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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2020‒03‒23
27 papers chosen by |
| By: | William Lazonick (The Academic-industry Research Network) |
| Abstract: | Edith PenroseÕs 1959 book The Theory of the Growth of the Firm [TGF] provides intellectual foundations for a theory of innovative enterprise, which is essential to any attempt to explain productivity growth, employment opportunity, and income distribution. Properly understood, PenroseÕs theory of the firm is also an antidote to the deception that is foundational to neoclassical economics: The theory, taught by PhD economists to millions upon millions of college students for over seven decades, that the most unproductive firm is the foundation of the most efficient economy. The dissemination of this ``neoclassical fallacy`` to a mass audience of college students began with Paul A. SamuelsonÕs textbook, Economics: An Introductory Analysis, first published in 1948. Over the decades, the neoclassical fallacy has persisted through 18 revisions of Samuelson, Economics and in its countless ``economics principles`` clones. This essay challenges the intellectual hegemony of neoclassical economics by exposing the illogic of its foundational assumptions about how a modern economy functions and performs. The neoclassical fallacy gained popularity in the 1950s, during which decade Samuelson revised Economics three times. Meanwhile, Penrose derived the logic of organizational learning that she lays out in TGF from the facts of firm growth, absorbing what was known in the 1950s about the large corporations that had come to dominate the U.S. economy. Also, during that decade, the knowledge base on the growth of firms on which economists could subsequently draw was undergoing an intellectual revolution, led by the business historian, Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. He was engaged in the first stage of a career that would span more than a half century, during which Chandler documented and analyzed the centrality to U.S economic development of what he would come to call ``the managerial revolution in American business.`` In combination, the works of Penrose and Chandler form intellectual foundations for my own work on the Theory of Innovative EnterpriseÑan endeavor that has enabled me, as an economist, to recognize not only the profound importance of organizational learning for economic theory but also the illogic of the neoclassical theory of the firm for our understanding of the central institution of a modern economy, the business corporation. In this essay, I argue that the key characteristic of the innovative enterprise is fixed-cost investment in the productive capabilities of the companyÕs employees to engage in organizational learning. The purpose of this investment in organizational learning is to develop a higher-quality product than was previously available. When successful, the development of the higher-quality product enables the firm to capture a large extent of the market, transforming high fixed cost into low unit cost. The result is sustainable competitive advantage that enables the growth of the firm, contributing to the growth of the economy as a whole. I argue that to get beyond the neoclassical fallacy, economists have to stop relying on constrained-optimization methodology. Rather, they need to be trained in a ``historical transformation`` methodology that integrates history and theory. It is a methodology in which theory serves as both a distillation of what we have learned from the study of history and a guide to what we need to learn about reality as the ``present as history`` unfolds. |
| Keywords: | Theory of the firm, Penrosian learning, Chandlerian history, innovative enterprise, economic performance, Paul Samuelson, neoclassical fallacy, constrained optimization, historical transformation |
| JEL: | A2 B3 B4 D2 D4 D8 J3 L1 L2 M2 N8 O1 O3 |
| Date: | 2020–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:thk:wpaper:111&r=all |
| By: | Leandro Prados de la Escosura (Universidad Carlos III and CEPR); Carlos Álvarez-Nogal (Universidad Carlos III); Carlos Santiago-Caballero (Universidad Carlos III) |
| Abstract: | Research in economic history has lately challenged the Malthusian depiction of preindustrial European economies, highlighting ‘efflorescences’, ‘Smithian’ and ‘growth recurring’ episodes. Do these defining concepts apply to preindustrial Spain? On the basis of new yearly estimates of output and population for nearly 600 years we show that preindustrial Spain was far from stagnant and phases of per capita growth and shrinkage alternated. Population and output per head evolved along supporting the hypothesis of a frontier economy. After a long phase of sustained and egalitarian growth, a collapse in the 1570s opened a new era of sluggish growth and high inequality. The unintended consequences of imperial ambitions in Europe on economic activity, rather than Malthusian forces, help to explain it. |
| Keywords: | Preindustrial Spain, Frontier economy, Black Death, Malthusian, Growth recurring |
| JEL: | E10 N13 O10 O47 |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0177&r=all |
| By: | Santiago Caballero, Carlos; Prados de la Escosura, Leandro; Álvarez Nogal, Carlos |
| Abstract: | Research in economic history has lately challenged the Malthusian depiction of preindustrial European economies, highlighting 'efflorescences', 'Smithian' and 'growth recurring' episodes. Do these defining concepts apply to preindustrial Spain? On the basis of new yearly estimates of output and population for nearly 600 years we show that preindustrial Spain was far from stagnant and phases of per capita growth and shrinkage alternated. Population and output per head evolved along supporting the hypothesis of a frontier economy. After a long phase of sustained and egalitarian growth, a collapse in the 1570s opened a new era of sluggish growth and high inequality. The unintended consequences of imperial ambitions in Europe on economic activity, rather than Malthusian forces, help to explain it |
| Keywords: | Growth Recurring; Malthusian; Black Death; Frontier Economy; Preindustrial Spain |
| JEL: | O47 O10 N13 E10 |
| Date: | 2020–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:whrepe:29872&r=all |
| By: | Trevon Logan (Ohio State University); Peter Temin (MIT) |
| Abstract: | This paper records the path by which African Americans were transformed from enslaved persons in the American economy to partial participants in the progress of the economy. The path was not monotonic, and we organize our tale by periods in which inclusiveness rose and fell. The history we recount demonstrates the staying power of the myth of black inferiority held by a changing white majority as the economy expanded dramatically. Slavery was outlawed after the Civil War, and blacks began to participate in American politics en masse for the first time during Reconstruction. This process met with white resistance, and black inclusion in the growing economy fell as the Gilded Age followed and white political will for black political participation faded. The Second World War also was followed by prosperity in which blacks were included more fully into the white economy, but still not completely. The Civil Rights Movement proved no more durable than Reconstruction, and blacks lost ground as the 20th century ended in the growth of a New Gilded Age. Resources that could be used to improve the welfare of whites and blacks continue to be spent on the continued repressions of blacks. |
| Keywords: | Economic History, Slaves, Freedmen, Jim Crow, Great Migration |
| JEL: | N31 N32 J15 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:thk:wpaper:110&r=all |
| By: | Maxim L. Pinkovskiy |
| Abstract: | My aim in the second post of this series on Thomas Piketty?s Capital in the Twenty-First Century is to talk about the economist?s research accomplishment in reconstructing capital-output ratios for developed countries from the Industrial Revolution to the present and using them to explain why wealth inequality will rise in developed countries. I will then provide a critical discussion of his interpretation of the history of capital in the developed world. Finally, I?ll end by discussing Piketty?s main policy proposal: the global tax on capital. |
| Keywords: | Piketty; depreciation; capital-output ratio |
| JEL: | E2 R3 N2 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednls:87046&r=all |
| By: | Sergio Correia (Board of Governors); Stephan Luck |
| Abstract: | How does competition among banks affect credit growth and real economic growth? In addition, how does it affect financial stability? In this blog post, we derive insights into this important set of questions from novel data on the U.S. banking system during the nineteenth century. |
| Keywords: | Economic history; banking |
| JEL: | G2 N2 N2 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednls:87351&r=all |
| By: | Luigi Campiglio (Dipartimento di Politica Economica, DISCE, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) |
| Abstract: | Public expenditure, which is the sum of the Minimum State and the Social State, in the 20th century increased in all the major areas of the world: Europe, the United States and Japan. In correspondence with the rise of the GDP per-capita also the tax tolerance increased, beyond the 25% of GDP estimated by Clark-Keynes. This work aims to identify the structural factors that have led to an increase in the share of public expenditure on GDP, with a maximum threshold that we estimate in 40% for the United States and Japan and 50% in Europe. We analyze the historical evolution of public spending with a distinction between functions of a Minimum State and a Social State, distinguishing between the different economic areas and proposed interpretations. The three central factors are: the spread of representative democracy and universal suffrage, the joint effect of the decrease in the birth rate and the increase in life expectancy at 65, the growing and heterogeneous incidence of single-family households. Further growth factors are the rapid increase in disability and degenerative diseases and the persistent presence of harmful jobs, inadequate investments in higher education which slow down growth, job and income opportunities, the environmental emergency as a paradoxical theme of self-defense of the damage caused by oneself, the question of living and land use. We carry out a detailed comparison, from 2010 to 2016, of the expenses for functions, broad and specific, in Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Sweden and Great Britain. Social State financing is still tolerable in more organized countries, but requires new forms in countries with large areas of inefficiency: some central functions, such as education and health, are necessary for sustainable growth. The welfare state is not a “luxury” but rather a “superior institution”, to be consolidated and recomposed. |
| Keywords: | Social State, economic crisis, tax tolerance |
| JEL: | D60 H53 N34 |
| Date: | 2020–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie5:dipe0008&r=all |
| By: | Arnstein Aassve; Guido Alfani; Francesco Gandolfi; Marco Le Moglie |
| Abstract: | Recent studies argue that major crises can have long lasting effects on individual behavior. While most studies focused on natural disasters, we explore the consequences of the global pandemic caused by a lethal influenza virus in 1918-19: the so-called “Spanish Flu”. This was by far the worst pandemic of modern history, causing up to 100 million deaths worldwide. Using information about attitudes of respondents to the General Social Survey (GSS), we find evidence that experiencing the pandemic likely had permanent consequences in terms of individuals’ social trust. Our findings suggest that lower social trust was passed on to the descendants of the survivors of the Spanish Flu who migrated to the US. As trust is a crucial factor for long-term economic development, our research offers a new angle from which to assess current health threats. JEL Classification: I15, N3, Z1 Keywords: Epidemic, Generalized trust, Spanish flu, Pandemic, Mortality crisis |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:igi:igierp:661&r=all |
| By: | Naknoi, Kanda |
| Abstract: | This study documents the historical development of business activities of the military in Thailand from 1940 to 2016, using a dataset of three types of producers of non-security services: military firms whose shareholders are military units, military enterprises within military units; and military-related firms whose shareholders or board of directors are individual military officers. The military-related firms existed in 1940, and more were established during the World War II. Military enterprises began after the war. Later, the military firm was first established after a successful military coup one decade after the war. Since then, the military firms have earned revenues and grew in financial services and media industries, but the military enterprises and military-related firms have operated in a much wider range of industries than the military firms. The formation of military firms and military enterprises as a business group are in line with the transaction costs view in the literature. |
| Keywords: | Business Group, Military, Thai Military Bank, Thailand |
| JEL: | G31 G32 L22 |
| Date: | 2020–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hitcei:2019-14&r=all |
| By: | Gregg, Amanda; Nafziger, Steven |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the dynamics of corporate finance during the early stages of industrial growth by examining a newly constructed panel database of Imperial Russian industrial corporations’ balance sheets. We document large differences in financial strategies and outcomes across industries, over time, over firms’ life cycles, and between two Russian corporation types. Russian corporations’ profits and dividend payouts followed the Russian business cycle. Russian corporate debt ratios mostly follow modern capital structure theories, but tangible assets were not associated with higher debt levels, suggesting that Russian corporate debt was short-term, that collateral was irrelevant, or that agency problems dominated. We also find evidence that investors needed to be compensated for poor protections, since dividends were valued and widely-held corporations enjoyed greater returns. While the evidence suggests the presence of these and other frictions, our findings are consistent with the Imperial Russian financial system functioning well enough to enable early industrial development. |
| JEL: | N23 N63 G32 |
| Date: | 2020–03–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bof:bofitp:2020_007&r=all |
| By: | Kenneth D. Garbade (Federal Reserve Bank; Bankers Trust Company) |
| Abstract: | As noted in our previous post, thirty years has marked the outer boundary of Treasury bond maturities since ?regular and predictable? issuance of coupon-bearing Treasury debt became the norm in the 1970s. However, the Treasury issued bonds with maturities of greater than thirty years on seven occasions in the 1950s and 1960s, in an effort to lengthen the maturity structure of the debt. While our earlier post described the efforts of Treasury debt managers to lengthen debt maturities between 1953 and 1957, this post examines the period from 1957 to 1965. An expanded version of both posts is available here. |
| Keywords: | Treasury debt management; U.S. Treasury; long-term bonds |
| JEL: | H6 N2 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednls:87172&r=all |
| By: | Stephen F. Quinn (Texas Christian University; Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas); William Roberds; Charles M. Kahn (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Federal Reserve Bank of New York; University of Chicago; Harvard University; University of Illinois; Department of Finance) |
| Abstract: | Recently there have been discussions, both within the FOMC and more broadly, about whether the FOMC should set up a standing repo facility. Such a facility would allow banks to sell safe assets (U.S. Treasury securities) to the Fed, with the assurance of subsequent repurchase, in unlimited quantities at an administered rate. This is not a new idea. In fact, a similar facility was implemented in 1683by the Bank of Amsterdam, the leading central bank of the time, and operated for more than a century afterward. In this article, we describe the motivations, operations, and limitations of the Bank of Amsterdam’s facility and what lessons this historical experience offers for modern-day central banks. |
| Date: | 2020–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:a00001:87606&r=all |
| By: | Ksenia M. Belik (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | At the turn of the XIX – XX centuries scientists focused on the procedure of the dissertation research’s scientifically verifications, create expert forms for assessing the quality of scientific work. One of these procedural forms became peer review. The article examines the culture of dissertation reviews at Russian universities in the designated period. The author, using an examples from specific texts of reviews, focuses on the formation of conventions, on criteria for assessing the quality of research, identifies the basic requirements for the degree of scientific texts. The main conclusion of the article is that the assessment texts contributed to the conclusion of academic agreements and their maintenance (retention). |
| Keywords: | Russian Empire, reviews, educational traditions, academic degrees, academic culture, university research. |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:188/hum/2020&r=all |
| By: | James Narron (Executive Office); Donald P. Morgan |
| Abstract: | Wall Street in the late 1860s was a bare-knuckles affair plagued by robber barons, political patronage, and stock manipulation. In perhaps the most scandalous instance of manipulation ever, a cabal led by Jay Gould, a successful but ruthless railroad executive and speculator, and several highly placed political contacts, conspired to corner the gold market. Although ultimately foiled, they succeeded in bankrupting several venerable brokerage houses and crashing the stock market, causing America?s first Black Friday. |
| Keywords: | jay gould; panic; gold; robber baron; black Friday |
| JEL: | G1 N2 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednls:87090&r=all |
| By: | Jan J. J. Groen; Menno Middeldorp |
| Abstract: | Central bankers closely monitor inflation expectations because they?re an important determinant of actual inflation. Treasury inflation-protected securities (TIPS) are commonly used to measure bond market inflation expectations. Unfortunately, they were only introduced in 1997, so historical data are limited. We propose a solution to this problem by using the relationship between TIPS yields and other data with a longer history to construct synthetic TIPS rates going back to 1971. |
| Keywords: | backcasting; inflation expectations; PLS regression |
| JEL: | E2 G1 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednls:86890&r=all |
| By: | Franciscos Koutentakis (Department of Economics, University of Crete, Greece); Kostas Chrissis |
| Abstract: | The paper calculates the top income shares in Greece from 1967 (the seizure of power by the military dictatorship) until 2017 (the aftermath of the debt crisis). This long-run perspective allows for the examination of the relationship between inequality and institutional transformations, namely democracy, finance and crisis. We find in particular that (a) transition to democracy did not affect the income share of the top decile, whereas social democracy had a significant negative impact (b) financial development and liberalization substantially increased all top decile shares (c) debt crisis, consolidation and recession were beneficial for the upper ranks of the top decile. |
| Keywords: | inequality, Greece, top incomes |
| JEL: | D3 O15 |
| Date: | 2020–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crt:wpaper:2002&r=all |
| By: | Adrien Montalbo (PSE - Paris School of Economics, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement) |
| Keywords: | primary instruction,economic development,nineteenth-century France |
| Date: | 2020–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-02482643&r=all |
| By: | Perry Mehrling (Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University) |
| Abstract: | The analytical tension in post-Keynesian thought between the theory of endogenous (credit) money and the theory of liquidity preference, brought to our attention by Dow and Dow (1989), can be viewed through the lens of the money view (Mehrling 2013) as a particular case of the balance between the elasticity of payment and the discipline of funding. Further, updating FullartonÕs 1844 Òlaw of refluxÓ for the modern condition of financial globalization and market based credit, the same money view lens offers a critical entry point into TobinÕs fateful 1963 intervention ÒCommercial Banks as Creators of ÔMoneyÕÓ which established post-war orthodoxy, and also to the challenge offered by so-called Modern Money Theory. |
| Keywords: | credit creation, financial intermediation, law of reflux |
| JEL: | B2 E5 |
| Date: | 2020–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:thk:wpaper:113&r=all |
| By: | Andrew Phiri (Department of Economics, Nelson Mandela University) |
| Abstract: | Slave trades represent one of the most controversial historical events experienced over the last millennium and many researchers are in consensus of the legacy of slavery being one of the deepest underlying factors behind Africa’s current state of underdevelopment. This study seeks to quantify the effects which slave exports exerted on per capita GDP differences between 49 Africa and the rest of the world during the period of 2000-2018. Our findings unanimously point to a statistically significantly inverse relationship between slave exports and income differences hence supporting the intuition of slavery being a fundamentally deep root of developmental differences between Africa and the rest of the world. Our results are robust to adjusted measures of slave exports; inclusion of additional control variables; colonial dummy effects well as to the exclusion of outliers. |
| Keywords: | Slave exports; income gap; Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). |
| JEL: | C21 D63 I31 N17 |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mnd:wpaper:2003&r=all |
| By: | Lisa D. Cook; Maggie E.C. Jones; David Rosé; Trevon D. Logan |
| Abstract: | Jim Crow segregated African Americans and whites by law and practice. The causes and implications of the associated de jure and de facto residential segregation have received substantial attention from scholars, but there has been little empirical research on racial discrimination in public accommodations during this time period. We digitize the Negro Motorist Green Books, important historical travel guides aimed at helping African Americans navigate segregation in the pre-Civil Rights Act United States. We create a novel panel dataset that contains precise geocoded locations of over 4,000 unique businesses that provided non-discriminatory service to African American patrons between 1938 and 1966. Our analysis reveals several new facts about discrimination in public accommodations that contribute to the broader literature on racial segregation. First, the largest number of Green Book establishments were found in the Northeast, while the lowest number were found in the West. The Midwest had the highest number of Green Book establishments per black resident and the South had the lowest. Second, we combine our Green Book estimates with newly digitized county-level estimates of hotels to generate the share of non-discriminatory formal accommodations. Again, the Northeast had the highest share of non-discriminatory accommodations, with the South following closely behind. Third, for Green Book establishments located in cities for which the Home Owner’s Loan Corporation (HOLC) drew residential security maps, the vast majority (nearly 70 percent) are located in the lowest-grade, redlined neighborhoods. Finally, Green Book presence tends to correlate positively with measures of material well-being and economic activity. |
| JEL: | J15 L83 N32 N82 N92 |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26819&r=all |
| By: | Toshihiro Okubo (Faculty of Economics, Keio University); Eric Strobl (Department of Economics, Bern University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the damage impact of the 1959 Ise Bay Typhoon-the most destructive storm in Japanese history-on firm performance in Nagoya City. To this end, we combine firm-level data with a locally derived damage index measured in terms of the duration of storm surge-induced flooding. We find heterogeneous impacts of flood damage across firms and sectors. More specifically, older manufacturing firms tend to survive and, conditional on survival, longer time inundation moderated their employment and sales growth, but also promoted capital growth, suggesting investment in new machinery and facilities. In contrast, employment growth increased in the construction sector to satisfy the construction demand for rebuilding after the supertyphoon. |
| Keywords: | Typhoon, Flood, Firm survival, Firm growth, Nagoya city |
| JEL: | Q54 R10 R12 R14 D22 L25 |
| Date: | 2020–02–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:keo:dpaper:2020-005&r=all |
| By: | Preeya Mohan (Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies, The University of the West Indies); Toshihiro Okubo (Faculty of Economics, Keio University); Eric Strobl (Department of Economics, Bern University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate whether destruction due to natural disasters induces industries to increase their production efficiency using the case of prewar Japan, a period of frequent disasters and technological upgrading. To this end, we compile a regional sectoral data set of natural disaster destruction and production for machinery and textiles during the period. We then employ a stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) approach to estimate the role of disaster events on changes in production efficiency. Our results show that earthquakes led to increases in efficiency for both machinery and textiles, although they were substantially greater for textiles due to recovery persisting longer. In contrast, climate-related natural disaster events played no role in production efficiency. |
| Keywords: | Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA), Natural Disasters, Production Efficiency, Earthquakes, Inefficiency Scores |
| JEL: | Q54 R11 O47 |
| Date: | 2020–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:keo:dpaper:2020-006&r=all |
| By: | Etienne Farvaque (LEM - Lille économie management - LEM - UMR 9221 - UCL - Université catholique de Lille - Université de Lille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Frédéric Gannon (EDEHN - Equipe d'Economie Le Havre Normandie - ULH - Université Le Havre Normandie - NU - Normandie Université) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses network analysis to measure the positions and influences of two prominent academics, James M. Buchanan and Gordon Tullock, founders of public choice theory. First, we recount parallel accounts of their lives. Second, we provide a literature review and outline the standard centrality measures insisting on their relevance in assessing the two authors' roles in a given network. Third, we analyze their respective influences through the lens of network analysis by providing details on the publication records and, overall, co-authorship networks of the two scholars. We also explore their academic genealogy and show in particular that (i) Buchanan and Tullock's careers followed parallel paths and co-founded public choice theory and the journal of the same name, although the two had few common works; (ii) though being apparently very similar as to their centrality in the co-authoring network under scrutiny, their ego-networks were structured very differently, revealing diverse positions in the field and, thus, different influences on the discipline. |
| Keywords: | Buchanan,Tullock,Networks,Co-authorship,Dissertation students,Influence,Public Choice JEL Classification: A14,D85,I23 |
| Date: | 2020–02–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-02474745&r=all |
| By: | Ishii, Yoshitaka (Asian Development Bank Institute); Xu, Kai (Asian Development Bank Institute); Seetha Ram, KE (Asian Development Bank Institute) |
| Abstract: | We provide information for railway systems based on 30 years’ experience of Japanese railway privatization. First, we introduce the background, framework, and result of the Japanese National Railway reform, especially from the perspective of the former president of the JR Kyushu Railway Company. We explain the challenges, such as diversified businesses and employee capacity building, which the company faced during that time and the creation of the business foundation in preparation for the transformation into a private company. We also discuss the tasks of the railway, including the freight transport of the high-speed railway (the Shinkansen logistics), as well as the population decline and aging society in Japan and their relationship with the railway system. Last, we summarize the implications of Japan’s railway experience for a broader railway system. The high levels of safety and efficiency of Japan’s railway system are based on the railway culture (hard, soft, heart) and the Japanese nationality. The railway system is extremely important for long-term economic development. In addition, we introduce the PPET Railway-ology, which integrates philosophy, politics, economy, and technology. We crystallize years of railway experience and offer valuable lessons for the development of railway systems worldwide. |
| Keywords: | railway system; railway company privatization; JR Kyushu Railway Company |
| JEL: | R40 R41 |
| Date: | 2019–05–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0957&r=all |
| By: | Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Liu, Yanyan; Nguyen, Cuong Van; Masias, Ian |
| Abstract: | Vietnam has experienced rapid growth in agricultural mechani-zation lately; particularly in the use of tractors and combine-harvesters. A recent IFPRI study documented the evolution of the growth of mechanization in Vietnam based on an extensive review of the existing literature and several rounds of a nationally repre-sentative household survey. The level of tractor use in Vietnam was relatively high in the 1970s and the early 1980s but declined through the late-1980s before it started taking off again in the 1990s. The relatively high level of tractor uses up to the early-1980s were partly due to political and military reasons, as both the West and the Soviet Union gave substantial support in providing heavy machinery, including tractors. In this note, we focus on the evolution of mechanization from 1990s to 2000s. |
| Keywords: | VIET NAM, VIETNAM, SOUTH EAST ASIA, ASIA, agricultural mechanization, tractors, combine harvesters, private sector, machinery industry, farm size, food security, technology, hiring service providers, |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:prnote:2019pn02&r=all |
| By: | Laurent Guihéry (UCP - Université de Cergy Pontoise - Université Paris-Seine); Michal Taracha |
| Abstract: | Poland plays an important role in the European Union. After many years of occupation until regaining the independence in 1918, in its long history, Poland is now a bridge between Western Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States and Ukraine. The country is largely benefiting from this situation: Poland is the first beneficiary of the EU Cohesion Policy funds, well ahead of Italy and Spain (Appendix 1). New roads are being built, railway tracks are being renovated, city centers and other degraded districts are being revitalized. Polish countryside and the main cities are flourishing. In the field of transport infrastructure, the paper shows that the regional policy of the European Union has reduced the original inequalities in the rail and road infrastructure development inherited from the Partitions of Poland between Prussia, Austria and Russia. With regard to the railway infrastructure, we notice that track closures is also significant in this convergence. The paper also indicates a problem with the accessibility of medium-sized towns that lost their status of a voivodeship capital in 1999. One of the functional problems of these cities, apart from the demographic and financial problems, is their poor road and rail accessibility. The paper is then expressing some critics on the model of polarization-diffusion model in the European regional development policy, especially for Eastern Poland which is not so much benefiting from the regional policy of the EU. In conclusion, convergence towards the EU average still occurs in Poland. |
| Keywords: | N14,N13,H76,R58,Mots-clés Pologne,Infrastructures,Convergence,Politique régionale,Union Européenne Keywords Poland,Infrastructure,Regional policy,European Union Classification JEL : R4 |
| Date: | 2019–08–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02306359&r=all |
| By: | Martin Kolk (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Kieron J. Barclay (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Recent evidence suggests a positive association between fertility and cognitive ability among Swedish men. In this study we use data on 18 birth cohorts of Swedish men to examine whether and how the relationship between cognitive ability and patterns of childbearing are mediated by income, education and marriage histories. We examine whether the expected positive associations between cognitive ability and life course income, can explain this positive association. We also explore the role of marriage for understanding the positive gradient between cognitive ability and fertility. To address these question we use Swedish population administrative data that holds information on fertility histories, detailed taxation records, and data from conscription registers. We also identify siblings in order to adjust for confounding by shared family background factors. Our results show that while cognitive ability, education, income, marriage, and fertility, are all positively associated with each other, income only explains a part of the observed positive gradient between fertility and cognitive ability. We find that much of the association between cognitive ability and fertility can be explained by marriage, but that a positive association exists among both ever-married and never-married men. Both low income and low cognitive ability are strong predictors of high childlessness and low fertility in our population. The results from the full population persist in the sub-sample of brothers. |
| Keywords: | Sweden, cohort fertility, completed fertility, income, intelligence, marriage |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2020-010&r=all |