|
on Business, Economic and Financial History |
|
Issue of 2019‒11‒04
thirty-two papers chosen by |
| By: | William J. Collins; Ariell Zimran |
| Abstract: | Whether immigrants advance in labor markets relative to natives as they gain experience is a fundamental question in the economics of immigration. For the US, it has been difficult to answer this question for the period when the immigration rate was at its historical peak, between the 1840s and 1920s. We develop new datasets of linked census records for foreign- and native-born men in 1850-80 and 1900-30. We find that for the nineteenth century cohort, there is evidence of substantial “catching up” by immigrants in terms of occupational status, but for the twentieth century cohort there is not. These changes do not reflect the shift in source countries from Northern and Western Europe to Southern and Eastern Europe. Instead, we find that natives had advantages in upgrading relative to immigrants conditional on initial occupation in both periods, but that by 1900, natives were less concentrated than previously in jobs with low upward mobility (farming) and more concentrated in jobs with lower initial status but higher upward mobility. The difference in assimilation over time is thus rooted in a sizable change in native men’s occupational distribution between 1850 and 1900. These results revise the oversimplified but influential view that historical immigrants “worked their way up” in the American labor market. |
| JEL: | J61 J62 N11 N12 N13 N14 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26414&r=all |
| By: | Michael Fritsch (Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany); Korneliusz Pylak (Maria Curie Skłodowska University of Lublin, Poland); Michael Wyrwich (University of Groningen, The Netherlands, and Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Persistence of entrepreneurship over longer periods of time could indicate a culture of entrepreneurship among the local population that may be an important factor for regional development, but does persistence of economic activity require cultural transmission? We exploit the diverse historical developments in the territory that is Poland today to analyze the level and the sources of persistence from the 1920s until today. Persistence is mainly found in those regions that were part of Germany before World War II. This persistence is noticeable despite the exchange of most of the pre-war population, ruling out that persistence is driven by transmission of culture. In most regions that were already part of Poland before World War II, the relationship between historical and current levels of entrepreneurship is not significant. Persistence of entrepreneurship is related to the historical success of regions, which we capture by the pre-war level of and self-employment in manufacturing industries, particularly in those that can be regarded as knowledge intensive. Our main conclusion is that persistence of entrepreneurship requires a certain level of successful economic development that we capture by the degree of industrialization in the early 20th century, but it does not necessarily require persistence of the local population. |
| Keywords: | Persistence, entrepreneurship, self-employment |
| JEL: | L26 M13 O1 O18 R11 |
| Date: | 2019–06–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2019-003&r=all |
| By: | Nicolas Degive; Kim Oosterlinck |
| Abstract: | “Sovereign” bonds issued by colonies are often supposed to benefit from an implicit imperial guarantee. This guarantee is usually presented as the main reason why yields on colonial bonds are exceptionally low. This paper investigates investors’ perception of this guarantee during the interwar period, a period during which some guarantors faced financial turmoil and some colonies began their journey towards independence. On the basis of an original database tracking the yields of six colonial bonds we show that, in general, market participants believed the guarantee would be honored. This general observation needs however to be nuanced. In 1931 when Britain left the gold standard, investors felt the British guarantee was less valuable. Furthermore when colonies were facing extreme financial distress markets reassessed the likelihood the guarantee would be honored. This was also the case when it became clear that India would become independent. |
| Keywords: | Sovereign Debt; British Empire; Colonial borrowing; Independence |
| JEL: | N24 N40 N45 |
| Date: | 2019–10–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/294694&r=all |
| By: | James J. Feigenbaum; Hui Ren Tan |
| Abstract: | What was the return to education in the United States at mid-century? In 1940, the correlation between years of schooling and earnings was relatively low, less than it had been in 1915 or than it would be in later decades. In this paper, we estimate the causal return to schooling in 1940, constructing a large linked sample of twin brothers to account for differences in unobserved ability and family background. Though imperfect, the twins identification strategy allows us to compare the return to education to recent studies implemented similarly. We find that the return to education was relatively low in 1940, with each additional year of schooling increasing labor earnings by approximately 4%. Returns to education were evident both within and across occupations and were higher for sons born to lower SES families. |
| JEL: | J2 J3 N3 N32 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26407&r=all |
| By: | Neboj?a Jani?ijevi? (University of Belgrade, Faculty of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Institutional theory of organizations, population ecology theory and organizational culture theory are three newer theories that represent alternative and challenge to rationalistic and objectivistic research paradigm in the theory of organization. After a relatively long period in which rationalist and objectivist theories of organizations prevailed, during the second half of the twentieth century three theories emerged that explained the structuring and functioning of organizations from a completely opposite viewpoint. From the 1950s to the 1970s, the dominant theoretical explanation of the structure and processes of all organization types, especially business organizations, was based on the assumption that objective factors and the rationality of decision makers had an impact on organizations. Thus, the contingency theory of organizations explained that the structuring and functioning of organizations resulted from the impact of objective, external factors (contingencies) such as environment, technology, stage of an organization?s life cycle and strategies. The process of organizations? structuring and of shaping the processes within them was treated as a rational decision-making process, in which the organization?s leader played a key role. The result of such an approach is a configurational perspective of organizations, according to which the organizational structure is actually a configuration of internally consistent components that are congruent to external factors. However, since the 1980s, three very interesting theories have emerged, representing an antipode to the prevailing rationalist and objectivist theories: institutional theory of organizations, population ecology theory and organizational culture theory. All three theories explain the structuring and shaping of processes within organizations in terms of interpretivism and social interactions, and not rational decision making. Unlike the rationalist and objectivist theories of organizations, the organizational culture theory, population ecology theory and institutional theory of organizations, find the ultimate source of organizational structure and functioning in the meaning of the reality that has been socially constructed. The process of organizational structuring is, in all three theories, a subjective process of creating meanings through social interactions. Accordingly, the focus of the institutional, population ecology and cultural theories of organizations is no longer as much on formal organizational structure, as was the case with the contingency theory of organizations, as it is on behavioral patterns, regularities in organizational functioning and the models of interaction within organizations. |
| Keywords: | OrganizationContingency theoryInstitutional theoryPopulation ecologyOrganizational culture |
| JEL: | M10 M14 |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:9110846&r=all |
| By: | Ricardo Robledo Hernández (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain) |
| Abstract: | Se cumple el medio siglo de Agrarian Reform de Malefakis (1932-2016) y cualquier estudioso no solo de la cuestión agraria sino de la conflictividad sociopolítica o de la historia económica del siglo XX no puede dejar de lado esta obra que supera las fronteras de la historia agraria. El documento -entre la historia intelectual, la historia agraria y la economía política - desarrolla los siguientes aspectos. Primero se describe la adscripción de Malefakis al “campo” de la historiografía conservadora, dado el contexto académico-político del momento. En segundo lugar, se analizan algunas de las principales influencias que tuvo el autor y cómo repercutieron en la explicación de la conflictividad o en los orígenes de la guerra civil. El tercer apartado, de carácter más historiográfico, explora algunas de las conexiones entre latifundismo, democracia y guerra civil. El epílogo recoge algunas de las conclusiones añadiendo algún argumento de tipo metodológico y conexiones con el contexto de la Segunda República española. |
| Keywords: | Segunda República, Guerra Civil, Desigualdad económica, Élites agrarias, Democratización, Latifundismo |
| JEL: | A14 N24 N44 O15 P11 Q15 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1914&r=all |
| By: | Neil Cummins; Cormac Ó Gráda |
| Abstract: | The role of skills and human capital during England’s Industrial Revolution is the subject of an old but still ongoing debate. This paper contributes to the debate by assessing the artisanal skills of watchmakers and watch tool makers in southwest Lancashire in the eighteenth century and their links to apprenticeship. The flexibility of the training regime and its evolution are discussed, as is the decline of the industry. |
| Keywords: | Apprenticeship; Industrial Revolution |
| JEL: | N00 N33 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201924&r=all |
| By: | Silvia Timofti (Faculty of Economic Sciences and Public Administration, Law specialization from Suceava, Romania) |
| Abstract: | From the earliest times, the religious factor has said its word on several social systems. The social factor has been of great importance and relevance to the social construction of the communities as well as to the regulation of the various institutions I have chosen the ones that represent the interests of society. Among these institution is adoption, being one of the oldest law institutions. Adoption is a social phenomenon that has undergone changes that have been inevitable and a breakthrough in the turn of the century. This form of social protection of children, adoption, played a particularly important role in antiquity especially in the institutions of the Jews, the Assyrians, the Greeks, the Indians and the Romans, because the adopted person was perceived as the one to represent the perpetuation of the religious and political interests of the people, after the persons who approached the children died. |
| Keywords: | adoption, adrogation, family, the system of adoption, social protection |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:epaper:032st&r=all |
| By: | Bindler, Anna (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Hjalmarsson, Randi (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University) |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates how the introduction of professional police forces affected crime using two natural experiments in history: the 1829 formation of the London Metropolitan Police (the first police force ever tasked with deterring crime) and the 1839 to 1856 county roll-out of forces in England and Wales. The London Met analysis relies on two complementary data sources. The first, trial data with geocoded crime locations, allows for a difference-indifferences estimation that finds a significant and persistent reduction in robbery but not homicide or burglary. A pre-post analysis of the second source, daily police reports of both cleared and uncleared crime incidents, finds a significant reduction in all violent crimes but offsetting changes in uncleared (decrease) and cleared (increase) property crimes. These (local) reductions in crime are not just due to crime displacement but represent true decreases in overall crime. Difference-in-difference analyses of the county roll-out find that only sufficiently large forces, measured by the population to force ratio, significantly reduced crime. The results are robust to controlling for spill-over effects of neighboring forces. |
| Keywords: | police; crime; deterrence; economic history; institutions |
| JEL: | H00 K42 N93 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0779&r=all |
| By: | Nicolas End; Marina Marinkov; Fedor Miryugin |
| Abstract: | We construct a new, comprehensive instrument-level database of sovereign debt for 18 advanced and emerging countries over the period 1913–46. The database contains data on amounts outstanding for some 3,800 individual debt instruments as well as associated qualitative information, including instrument type, coupon rate, maturity, and currency of issue. This information can provide unique insights into various policies implemented in the interwar period, which was characterized by notoriously high debt levels. We document how interwar governments rolled over debts that were largely unsustainable and how the external public debt network contributed to the collapse of the international financial system in the early 1930s. |
| Date: | 2019–10–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:19/226&r=all |
| By: | Jeremy Greenwood; Nezih Guner; Karen A. Kopecky |
| Abstract: | The 19th and 20th centuries saw a transformation in contraceptive technologies and their take up. This led to a sexual revolution, which witnessed a rise in premarital sex and out-of-wedlock births, and a decline in marriage. The impact of contraception on married and single life is analyzed here both theoretically and quantitatively. The analysis is conducted using a model where people search for partners. Upon finding one, they can choose between abstinence, marriage, and a premarital sexual relationship. The model is confronted with some stylized facts about premarital sex and marriage over the course of the 20th century. Some economic history is also presented. |
| JEL: | D1 E13 J1 J12 J13 N11 N12 O33 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26410&r=all |
| By: | Pawel Bukowski; Filip Novokmet |
| Abstract: | How has inequality in Poland evolved between communism and capitalism to reach one of the highest levels in Europe today? Pawel Bukowski and Filip Novokmet chart a century of data on Polish inequality, 1892-2015, to examine the key causes. Their work illustrates the central role of policies and institutions in shaping long-run inequality. |
| Keywords: | income inequality, transformation, poland |
| JEL: | D31 E01 J3 N34 |
| Date: | 2019–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepcnp:562&r=all |
| By: | Morgan Kelly; Cormac Ó Gráda; Peter Solar |
| Abstract: | Shipping was central to the rise of the Atlantic economies, but an extremely hazardous activity: in the 1780s, roughly five per cent of British ships sailing in summer for the United States never returned. Against the widespread belief that shipping technology was stagnant before iron steamships, in this paper we demonstrate that between the 1780s and 1820s, a safety revolution occurred that saw shipping losses and insurance rates on oceanic routes almost halved thanks to steady improvements in shipbuilding and navigation. Iron reinforcing led to stronger vessels while navigation improved, not through chronometers which remained too expensive and unreliable for general use, but through radically improved charts, accessible manuals of basic navigational techniques, and improved shore-based navigational aids. |
| Keywords: | Shipping; Insurance; Industrial Revolution |
| JEL: | N N73 G22 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:10197/11167&r=all |
| By: | Joel J.T. Young (Global Center for Advanced Studies: College Dublin, IE) |
| Abstract: | Over the last several decades, academic theology in America has seen a resurgence of interest in the 20th century German-speaking theological movement known as “dialectical theology.†While primarily focusing on the theology of Swiss Reformed theologian, Karl Barth, there has also been a revival of curiosity in Barth’s academic rival, Rudolf Bultmann, who cultivated the controversial program of “demythologization.†Though the recovery of Bultmann’s work in English-speaking circles is historically valuable to our understanding of how modern theology progressed, the question still stands as to how it might aid our dialogue in an increasingly pluralistic world. Unpacking one such opportunity is the aim of this paper. Through dialogue with the Zen Buddhism of Thich Nhat Hanh, I show how different contours of Bultmann’s thought can aid us in understanding and approaching interreligious discourse through hermeneutical consistencies and resemblance. While this paper discusses several different aspects of Bultmann’s and Nhat Hanh’s religious thought, the consistencies and resemblance between the two individual thinkers are, no doubt, emblematic of greater Familienähnlichkeit between their respective faith traditions – a topic to be taken up at a later time. |
| Keywords: | Rudolf Bultmann, Thich Nhat Hanh, Demythologization, Zen Buddhism, Christianity, Dialectical Theology, Hermeneutics, Interreligious Dialogue |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:epaper:030jt&r=all |
| By: | TAKAHASHI Wataru |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses Japan's monetary policy during the Heisei Period (1989–2019), an era of roughly 30 years that included the boost and bursting of the bubble economy and the subsequent deflationary period. In doing so, in addition to focusing on points of dispute regarding the individual unconventional monetary policies that began about 20 years ago and continue today, it also will discuss monetary discipline, inflation targeting, and their relationship to fiscal policy. Lastly, it will discuss the role that should be taken by the Bank of Japan as an independent central bank in changing environments. Monetary discipline means making the best use of market mechanisms to manage monetary policy. It has the features of adopting competitive bidding, limiting the purchase of assets for market operation to short- term government debt, and minimizing the size of central bank assets. Although central banks have traditionally emphasized this type of discipline, unconventional monetary policy is the process of loosening the constraints of monetary policy. Japan is typical. The current monetary policy, Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing (QQE), has not achieved its targets after six years of operation. This is mainly due to the stagnant growth potential of the economy. The former discussion of central bank independence in controlling inflation in the 1990s no longer makes sense in the current environment. As an independent agency, the central bank is expected to check government economic policies from a non-political and longer-term standpoint than government agencies. |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:19055&r=all |
| By: | Iveta Polaskova; Lubos Komarek; Michal Skoda |
| Abstract: | This paper is devoted to the monetary policy context of gold in central banks' reserves. It examines the correlation between the nominal and real price of gold and selected macroeconomic variables and financial assets over the financial and business cycles. In this context, it analyses the investment diversification opportunity that gold offers central banks and other investors. The paper also highlights differences in gold holdings between the central banks of advanced economies (including those with reserve currencies) and those of emerging market and developing economies. It goes on to outline the history of gold holdings from the establishment of the independent Czechoslovakia at the end of 1918 to the present day. It concludes by presenting the rationale for the position of the CNB, which ranks among the modern central banks holding minimal amounts of reserve gold. |
| Keywords: | Central bank, gold, international monetary system, international reserves |
| JEL: | E42 E58 F33 Q31 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cnb:rpnrpn:2019/01&r=all |
| By: | Carsten Hefeker |
| Abstract: | Germany prides itself in having one of the most successful central banks and currencies with respect to independence and stability. I show that not only were both imposed on the country after 1945 but that there was also initial resistance to both among German experts and officials. This is a rare case of the successful imposition of institutions from abroad. Events are discussed in light of Peter Bernholz’s requirements for stable money and a successful central bank. |
| Keywords: | currency reform, Bundesbank, central bank independence, institutional reform |
| JEL: | E42 E58 N14 N24 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7892&r=all |
| By: | Rafael Uriarte Ayo (Universidad del País Vasco, Spain) |
| Abstract: | En este trabajo se pretende analizar el proceso de modernización de la flota atunera española y su integración en los mercados globales durante la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Se trata de un sector estratégico en la actual pesquería industrial y que, desde su etapa inicial de desarrollo, en los años sesenta, ha mantenido una significativa presencia en la compleja estructura mundial del sector extractivo y de la industria conservera asociada. Desarrollada inicialmente en el puerto de Bermeo (Vizcaya), la expansión de los modernos atuneros oceánicos, lejos de constituir un hecho fortuito y aislado, forma parte de una dinámica más amplia en la que han intervenido las principales potencias pesqueras del mundo desarrollado y en desarrollo. Un proceso global que se ha extendido en las aguas tropicales del Pacífico, Atlántico e Indico, y que en la actualidad constituye una de las pesquerías más tecnificadas del mundo y de mayor contribución al valor generado en el sector. |
| Keywords: | Atuneros oceánicos, Industria pesquera, Globalización |
| JEL: | Q22 N50 Q13 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1913&r=all |
| By: | Pieter IJtsma; Sherrill Shaffer; Laura Spierdijk |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the effects of banking deregulation on county-level economic growth in the U.S. during the 1970–2000 period. Our main contribution to the literature is that we analyze both the direct and external effects of banking deregulation on local economic growth. For the regions South, West and Northeast, we find significantly positive long-run direct effects of intrastate branching deregulation on the expected growth rates of counties in the deregulated state itself, up to several percentage points. We also establish significantly positive long-run external effects on the expected growth rates of counties adjacent to the deregulated state, up to several tenths of percentage points. We do not find such robust effects for interstate banking deregulation. |
| Keywords: | U.S. banking deregulation, economic growth, externalities |
| JEL: | G21 G28 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:camaaa:2019-80&r=all |
| By: | Hälbig, Mirja C.; Lorenz, Jürgen R. |
| JEL: | D72 N44 Z13 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc19:203618&r=all |
| By: | Ran Abramitzky; Leah Platt Boustan; Elisa Jácome; Santiago Pérez |
| Abstract: | Using millions of father-son pairs spanning more than 100 years of US history, we find that children of immigrants from nearly every sending country have higher rates of upward mobility than children of the US-born. Immigrants’ advantage is similar historically and today despite dramatic shifts in sending countries and US immigration policy. In the past, this advantage can be explained by immigrants moving to areas with better prospects for their children and by “under-placement” of the first generation in the income distribution. These findings are consistent with the “American Dream” view that even poorer immigrants can improve their children’s prospects. |
| JEL: | J15 J61 J62 N30 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26408&r=all |
| By: | Joseph I. Uduji (University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria); Elda N. Okolo-Obasi (University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria) |
| Abstract: | Since the first oil well was drilled in Nigeria, traditional economies have suffered neglect, and rural youths do not see a future for themselves in traditional industries livelihood (TIL). We examine the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) of multinational oil companies (MOCs) on youths’ participation in TIL. A total of 1200 youths were sampled across the rural Niger Delta. Results from the use of a logit model indicate a significant relationship between CSR and TIL. The findings suggest increased general memorandum of understanding (GMoU) interventions in canoe-carving, pottery-making, cloth-weaving, mat-making, and basket-weaving to revive the traditional economic activities in Nigeria. |
| Keywords: | corporate social responsibility; multinational oil companies; rural youths; traditional industries livelihood; logit model; Nigeria |
| JEL: | J43 O40 O55 Q10 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aby:wpaper:19/030&r=all |
| By: | Giuseppe Vitaletti (Università di Viterbo) |
| Abstract: | The history of public finance in Italy is rather complex. In the first place there is the existence of a specific theory, the collective benefit, which is unique in the world. In the second place this theory was internationally very well known. In the third place the theory, in which the imposable basis is structurally internal to a nation, is very interesting now, when the incomes of a nation are also taxed outside its borders. National taxation, however, means the absence of formal progressivity. Nevertheless progressivity may be searched for through different rates on different kinds of income, and by the formal progressivity of social contributions, which are an important national source in all countries. The national bases may be coupled with an effectively international basis, i.e., on interests and on extra-profits. The discussion of the history of public finance thus becomes more compelling. In addition to this School, in Italy there were the Cosciani and Forte Schools, which discussed financial activity in depth, in the latter case also on international standards. Then comes the actual School, which is in no way original, being no different from the rest of world. It is argued that such a School is not even a School, since it depends on Economics, which has become totally insignificant. It is based in fact on the neoclassical theory of decreasing returns, which is not representative, and has abandoned Keynesian theories, when the need for the latter is dramatically evident. |
| Keywords: | the collective benefit school, the national base, the international basis, indirect taxation, actual Schools |
| JEL: | B00 H00 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipu:wpaper:82&r=all |
| By: | Mahmood Seyyed (Central tehran branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran); Mohammad Sepehri (Central tehran branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran) |
| Abstract: | Qajar governments of Naseri and Mozaffari periods, while western countries were developing in the economic fields, investment exporting policy to undeveloped countries, lagged behind others in the domains of agriculture, trade and industry. Regarding this fact and determining its origins, many theories have been presented since that time. Obstructionism in the essence of Qajar state and government's inability to recognize the economic facts and foundations of countries' development, proper cultural basis for social retreat from the world and ultimately the government's submission to Russia's and Britain's colonial policy were among the causes for the lag of country's economy behind the process of development. This article will firstly deal with the economic changes and study of Iran's government in Naseri and Mozaffari periods, then it will refer to the scant measures taken by the government in the domain of economic development which led to a fruitless economy. Thirdly, the article tries to talk about those social layers of the country such as merchants who had significant incentives to stimulate the economic growth in the country. They not only lacked the government's support but faced many obstacles by the state. In the fourth place, we will infer from high rate of bankruptcy, degeneration of domestic traditional industries, conversion of a few trades, some entities, to economy, obvious signs of economic deadlock against development and analyze them. |
| Keywords: | Qajar, Naseri, Mozaffari, privileges, consequences, Russia, Britain |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:9111543&r=all |
| By: | Ana Tomás; Nuno Valério |
| Abstract: | The aim of this working paper is to present an annotated synthesis of the tables appended to the Decree of the 6th November 1836, which made the most important reform of the administrative division of Mainland Portugal ever enacted. |
| Keywords: | Mainland Portugal, administrative history, administrative districts, municipalities, parishes. JEL classification: H70 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ise:gheswp:wp622019&r=all |
| By: | Mukharji, Aroop (Harvard Kennedy School); Zeckhauser, Richard (Harvard Kennedy School) |
| Abstract: | This paper argues that historical analysis, necessarily written with hindsight, often underestimates the uncertainties of the past. We call this tendency explanation bias. This bias leads individuals--including professional historians--to imply greater certainty in causal analyses than the evidence justifies. Their analyses will treat what is plausible to be probable. We offer a few intuitions about why explanation bias exists, its relation to other well-established psychological biases, what it leads to, and how it might be combatted. Appreciating the depth of uncertainty and ignorance in our world is critical for accurately understanding, interpreting, and drawing from the past to illuminate the present and the near future. |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp19-032&r=all |
| By: | Bindler, Anna (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Hjalmarsson, Randi (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University) |
| Abstract: | We document persistent gender gaps favoring females in jury convictions and judge sentences in nearly 200 years of London trials, which are unexplained by case characteristics. We find that three sharp changes in punishment severity locally affected the size and nature of the gaps, but were generally not strong enough to offset their persistence. These local effects suggest a mechanism of taste-based discrimination (paternalism) where the all-male judiciary protected females from the harshest available punishment. |
| Keywords: | gender; gender gap; crime; verdict; sentencing; discrimination; history |
| JEL: | J16 K14 K40 N33 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0780&r=all |
| By: | Wyrwich, Michael |
| JEL: | J16 J22 J23 N34 P25 P30 R23 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc19:203572&r=all |
| By: | Kashi Nath Saha (Jadavpur University, Mechanical Engineering Department) |
| Abstract: | The present paper considers the subject for under graduate engineering students in the Mechanical Engineering Department of Jadavpur University and briefly reports the findings. The changes in the curriculum are tracked for the last 40 years (1978 - 2018) and first a historical account of the engineering softwares, taught during this period, is presented. The under graduate mechanical engineering curriculum first introduced Fortran programming for the final year students. The new curricula, introduced in 1978, were in line with the overall change in the secondary and higher secondary education system of the country. During the first 3-4 years a central main frame Cyber computing system was used and in 1984, the department had arranged an in-house computational laboratory. With gradual development in computational facilities, necessity of introducing a graphics software was felt. However, this was initiated in production specialization, as part of CAD/CAM laboratory. A separate computer aided drafting laboratory was formed in 1992 and later in 1998 the computational and drafting laboratories were integrated. During all these years, Fortran and AutoCAD were taught in the first and second year of the common curricula, and other softwares like MatLab, AutoLisp, Ansys, etc. was used in the final year project work, in stand-alone mode. Afterwards in 1998 another solid modelling software was introduced in third year design sessional subject. By this time, the need of introducing an object oriented software was felt but could not be introduced due to lack of able faculty members. Many elective subjects came up in the new century as elective theory. Subjects like FEM, CFD, CAD, Data Structure, Optimization, etc. were introduced, but all of them suffered due to lack of support from supplementary computer laboratory. Finally in 2018, Fortran has been replaced by C programming language, again in line with the overall change in the under graduate engineering education system of the country. It is expected that future changes in curricula will focus on using object oriented softwares, in the existing subjects. |
| Keywords: | Engineering curriculum, Computational software, Case study. |
| Date: | 2019–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:9110691&r=all |
| By: | Jongkwan Lee; Giovanni Peri; Vasil Yasenov |
| Abstract: | We examine the labor market consequences of an extensive campaign repatriating around 400,000 Mexicans in 1929-34. To identify a causal effect, we instrument county level repatriations with the existence of a railway line to Mexico interacted with the size of the Mexican communities in 1910. Using individual linked data we find that Mexican repatriations reduced employment of native incumbent workers and resulted in their occupational downgrading. However, using a repeated cross section of county level data, we find attenuated and non-significant employment effects and amplified wage downgrading. We show that this is due to selective in- and out-migration of natives. |
| JEL: | J15 J61 N22 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26399&r=all |
| By: | Aman Ullah (Department of Economics, University of California Riverside); Shujie Ma (Department of Statistics, University of California Riverside); Jeffrey Racine (Department of Economics, McMaster University) |
| Abstract: | We consider a B-spline regression approach towards nonparametric modelling of a random effects (error component) model. We focus our attention on the estimation of marginal effects (derivatives) and their asymptotic properties. Theoretical underpinnings are provided, finite-sample performance is evaluated via Monte Carlo simulation, and an application that examines the contribution of different types of public infrastructure on private production is investigated using panel data comprising the 48 contiguous states in the US over the period 1970-1986. |
| JEL: | C14 C23 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucr:wpaper:201920&r=all |
| By: | Donges, Alexander; Selgert, Felix |
| JEL: | D2 K11 L51 N0 O14 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc19:203662&r=all |