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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2021‒08‒09
23 papers chosen by |
| By: | Richard N. Langlois (University of Connecticut) |
| Abstract: | This paper is an excerpt from a larger book project called The Corporation and the Twentieth Century, which chronicles and interprets the institutional and economic history – the life and times, if you will – of American business in the twentieth century. This excerpt examines the era of industrial deregulation of the late twentieth century. As had been the case with financial deregulation, it argues, industrial deregulation and the internationalization of trade were largely a manifestation of the misalignment of the postwar regulatory regime with the realities of economic growth. This misalignment created profit opportunities for entrepreneurs not only in the realm of technology but also, and perhaps more crucially, in the realm of institutions. In some cases, entrepreneurs would expend resources in order to foment political change. In other cases, technological and institutional innovation, aided at times by the depredations of the regulation itself, would so reduce the available rents of a regulatory regime that its supporting coalition would collapse |
| Keywords: | Deregulation; institutional innovation; technological change; antitrust |
| JEL: | D23 K21 L4 L51 L52 L6 L9 N42 N62 N72 N82 O3 P12 P P16 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:uconnp:2021-11&r= |
| By: | Richard N. Langlois (University of Connecticut) |
| Abstract: | This paper is an excerpt from a larger book project called The Corporation and the Twentieth Century, which chronicles and interprets the institutional and economic history – the life and times, if you will – of American business in the twentieth century. This excerpt details the history of the personal computer industry and the Internet. It highlights the process of entrepreneurship and decentralized learning in these industries, and it considers the role of industrial and trade polices (in both the U. S. and Japan) in semiconductors and the development of the Internet. The excerpt ends with a consideration of U. S. v. Microsoft at the close of the century. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; technological change; entrepreneurship; industrial policy; antitrust |
| JEL: | D23 F14 K21 L26 L4 L52 L63 N62 N82 O3 P12 P P16 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:uconnp:2021-12&r= |
| By: | Gadre, Animesh |
| Abstract: | Given the lively debate on the consequences of British colonialism on the Indian economy in the realms of contemporary politics and academia, this paper attempts to trace the development of the economic history of India since the 18th century with a distinct focus on the drain theory of wealth and the question of deindustrialisation. It examines a diverse set of academic publications on this subject and compares the evidence shown by a wide range of authors to arrive at possible conclusions. It is found that the composition of the drain theory of wealth was critically questioned by scholars both home and abroad, and its set of core suppo- sitions remain unsubstantiated. On the other hand, the evidence for the deindustrialisation hypothesis is found to be significant, at least for the regions of Gangetic Bihar and Bengal, during the early 19th century. |
| Keywords: | drain; deindustrialisation; colonialism; economic degradation |
| JEL: | N95 O1 |
| Date: | 2021–07–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:108977&r= |
| By: | José M. Martínez Carrión (Department of Applied Economics, University of Murcia, Spain); Javier Puche (Department of Applied Economics and Economic History and Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón, IA2 (UNIZAR-CITA), University of Zaragoza, Spain) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of hunger and malnutrition on the biological standards of living of the Spanish during the Francoist autarky. With data on adult heights, mainly of adolescent men available in the military recruitment records, net nutrition is analysed. It presents a balance of anthropometric history that shows the variability of the heights in different parts of the Spanish geography. The increase in adolescent height observed during the first third of the 20th century was truncated during the Civil War (1936-39). Average height decreased in the 1940s. The deterioration in nutritional status was more severe than in other European countries who suffered famines during the World War II. The drop in the average height of the recruits lasted until 1947 and in some rural areas of the interior until 1953. There are important regional differences, within the same territory and by socioeconomic groups. Recent studies show an increase in rural-urban and social gaps, including differences within large cities, between rich and poor neighbourhoods, which reveal the magnitude of the nutritional crisis. |
| Keywords: | height, nutritional status, biological well-being, inequality, Francoist autarky, Spain |
| JEL: | D63 I31 N34 N54 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:2103&r= |
| By: | Henry S. Farber (Princeton University and NBER); Daniel Herbst (University of Arizona); lyana Kuziemko (Princeton University and NBER); Suresh Naidu (Columbia University and NBER) |
| Abstract: | U.S. income inequality has varied inversely with union density over the past hundred years. But moving beyond this aggregate relationship has proven difficult, in part be-cause of limited micro-data on union membership prior to 1973. We develop a new source of micro-data on union membership dating back to 1936, survey data primarily from Gallup (N~980,000), to examine the long-run relationship between unions and inequality. We document dramatic changes in the demographics of union members:when density was at its mid-century peak, union households were much less educated and more non-white than other households, whereas pre-World-War-II and today they are more similar to non-union households on these dimensions. However, despite large changes in composition and density since 1936, the household union premium holds relatively steady between ten and twenty log points. We then use our data to examine the effect of unions on income inequality. Using distributional decompositions, time-series regressions, state-year regressions, as well as a new instrumental-variable strategy based on the 1935 legalization of unions and the World-War-II era War Labor Board,we find consistent evidence that unions reduce inequality, explaining a significant share of the dramatic fall in inequality between the mid-1930s and late 1940s. |
| JEL: | J51 N32 |
| Date: | 2020–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cepsud:277&r= |
| By: | Tetsuji Okazaki (Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo) |
| Abstract: | The impact of the Industrial Revolution on labor has long attracted the interest of economists as well as economic historians, and recent technological changes and changes in the labor market have newly raised interest in this issue. The accepted view is that technological change in the Industrial Revolution was deskilling and lowered the wage of workers. This paper reexamines this view, by investigating the silk weaving industry in early twentieth-century Japan, which experienced the Industrial Revolution. Power looms, a major technological innovation in the Industrial Revolution, substituted for routine tasks of handloom weavers, and thereby made weavers concentrate on nonroutine tasks, such as stopping looms and supplying warp or weft when it ran out and connecting threads when they broke. Using the model of Autor et al. (2003) and newly constructed plant-level panel data, this paper studies the implications of this change in labor for wages. We find that adoption of power looms was associated with significant increases in the wage of both female and male adult workers, playing a central role in weaving, which suggests the need for revision of the view that technological change in the Industrial Revolution was deskilling. |
| Date: | 2021–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tky:fseres:2021cf1166&r= |
| By: | Laurent Gauthier (LED - Laboratoire d'Economie Dionysien - UP8 - Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis) |
| Abstract: | This paper makes the argument for renewed cliometrics that could serve history. History and economics have grown relying on each other over the past century, but a disconnect has appeared, whereby the range between history and economics has been occupied by the latter. As a consequence, historians have tended to shun these fields of inquiry. We begin our analysis with a discussion of the complex set of separate domains that lie between history and economics, and determine certain salient features that define them, in particular the search for nomothetic explanations. We examine the reception of economic method by historians and point out that it has suffered both from this nomothetic angle and from the implicit presumption that economics are only applicable to the economy. Stressing the distinction between understanding and explaining in the philosophy of history, we show that, for historians, explaining should remain in the realm of history. We then propose that economics be considered a methodological auxiliary for understanding, as new cliometrics, not attempting to offer explanations. We discuss some examples of using microeconomics as a critical methodology in the study of ancient Greece. |
| Keywords: | clionomics,cliodynamics,historiography,cliometrics |
| Date: | 2021–07–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03289608&r= |
| By: | Gutiérrez, Eduardo; Moral-Benito, Enrique; Oto-Peralías, Daniel (Universidad Pablo de Olavide); Ramos, Roberto |
| Abstract: | We exploit the GEOSTAT 2011 population grid to document that Spain presents the lowest density of settlements among European countries. Only a small fraction of the Spanish territory is inhabited, particularly in its southern half, which goes hand in hand with a high degree of population concentration. We uncover through standard regression analysis and spatial regression discontinuity that this anomaly cannot be accounted for by adverse geographic and climatic conditions. The second part of the paper takes a historical perspective on Spain's settlement patterns by showing that the spatial distribution of the population has been very persistent in the last two centuries, and that the abnormally low density of settlements with respect to European neighbors was already visible in the 19th century, which indicates that this phenomenon has not emerged recently as a consequence of the transformations associated with industrialization and tertiarization. Using data on ancient sites, we find that Spain did not feature scarcity of settlements in comparison to other countries in pre-medieval times, suggesting that its current anomalous settlement pattern has not always existed and is therefore not intrinsic to its geography. |
| Date: | 2021–07–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:f4de6&r= |
| By: | Jongrim Ha; M. Ayhan Kose; Franziska Ohnsorge |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces a global database that contains inflation series: (i) for a wide range of inflation measures (headline, food, energy, and core consumer price inflation; producer price inflation; and gross domestic product deflator changes); (ii) at multiple frequencies (monthly, quarterly and annual) for an extended time period (1970-2021); and (iii) for a large number of (up to 196) countries. As it doubles the number of observations over the next-largest publicly available sources, our database constitutes a comprehensive, single source for inflation series. We illustrate the potential use of the database with three applications. First, we study the evolution of inflation since 1970 and document the broad-based disinflation around the world over the past half-century, with global consumer price inflation down from a peak of roughly 17 percent in 1974 to 2.5 percent in 2020. Second, we examine the behavior of inflation during global recessions. Global inflation fell sharply (on average by 0.9 percentage points) in the year to the trough of global recessions and continued to decline even as recoveries got underway. In 2020, inflation declined less, and more briefly, than in any of the previous four global recessions over the past 50 years. Third, we analyze the role of common factors in explaining movements in different measures of inflation. While, across all inflation measures, inflation synchronization has risen since the early 2000s, it has been much higher for inflation measures that involve a larger share of tradable goods. |
| Keywords: | Prices, global inflation, deflation, inflation synchronization, global factor |
| JEL: | E30 E31 F42 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:camaaa:2021-59&r= |
| By: | Valérie Mignon; Antonin Aviat; Frédérique Bec; Claude Diebolt; Catherine Doz; Denis Ferrand; Laurent Ferrara; Eric Heyer; Pierre-Alain Pionnier |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a reference quarterly chronology for periods of expansion and recession in France since 1970, carried out by the Dating Committee of the French Economic Association (AFSE). The methodology used is based on two pillars: (i) econometric estimations from various key data to identify candidate periods, and (ii) a narrative approach that describes the economic background that prevailed at that time to finalize the dating chronology. Starting from 1970, the Committee has identified four economic recession periods: the two oil shocks 1974-75 and 1980, the investment cycle of 1992-93, and the Great Recession 2008-09 spawned by the Global Financial Crisis. The peak before the Covid-19 recession has been identified in the last quarter of 2019. |
| Keywords: | Business cycles, French economy, Dating, Narrative approach, Econometric modeling |
| JEL: | E32 E37 C24 N14 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2021-23&r= |
| By: | Heine, Michael; Herr, Hansjörg |
| Abstract: | Zusammen mit der Gründung des Deutschen Reiches im Jahr 1871 wurde eine neue Geldverfassung mit der Mark als nationaler Währung geschaffen zusammen mit der Gründung der Deutschen Reichsbank im Jahre 1876. England folgend wurde der Goldstandard etabliert mit dem Recht Banknoten in Gold zu tauschen und umgekehrt. Die Deckung der Banknoten wurde durch ein kompliziertes System geregelt. Im Vergleich zur Bank of England konnte die Reichsbank ihre Funktion als Lender of Last Resort flexibler wahrnehmen. Das Hauptziel der Geldpolitik der Reichsbank, das dann auch bis zum Beginn des Ersten Weltkrieges 1914 erfüllt wurde, war die Einlösung ihrer Banknoten in Gold und damit implizit die Verteidigung der fixen Wechselkurse im Goldstandard. Andere Ziele, etwa Preisniveaustabilität oder Wachstum des Sozialproduktes, waren von zweitrangiger Bedeutung. Über die Jahre wurde die Reichsbank immer mächtiger, bekam neue Instrumente und entwickelte sich zu einer modernen Zentralbank. Jedoch blieb Gold immer eine Fessel für ein für eine kapitalistische Ökonomie funktionales Geldsystem. |
| Keywords: | Deutsche Reichsbank,Goldstandard,Geldpolitik |
| JEL: | N13 E58 F02 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ipewps:1632021&r= |
| By: | Boris Gershman |
| Abstract: | Beliefs in witchcraft, or the ability of certain people to intentionally cause harm via supernatural means, have been documented across societies all over the world. Extensive ethnographic research on this phenomenon over the past century explored the many roles of witchcraft beliefs in communities highlighting both their social functions and detrimental consequences. Yet, empirical evidence based on systematic statistical analyses or experiments has been lacking until very recently. This chapter reviews the nascent literature on witchcraft beliefs in economics and other quantitative social sciences and summarizes the main directions and results of this research to date. The major themes discussed in the chapter include social relations, economic development, and institutions in their connection to witchcraft beliefs. |
| Keywords: | Culture, Development, Institutions, Religion, Social capital, Witchcraft |
| JEL: | I31 O10 O31 O43 O57 Z10 Z12 Z13 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:amu:wpaper:2021-01&r= |
| By: | Andrew Greenland (Elon University); John Lopresti (William & Mary) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a novel strategy for identifying the effects of import competition on economic outcomes that avoids standard concerns related to the endogeneity of trade policy and provides a consistent measure of exposure to trade over time. Conditioning on the level of import tariffs, our approach exploits cross-industry differences in the relative importance of specific rather than ad valorem tariffs. As they are expressed in per unit terms rather than as a share of value, the effective protection provided by a given specific tariff varies with price levels. Using digitized tariff line data between 1900 and 1940, we relate inflation-driven changes in trade protection to changes in imports and labor market outcomes in the full count U.S. census. We show that our measure predicts import growth at both the industry and county level. Using our measure as an instrument, we show that import competition reduces labor force participation in traded sectors during this period. Labor market effects are widespread but fall most heavily on those with little experience or fewer outside labor market options: the young, seniors, and those in rural areas. |
| Keywords: | International Trade, Economic History, Trade Policy, Inflation, Labor Markets |
| JEL: | F1 F6 N1 N7 J2 |
| Date: | 2021–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upj:weupjo:21-349&r= |
| By: | Kim, Youngjoon (KnowledgeWorks co., Ltd.); Lee, Jinhyung; Kim, Junghwan; Nakajima, Naoto |
| Abstract: | Transportation is a key element to understanding the socio-spatial structure of colonial cities and the lives of individuals living under colonial governance. This study investigates the disparity in transit-based travel time between colonial rulers (Japanese) and subjects (Koreans) in Colonial Seoul (Keijo) in 1936 using modern GIS and open-source transport analysis tools. Findings suggest a significant disparity in travel time to a major urban facility (i.e., City Hall) between the two population groups of the largest colonial city in the Korean peninsula. |
| Date: | 2021–07–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:qf65w&r= |
| By: | Kristian Blickle (Federal Reserve Bank of New York); Markus Brunnermeier (Princeton University); Stephan Luck (Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies a major financial panic, the run on the German banking system in 1931, to distinguish between banking theories that view depositors as demanders of liquidity and those that view them as providers of discipline. Our empirical approach exploits the fact that the German Crisis of 1931 was system-wide with cross-sectional variation in deposit flows as well as bank distress and took place in absence of a deposit insurance scheme. We find that interbank deposit flows predict subsequent bank distress early on. In contrast, wholesale depositors are more likely to withdraw from distressed banks at later stages of the run and only after the interbank market has started to collapse. Retail deposits are—despite the absence of deposit insurance—largely stable. Our findings emphasize the heterogeneity in depositor roles, with discipline being best provided through the interbank market. |
| Keywords: | Germany |
| JEL: | G01 G21 N20 N24 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cepsud:275&r= |
| By: | Dmitry Dagaev (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Sofia Paklina (National Research University Higher School of Economics); J. James Reade (Department of Economics, University of Reading); Carl Singleton (Department of Economics, University of Reading) |
| Abstract: | Using the assignment of referees to European international association football matches played between 2002 and 2016, we ask whether judgements were biased according to the legacy of the Cold War. Referees from post-communist states favoured teams from non-communist states, but there was no evidence of favouritism in the other direction. The out-group bias of referees born behind the Iron Curtain was more significant for less important decisions (e.g., yellow cards vs red cards). The bias was particularly large among referees from the former Soviet Union. It has also diminished over time, perhaps due to increased professionalism in European refereeing, or because memories of the Cold War era have diminished among active referees. |
| Keywords: | home advantage, social pressure, international relations, sports economics |
| JEL: | D91 F59 Z20 |
| Date: | 2021–08–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rdg:emxxdp:em-dp2021-14&r= |
| By: | Fernando Barros; Fabio Gomes; Andre Luduvice |
| Abstract: | How can we measure the welfare benefit of ongoing stabilization? We develop a methodology to calculate the welfare cost of business cycles taking into account that observed consumption is partially smoothed. We propose a decomposition that disentangles consumption in a mix of laissez-faire (absent policies) and riskless components. With a novel identification strategy, we estimate the span of stabilization power. Our results show that the welfare cost of total fluctuations is 5.81 percent of lifetime consumption, in which 80 percent is smoothed by the status quo, yielding a residual 1.05 percent to be tackled by policy. |
| Keywords: | business cycles; consumption; stabilization; macroeconomic history |
| JEL: | E32 E21 E63 N10 |
| Date: | 2021–07–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedcwq:92917&r= |
| By: | Lane, Nathan |
| Abstract: | I study the impact of industrial policy on industrial development by considering a canonical intervention. Following a political crisis, South Korea dramatically altered its development strategy with a sector-specific industrial policy: the Heavy Chemical and Industry (HCI) drive, 1973-1979. With newly assembled data, I use the sharp introduction and withdrawal of industrial policies to study the impacts of industrial policy—during and after the intervention period. I show (1) HCI promoted the expansion and dynamic comparative advantage of directly targeted industries. (2) Using variation in exposure to policies through the input-output network, I show HCI indirectly benefited downstream users of targeted intermediates. (3) I find direct and indirect benefits of HCI persisted even after the end of HCI, following the 1979 assassination of the president. These effects include the eventual development of directly targeted exporters and their downstream counterparts. Together, my findings suggest that the temporary drive shifted Korean manufacturing into more advanced markets and created durable industrial change. These findings clarify lessons drawn from South Korea and the East Asian growth miracle. |
| Keywords: | industrial policy,industrial development,East Asian miracle,input-output,networks,Heavy Chemical and Industry drive,South Korea,spillovers |
| JEL: | L5 O14 O25 N6 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:235845&r= |
| By: | Camille Nessel |
| Abstract: | This article argues that Indonesia-EU economic relations have been accompanied by a post-colonial narrative, which has led to a transposition of anti-colonial sentiment towards the Netherlands to the EU as a whole. The post-colonial theoretical approach adopted assumes that human beings create meaning through narratives to make sense of the world that surrounds us, and that national histories contain narratives that legitimate the existence of nation-states. Through a study of Indonesian nationalism and the place of the EUropean in it, the article shows how economic relations between Indonesia and the EU have been shaped historically. It will be demonstrated how since Indonesia’s independence encounters between Indonesia and Europe has been accompanied by the experience of past colonization by an EU member state. This, it is argued, is the result of nation-building in Indonesia, whereby the other was needed to construct solidarity among its members. At present, so the article concludes, although progress has been achieved in Indonesia-EU relations, the self-image of the EU as a force for good has not reached Indonesia’s shores. |
| Date: | 2020–07–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/312423&r= |
| By: | Florian Dorn; Clemens Fuest; Niklas Potrafke |
| Abstract: | We examine how trade openness influences income inequality within countries. The sample includes 139 countries over the period 1970-2014. We employ predicted openness as instrument to deal with the endogeneity of trade openness. The effect of trade openness on income inequality differs across countries. Trade openness tends to disproportionately benefit the relative income shares of the very poor, but not necessarily all poor, in emerging and developing economies. In most advanced economies, trade openness increased income inequality, an effect that is driven by outliers. Our results suggest a strong effect of trade openness on inequality in China and transition countries. |
| Keywords: | trade openness, globalization, income inequality, instrumental variable estimation, panel econometrics, development levels, transition economies |
| JEL: | C26 D31 D63 F02 F60 H11 H20 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9203&r= |
| By: | Teles Huo; Miguel St. Aubyn |
| Abstract: | This article is about the construction of time series on the stock of public and private capital and Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Mozambique, from 1960 to 2017, in local currency (meticais), at constant 2009 prices. The construction of these series was based on the IMF methodology, using data on investment and on the depreciation of the capital stock, based on a geometric depreciation model. For investment, data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), from 1991 to 2017, were considered. For the periods previous to 1991, INE investment data were extended regressively, from 1990 to 1960, considering the proportions of investment in real GDP, by sectors: public, private and PPPs. For this purpose, the proportions of total investment implicit in the IMF data from 1960 to 2013 were used. These proportions were applied to INE GDP data) to obtain the investment data in metical’s at 2009 constant prices, from 1960 to 1990. The result of the capital stock series shows an increasing trend of the total capital stock from 1960 to 2017. From the beginning of the 90's until roughly 2014, the public capital stock exceeded the stock of private capital. The share of the public capital stock in the total capital stock is, in general, greater than the share of the private capital stock. These data shows that despite Mozambique embarked on capitalism, the private sector development remained weak, with a low investment capacity in fixed capital to increase its capital stock. |
| Keywords: | capital stock, public capital stock, private capital stock, public private partnership capital stock, investments, GDP, capital stock depreciation |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ise:remwps:wp01832021&r= |
| By: | Kim Oosterlinck (Universite libre de Bruxelles & CEPR); Ugo Panizza (IHEID, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva); W. Mark C. Weidemaier (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill); Mitu Gulati (University of Virginia) |
| Abstract: | This article introduces the Haitian Independence Debt of 1825 to the odious debt and sovereign debt literatures. We argue that the legal doctrine of odious debt is surprisingly and perhaps indefensibly narrow possibly because of historical contingency rather than any underlying logic or principle. The story of the Haitian Independence Debt of 1825 serves as an illustrative case study. In the context of telling that story, we provide estimates of the evolution of Haiti's external debt-to-GDP ratio over 1825-2020, and discuss the implications of the independence debt for the economy of Haiti. We conclude by discussing the implications of Haiti's Independence Debt for the doctrine of odious debt and the possibilities for Haiti to recover compensation. |
| Keywords: | Haiti; Odious Debt; Debt and Growth |
| JEL: | G15 H63 K34 O54 |
| Date: | 2021–07–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gii:giihei:heidwp16-2021&r= |
| By: | Carl Singleton (Department of Economics, University of Reading); J. James Reade (Department of Economics, University of Reading); Johan Rewilak (Department of Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship, Aston University); Dominik Schreyer (Wissenschaftliche Hochschule für Unternehmensführung (WHU)) |
| Abstract: | We revisit the magnitude of home advantage at the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, looking back all the way to Athens in 1896. By comparing a host country’s success with their performances in previous and subsequent games, we find that home advantage has declined over time as participation and the diversity of competition have increased. Hosts of the Summer Olympics between 1988 and 2016 enjoyed a two-percentage-point boost in their shares of medals and finalists, compared with their performances overseas, in both men's and women's events. In this same contemporary period, the home advantage effect at the Winter Olympics was around fifty percent larger in men's events but non-existent in women's events. We also find evidence of significant performance spill overs on the previous and next Olympiads for countries when they hosted the Summer Games. |
| Keywords: | Attendance, Gender economics, Home bias, Major sport events, Olympic Games, Referee bias, Sports economics |
| JEL: | D91 L83 Z2 |
| Date: | 2021–07–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rdg:emxxdp:em-dp2021-13&r= |