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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2019‒08‒26
twenty-six papers chosen by |
| By: | Squicciarini, Mara |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a historical setting to study when religion can be a barrier to the diffusion of knowledge and economic development, and through which mechanism. I focus on 19th-century Catholicism and analyze a crucial phase of modern economic growth, the Second Industrial Revolution (1870-1914) in France. In this period, technology became skill-intensive, leading to the introduction of technical education in primary schools. At the same time, the Catholic Church was promoting a particularly antiscientific program and opposed the adoption of a technical curriculum. Using data collected from primary and secondary sources, I exploit preexisting variation in the intensity of Catholicism (i.e., religiosity) among French districts and cantons. I show that, despite a stable spatial distribution of religiosity over time, more religious locations had lower economic development only during the Second Industrial Revolution, but not before. Schooling appears to be the key mechanism: more religious areas saw a slower introduction of the technical curriculum and instead a push for religious education. Religious education, in turn, was negatively associated with industrial development about 10 to15 years later, when school-aged children entered the labor market, and this negative relationship was more pronounced in skill-intensive industrial sectors. |
| Keywords: | Human Capital; Industrialization; Religiosity |
| JEL: | J24 N13 Z12 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13877&r=all |
| By: | Blum, Matthias; McLaughlin, Eoin |
| Abstract: | Trends in living standards during the Industrial Revolution is a core debate in economic history. Studies using anthropometric records from institutional sources have found downward trends in living standards during the first half of the nineteenth century. This paper contributes to this literature by utilising an overlooked source of middle and upper class anthropometric data: the height and weight of university students. Combined with more traditional anthropometric sources these data give us a snapshot into the range of living standards experienced by different sections of society in the United Kingdom. Our findings suggest that inequality was most pronounced in Ireland, followed by England. Height inequality in Scotland was still substantial, but somewhat lower in comparison. |
| Keywords: | height,anthropometrics,Industrial Revolution,economic history,United Kingdom |
| JEL: | D63 I14 N13 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:qucehw:201904&r=all |
| By: | Thilo R. Huning; Fabian Wahl |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyze the origins of agricultural inheritance traditions. Our case study is the German state of Baden-Württemberg, for which we have data on 3,382 municipalities. It is the first to test systematically a wide array of prevalent hypotheses about the Roman, medieval, and early modern roots of inheritance traditions and their change during the industrialization period and the early 20th century. We also analyze data on village desertion, parts of which we can attribute to the lack of flexible adaption. We find that rural inheritance traditions are primarily determined by geographic factors, especially soil quality, but also Germanic traditions, pre-historical land-abundance, Roman activity and the rise of feudalism during the middle ages. The politics of particular states like Imperial cities or the Duchy of Württemberg also mattered. Change in inheritance practices occurring primarily after industrialization took-off was mainly driven by access to railways, increasing population concentration and imitation and social interactions with people from areas with other traditions. |
| Keywords: | Inheritance rules, Informal institutions, Property Rights, Baden-Württemberg |
| JEL: | D02 D82 H11 H21 N93 |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:yorken:19/09&r=all |
| By: | Boon, Marten |
| Abstract: | In contrast to many other commodities, crude oil trading is a relatively new phenomenon. The end of the concession system in the 1970s caused the oil value chain to disintegrate and a spot market for crude oil to emerge. Oil traders, in particularly the infamous US oil trader Marc Rich, have been credited with creating this spot market and its subsequent development into the global locus of oil price formation. As such traders can be viewed as the little known but vital agents of globalization. Although traders certainly did contribute in the first formative years of the spot market in the late 1970s and early 1980s, their business models were fundamentally challenged by the subsequent evolution of the market in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Whereas globalization is about market integration, traders were typically geared toward profiting from large market distortions and opaque prices. As the spot market matured and gained global acceptance for price formation, the original oil traders were either forced out of the market or fundamentally transformed their businesses. One particular example is Dutch oil trader John Deuss. During the 1980s among the top 3 global oil traders, Deuss’ company languished in the 1990s after a failed corner of the Brent market and competition from firms that were both more sophisticated and better financed. Using Deuss as an example, this paper raises two questions: On the one hand, how did independent oil trading firms contribute to the formation of the modern oil market since the 1970s? On the other hand, how did the subsequent evolution of the market affect the business model of independent oil trading firms from the mid-1980s onwards? The core aim of the paper is to question the relationship between the economics of the trading firm and the economics of the market. The paper combines quantitative data on the development of the spot market using a deals database compiled by Argus Media since 1975 with secondary material ranging from scholarly, trade and news publications. |
| Keywords: | oil industry; trading; John Deuss; evolution of markets |
| JEL: | N2 N22 N24 N7 N72 N74 N8 N82 N84 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:95460&r=all |
| By: | Dong Cheng; Mario J. Crucini; Hyunseung Oh; Hakan Yilmazkuday |
| Abstract: | The beginning of the twentieth century provides a unique opportunity to explore the interaction of rapid technological progress and trade barriers in shaping the worldwide diffusion of a new, highly traded good: the automobile. We scrape historical data on the quantity and value of passenger vehicles exported from the United States to other destination countries, annually from 1913 to 1940. We model the rise of US automobile from global obscurity toward a level dependent upon the extent of long-run pass-through of US prices into destination markets and destination GDP per capita. The results based on a diffusion model with CES preferences and non-unitary income elasticity shows that 62% of the gap in diffusion levels between the U.S. and the rest of the world is due to price frictions such as markups, tariffs, and trade costs, while the remaining 38% is due to income effects. |
| JEL: | F1 L62 N60 N70 O33 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26121&r=all |
| By: | Monnet, Eric |
| Abstract: | Many influential cliometric studies have examined historical interest rates in order to assess investment efficiency, the integration of markets, the economic effects of changes in policies or institutions, the sources of macroeconomic cycles, and so on. The common feature of this approach to economic history is that it is based on the crucial assumption that interest rates are the market prices at which demand meets supply. In this perspective, most debates focus on how to calculate yields or compare different rates of return on capital. Cliometricians developed innovative methods to construct yields and lending rates that were not specified in historical sources. It is only quite recently that economic historians have turned to cases where interest rates are not market-clearing prices. In such cases, there is little connection between interest rates and the state of the economy. Highlighting market imperfections, some recent studies have challenged earlier historical interpretations that overlooked the potential disconnection between prices (interest rates) and quantities. They offer new insights into the historical functioning of credit markets, central banking and government intervention in financial systems. |
| Keywords: | central bank; interest rates; market clearing (rationing); usury law; yield |
| JEL: | E4 N1 N2 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13896&r=all |
| By: | Muller, Christopher |
| Abstract: | A large theoretical literature in sociology connects increasing rates of incarceration to contractions in the labor market. But evidence for the economic causes of incarceration is mixed. We use a shock to the southern agricultural labor market to study the political economy of incarceration in the U.S. South in the early twentieth century. From 1915 to 1920, a beetle called the boll weevil spread across the state of Georgia, causing cotton yields and the prevalence of tenant farming to fall. Using archival records of incarceration in Georgia, we find that the boll weevil infestation increased the rate at which African Americans were admitted to prison for property crimes. The effects for whites and for prison admissions for homicide were much smaller and not statistically significant. |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences, CRIMINAL JUSTICE, GENDER AND RACE, UNEMPLOYMENT AND LAYOFFS |
| Date: | 2019–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:indrel:qt0758z6m3&r=all |
| By: | Ellison, Martin; Sargent, Thomas J; Scott, Andrew |
| Abstract: | Britain was the richest country in the world at the outbreak of the Great War, benefitting from all the resources of an industrialised country and a large empire. Funding the war contributed to the beginning of the end for British hegemony. Financiers in London extracted a high price for lending their money to the government to pay for the supplies and munitions needed to win the war. The US extracted a similarly high price for lending to Britain during the war. Russia never paid its war debts to Britain; France, Italy and Belgium got off lightly; but for a long time the US insisted on Britain repaying in full. |
| Keywords: | British Hegemony; National Debt; World War I |
| JEL: | N24 N44 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13848&r=all |
| By: | Harris Dellas (University of Bern); George Tavlas (Bank of Greece) |
| Abstract: | Lloyd Mints has long been considered a peripheral figure in the development of monetary economics at the University of Chicago. We provide evidence showing that the standard assessment of Mints’s standing in Chicago monetary economics -- and in American monetary economics more broadly -- is mistaken. In light of the originality and the breadth of his monetary contributions, and given the degree to which those contributions shaped part of Milton Friedman’s monetary framework and were pushed forward by Friedman, we argue that, far from being a peripheral figure in the development of Chicago monetary economics, Mints played a catalytic role. |
| Keywords: | Lloyd Mints; Milton Friedman; monetarism; Chicago monetary tradition |
| JEL: | B22 E52 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bog:wpaper:264&r=all |
| By: | Tomihiro Machikita (Center for South East Asia Studies (CSEAS), Kyoto University); Tetsuji Okazaki (Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how political, social, and economic regime changes affect the lifecycles of man-ufacturing plants exploiting Japan's transition from a feudal regime to a modern regime in the late nineteenth century as a natural experiment. Using plant-level data for 1902, including the foundation year of each plant, we explored how the experience-size profiles of plants differ before and after the regime change. Plants were found to grow much faster after the regime change and the accelerationof growth after the regime change was much greater for the plants in exporting industries, industries intensively using steam power, and plants adopting a corporate form. These findings suggest that access to export markets, access to modern technologies, and availability of the modern corporate form were the channels through which the regime change affected the experience-size profile ofplants. The findings on the acceleration of plant growth after the regime change are supported by the analyses of more detailed data from the silk-reeling industry. |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tky:fseres:2019cf1122&r=all |
| By: | Dellas, Harris; Tavlas, George |
| Abstract: | Lloyd Mints has long been considered a peripheral figure in the development of monetary economics at the University of Chicago. We provide evidence showing that the standard assessment of Mints's standing in Chicago monetary economics -- and in American monetary economics more broadly -- is mistaken. In light of the originality and the breadth of his monetary contributions, and given the degree to which those contributions shaped part of Milton Friedman's monetary framework and were pushed forward by Friedman, we argue that, far from being a peripheral figure in the development of Chicago monetary economics, Mints played a catalytic role. |
| Keywords: | Chicago monetary tradition; Lloyd Mints; Milton Friedman; Monetarism |
| JEL: | B22 E52 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13858&r=all |
| By: | Jarotschkin, Alexandra; Zhuravskaya, Ekaterina |
| Abstract: | We study horizontal between-group cultural transmission using a unique historical setting, which combines exogenous group exposure with no control over how and whether the representatives of different groups interact. Stalin's ethnic deportations during WWII moved over 2 million people, the majority of whom were ethnic Germans and Chechens, from the Western parts of the USSR to Central Asia and Siberia. As a result, the native population in the destination locations was exposed to groups with drastically different gender norms, depending on the group composition of the deportees. We estimate the effect of this exposure relying on the fact that within subnational regions the local population was fairly homogeneous, and the deportation destinations were determined by local demand for manual labor, orthogonal to the identity or skills of deportees. Combining historical archival data with contemporary surveys, we document that both the norms of gender equality and of gender discrimination were diffused to the local population exposed to deportee groups with these norms, manifesting itself in changes of attitudes and behavior. |
| Keywords: | Deportations; Gender norms; Horizontal cultural transmission; Stalin |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13865&r=all |
| By: | Belke, Ansgar; Volz, Ulrich |
| Abstract: | Since the demise of the Bretton Woods system, the yen has seen several episodes of strong appreciation, including in the late 1970s, after the 1985 Plaza Agreement, the early and late 1990s and after 2008. These appreciations have not only been associated with “expensive yen recessions” resulting from negative effects on exports; since the late 1980s, the strong yen has also raised concerns about a de-industrialisation of the Japanese economy. Against this backdrop, the paper investigates the effects of changes to the yen exchange rate on the hollowing out of the Japanese industrial sector. To this end, the paper uses both aggregate and industry-specific data to gauge the effects of yen fluctuations on the output and exports of different Japanese industries, exploiting new data for industry-specific real effective exchange rates. Our findings support the view that the periods of yen appreciation had more than just transitory effects on Japanese manufacturing. The results also provide indication of hysteresis effects on manufacturing. While there are certainly also other factors that have contributed to a hollowing out of Japanese industry, a strong yen played a role, too. |
| Keywords: | Yen appreciation,exchange rates,Japanese manufacturing,hollowing out,hysteresis |
| JEL: | F31 O14 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:380&r=all |
| By: | Daniel M. Thompson; James J. Feigenbaum; Andrew B. Hall; Jesse Yoder |
| Abstract: | We link future members of Congress to the de-anonymized 1940 census to offer a uniquely detailed analysis of how economically unrepresentative American politicians were in the 20th century, and why. Future members under the age of 18 in 1940 grew up in households with parents who earned more than twice as much as the population average and who were more than 6 times as likely as the general population to hold college degrees. However, compared to siblings who did not become politicians, future members of Congress between the ages of 18 and 40 in 1940 were higher-earners and more educated, indicating that socioeconomic background alone does not explain the differences between politicians and non-politicians. Examining a smaller sample of candidates that includes non-winners, we find that the candidate pool is much higher-earning and more educated than the general population. At the same time, among the candidate pool, elections advantage candidates with higher earnings ability and education. We conclude that barriers to entry likely deter a more economically representative candidate pool, but that electoral advantages for more-educated individuals with more private-sector success also play an important role. |
| JEL: | H10 H70 N32 |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26156&r=all |
| By: | Michael D. Bordo; Edward S. Prescott |
| Abstract: | The decentralized structure of the Federal Reserve System is evaluated as a mechanism for generating and processing new ideas on monetary and financial policy. The role of the Reserve Banks starting in the 1960s is emphasized. The introduction of monetarism in the 1960s, rational expectations in the 1970s, credibility in the 1980s, transparency, and other monetary policy ideas by Reserve Banks into the Federal Reserve System is documented. Contributions by Reserve Banks to policy on bank structure, bank regulation, and lender of last resort are also discussed. We argue that the Reserve Banks were willing to support and develop new ideas due to internal reforms to the FOMC that Chairman William McChesney Martin implemented in the 1950s. Furthermore, the Reserve Banks were able to succeed at this because of their private-public governance structure, a structure set up in 1913 for a highly decentralized Federal Reserve System, but which survived the centralization of the System in the Banking Act of 1935. We argue that this role of the Reserve Banks is an important benefit of the Federal Reserve’s decentralized structure by allowing for more competition in ideas and reducing groupthink. |
| JEL: | B0 E58 G28 H1 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26098&r=all |
| By: | David (David Patrick) Madden |
| Abstract: | This article provides a broad overview of published research in the Economic and Social Review (ESR) in the broad areas of fiscal policy. It examines the patterns of publications and citations over time, those sub-areas which have seen the highest rate of publication and the nature of the data and techniques employed. The broad patterns which have emerged are that micro policy articles have increased in importance over the years with the availability of better quality data. Macro policy analysis remains important and has often concentrated upon episodes of fiscal crisis. In terms of citations, those papers which have been most heavily cited are overview papers, sometimes delivered by international scholars as invited presentations. There also seems to be a slight bias towards more recent publications with much work from the 1970s and 1980s largely ignored in terms of citations. |
| Keywords: | Fiscal policy; Review |
| JEL: | H2 H5 H6 |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201917&r=all |
| By: | Piglia, Melina; Lanari, María Estela; Morea, Alejandro Hernán; Cutuli, Romina |
| Abstract: | Desde las primeras configuraciones estatales en lo que hoy es el territorio argentino a principios del siglo XIX, hasta la actualidad, la forma que ha ido adoptando el Estado, la configuración de sus burocracias, agentes estatales y el desarrollo de políticas públicas estuvo enmarcada y condicionada por las opciones que ofrecía la economía capitalista para el desarrollo y las elecciones tomadas por los actores locales en pos de la adopción de determinados modelos de acumulación. Nuestra investigación busca dar cuenta del proceso de conformación del Estado Argentino en los siglos XIX y XX, a partir de la lectura de las políticas públicas y de las instituciones en la que se expresaron las estructuras de poder. En primer término, hemos atendido al papel de las corporaciones tales como las Fuerzas Armadas, la Iglesia y las entidades y sociedades económicas, analizando en especial las tensiones que estas provocaron en el proceso de construcción estatal. Estudiamos en particular los comienzos de la burocracia estatal y sus vínculos con el proceso de territorialización a través del desarrollo de la Secretaría de Culto y la de Guerra desde 1810 y hasta 1880 con el fin de observar dos vértices distintivos del poder: la ascendente profesionalización del clero católico y de los oficiales del ejército. En segundo lugar, hemos estudiado algunos aspectos de la política pública del siglo XX en la Argentina, buscando indagar cuestiones como las tensiones dentro del aparato estatal, los efectos sobre la construcción de territorio y la construcción de burocracias técnicas. Así, nos hemos concetrado en dos tipos muy diferentes de políticas: la política de transporte -a través de análisis de la política aérea comercial- y las políticas laborales y de seguridad social. En el primer caso, nos ha interesado en particular dar cuenta delos efectos territoriales y de las tensiones dentro del aparato estatal alrededor de la política área y de las empresas de aeronavegación comercial (entre civiles y militares, entre diferentes ramas de las FFAA, entre el Estado Nacional y provincias). En el segundo, hemos procurado iluminar el proceso de consolidación estatal a través del estudio del derrotero de la normativa laboral en Argentina en el siglo XX (en particular de la intervención del Estado en el proceso de construcción y desestructuración del "estatuto del salariado") y del de las políticas de seguridad social. |
| Keywords: | Estado; Capitalismo; Historia Económica; Argentina; |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nmp:nuland:3181&r=all |
| By: | Eric Monnet; Miklos Vari |
| Abstract: | This paper explores what history can tell us about the interactions between macroprudential and monetary policy. Based on numerous historical documents, we show that liquidity ratios similar to the Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) were commonly used as monetary policy tools by central banks between the 1930s and 1980s. We build a model that rationalizes the mechanisms described by contemporary central bankers, in which an increase in the liquidity ratio has contractionary effects, because it reduces the quantity of assets banks can pledge as collateral. This effect, akin to quantity rationing, is more pronounced when excess reserves are scarce. |
| Date: | 2019–08–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:19/176&r=all |
| By: | Eliçabe, Natalia |
| Abstract: | La vida y la obra de Ruy Mauro Marini, resultan un claro ejemplo de la militancia intelectual que protagonizó una de las etapas de mayor producción teórica y debate político en la historia de América Latina. Además de reunir muchas de las ideas que se venían debatiendo entre intelectuales y movimientos políticos, en Dialéctica de la dependencia (1973), Marini crea una teoría original, que explica el capitalismo dependiente en América Latina y termina de formar la teoría marxista de la dependencia. Su obra fue ampliamente reconocida y criticada. Cinco años después de la publicación de Dialéctica de la Dependencia, Fernando Henrique Cardoso y José Serra publican Desventuras de la Dialéctica de la Dependencia, una crítica sistemática al trabajo de Marini, quien no duda en replicar, publicando Las Razones del Neodesarrollismo. En el siguiente ensayo se realiza un desarrollo sobre la vida y obra de Marini, la transformación de las ideas de la época, y en particular se analiza el debate entre Ruy Mauro Marini y Fernando Henrique Cardoso y José Serra, comprendiéndolo como un debate académico pero que se configura como una discusión política ideológica sobre los desafíos de América Latina. |
| Keywords: | Dependencia Económica; Pensamiento Económico; América Latina; |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nmp:nuland:3189&r=all |
| By: | Marilia Nepomuceno (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Cássio Turra |
| Abstract: | - |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2019-015&r=all |
| By: | Lacroix, Jean; Méon, Pierre-Guillaume; Oosterlinck, Kim |
| Abstract: | The literature on political dynasties in democracies usually considers them as a homogenous group and points out their negative effects. By contrast, we argue that they may differ according to their origin and that democratic dynasties â??â?? those whose founder was a defender of democratic ideals â??â?? show stronger support for democracy. This claim is backed by an analysis of the vote by the French parliament on July 10, 1940, of an enabling act granting full power to Marshal Philippe Pétain, thereby ending the Third Republic. Using newly collected data from the biographies of the members of the then parliament, we observe that members of a democratic dynasty were more likely, by a margin of between 7.6 and 9.0 percentage points, to oppose the act than were members of other political dynasties or elected representatives belonging to no political dynasty. We report suggestive evidence showing that the effect of democratic dynasties was possibly driven by internalized democratic norms and beliefs. |
| Keywords: | Autocratic reversals; democratic dynasties; voting behavior; World War II |
| JEL: | D72 H89 N44 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13871&r=all |
| By: | Ianni, Juan Martin |
| Abstract: | A partir de la década del 1970, el capitalismo mutó hacia un modelo de acumulación "financierizado". Para legitimar y profundizar su configuración, el Nuevo Consenso Macroeconómico se instauró como paradigma teórico, propiciando el surgimiento y la propagación de los regímenes de Metas de Inflación, como aparato conceptual y, sobre todo, orientador de la política antiinflacionaria. Estos regímenes consideran a la inflación como una consecuencia exclusiva de excesos de demanda agregada, en contraposición con la evidencia empírica (la cual resalta la naturaleza multicausal del fenómeno inflacionario) y teórica (provista por distintas escuelas económicas). Este trabajo tiene como objetivo principal analizar cuáles fueron las políticas alternativas que se aplicaron para controlar la inflación en América Latina y los resultados obtenidos luego de su implementación en el período 1960-1990. Los resultados indican que no hay evidencia suficiente para sostener que políticas monetarias y fiscales contractivas sean condición sine qua non para lograr disminuir la inflación, contrariamente a lo que la mayoría de la literatura teórica sostiene. A su vez, los planes de estabilización híbridos -PEH- fueron más efectivos y eficaces en el aplacamiento del fenómeno inflacionario, lo cual provee evidencia de su mejor consistencia con las particularidades del fenómeno inflacionario para América Latina. |
| Keywords: | Financiarización; Inflación; Política Económica; Teoría de la Regulación; América Latina; |
| Date: | 2019–02–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nmp:nuland:3149&r=all |
| By: | Anke Becker |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the origins and function of customs aimed at restricting women’s sexuality, such as a particularly invasive form of female genital cutting, restrictions on women’s freedom of mobility, and norms about their sexual behavior. The analysis tests the anthropological theory that a particular form of pre-industrial subsistence – pastoralism – favored the adoption of such customs. Pastoralism was characterized by heightened paternity uncertainty due to frequent and often extended periods of male absence from the settlement, implying larger payoffs to imposing restrictions on women’s sexuality. Using within-country variation across 500,000 women in 34 countries, the paper shows that women from historically more pastoral societies (i) are significantly more likely to have undergone infibulation, the most invasive form of female genital cutting; (ii) adhere to more restrictive norms about women’s promiscuity; (iii) are more restricted in their freedom of mobility. Instrumental variable estimations that make use of the ecological determinants of pastoralism support a causal interpretation of the results. The paper further shows that the mechanism behind these patterns is indeed male absence, rather than male dominance, per se, or historical economic development. |
| Keywords: | infibulation, female sexuality, paternity uncertainty, concern about women’s chastity |
| JEL: | I15 N30 Z13 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7770&r=all |
| By: | Jaime Bonet-Morón; Diana Ricciulli-Marín |
| Abstract: | Los estudios de caso sobre desarrollo urbano en Colombia se han concentrado en dos de las ciudades más pobladas: Bogotá y Medellín (Salazar, 2007; Beuf, 2012). Mientras tanto, el éxito en la planificación de otras ciudades con menor población ha sido menos visible. Este es el caso de Valledupar en la región del Caribe: a pesar de que ha sido destacado como un proceso exitoso de planificación urbana (Rojas y Daughters, 1998; Maldonado, 2004), permanece en gran parte sin explorar. El objetivo de este documento es reconstruir las diferentes etapas de la planificación urbana en Valledupar utilizando cartografía, archivos históricos, periódicos, entrevistas, documentos e imágenes. El período analizado abarca desde principios del siglo XX hasta las primeras décadas del siglo XXI. En su conjunto, la experiencia de Valledupar señala la importancia de formular y hacer cumplir los planes de desarrollo urbano. Igualmente, destaca el fortalecimiento institucional como un aspecto clave para el progreso local. **** ABSTRACT: The majority of studies on urban development in Colombia have concentrated in two of the biggest cities: Bogotá and Medellín (Salazar, 2007; Beuf, 2012). Meanwhile, the success of other smaller cities remains less visible. This is the case of Valledupar in the Colombian Caribbean region: although it has been highlighted by many authors as a case of successful urban planning, it remains largely unexplored (Rojas y Daughters, 1998; Maldonado, 2004). The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the different stages of urban planning in Valledupar using cartography, historical archives, newspapers, interviews, documents, and images. The period analyzed comprises from the beginning of the twentieth century to the first decades of the twenty-first century. In the aggregate, the experience of Valledupar points out the importance of formulating and enforcing urban development plans. In addition, strengthening of institutions appear to be of outmost importance for local progress. |
| Keywords: | Planificación urbana, desarrollo local, Colombia, Valledupar, Urban planning, local development, Colombia, Valledupar |
| JEL: | H70 N96 R58 |
| Date: | 2019–08–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000101:017370&r=all |
| By: | Alain Burlaud (LIRSA - Laboratoire interdisciplinaire de recherche en sciences de l'action - CNAM - Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers [CNAM]) |
| Date: | 2019–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02187668&r=all |
| By: | Gabriel J. Felbermayr; Constantinos Syropoulos; Erdal Yalcin; Yoto V. Yotov |
| Abstract: | Using a new, global data base covering the years 1950 to 2015, we study the impact of sanctions on international trade and welfare. We make use of the rich dimensionality of our data and of the latest developments in the structural gravity literature. Starting with a broad evaluation by sanction type, we carefully investigate the case of Iran. Effects are significant but also widely heterogeneous across sanctioning countries. Moreover, they depend on the direction of trade. We also perform a counterfactual analysis which translates our partial equilibrium sanction estimates into heterogeneous but intuitive general equilibrium effects within the same framework. |
| Keywords: | sanctions, effectiveness of sanctions, structural gravity |
| JEL: | F10 F13 F14 F50 F51 H50 N40 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7728&r=all |