoretical pillars (co-citation analysis) and research fronts (bibliographic coupling analysis) of BM research in these two foundational disciplines. Our results suggest a certain homogeneity within both the theoretical pillars of the disciplines and the incremental diversification of their research fronts. In light of these findings, we consider the future of the BM literature and accordingly propose a twofold developmental strategy for it. |
| Keywords: | Bibliographic Coupling Analysis,Co-Citation Analysis,Business Model,Research Field,Bibliometrics |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01918188&r=his |
| By: | Giebler, Alexander; Wyrwich, Michael |
| Abstract: | Even nearly 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the privatisation and transformation of East Germany's business landscape is controversially discussed in the media and politics. The privatisation process led to enormous structural changes, which were associated with massive job losses. In particular, the stagnating regional development of East Germany is often blamed on the "long shadow" of the privatisation activities of the Treuhandanstalt (THA). From a scientific perspective, however, there are hardly any contributions dealing with the effects of privatisation activities. The IWH-Treuhand Privatisation Micro Database introduced in this technical report is novel as such that it provides comprehensive information on employment and turnover figures for formerly state-owned enterprises for the early 1990s. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhtrp:12018&r=his |