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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2021‒09‒27
24 papers chosen by |
| By: | Martina Cioni; Giovani Federico; Michelangelo Vasta |
| Abstract: | Since the early years of the 21st century, economists have started to look for the historical roots of current economic outcomes. In this article we deal with this new approach (called persistence studies), as represented by the 75 articles published in ten leading economics journals. We outline the key features (issues, period, geographical area of interest, etc.) of this articles and we discuss their citational record, in comparison with the (much more numerous) economic history articles in the same journals. We also explore the affiliation and training of the 121 authors of persistence studies, highlighting the role of some Boston institutions as the cradle of the new approach. |
| Keywords: | persistence studies, economic history, citational success, top journals |
| JEL: | A11 A12 B4 N01 |
| Date: | 2021–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:859&r= |
| By: | Denis Cogneau (DIAL - Développement, institutions et analyses de long terme, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Yannick Dupraz (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Sandrine Mesplé-Somps (DIAL - Développement, institutions et analyses de long terme, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | What was the capacity of European colonial states? How fiscally extractive were they? What was their capacity to provide public goods and services? And did this change in the "developmentalist" era of colonialism? To answer these questions, we use archival sources to build a new dataset on colonial states of the second French colonial empire (1830-1962). French colonial states extracted a substantial amount of revenue, but they were under-administered because public expenditure entailed high wage costs. These costs remained a strong constraint in the "developmentalist" era of colonialism, despite a dramatic increase in fiscal capacity and large overseas subsidies. |
| Keywords: | Histoire economique,fiscalite,periode coloniale,analyse economique |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:pseptp:hal-03105552&r= |
| By: | Zachary Ward |
| Abstract: | A large body of evidence finds that relative mobility in the US has declined over the past 150 years. However, long-run mobility estimates are usually based on white samples and therefore do not account for the limited opportunities available for non-white families. Moreover, historical data measure the father’s status with error, which biases estimates toward greater mobility. Using linked census data from 1850-1940, I show that accounting for race and measurement error can double estimates of intergenerational persistence. Updated estimates imply that there is greater equality of opportunity today than in the past, mostly because opportunity was never that equal. |
| JEL: | J62 N31 N32 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29256&r= |
| By: | Yonatan Berman; Branko Milanovic |
| Abstract: | Homoploutia describes the situation in which the same people (homo) are wealthy (ploutia) in the space of capital and labor income in some country. It can be quantified by the share of capital-income rich who are also labor-income rich. In this paper we combine several datasets covering different time periods to document the evolution of homoploutia in the United States from 1950 to 2020. We find that homoploutia was low after World War II, has increased by the early 1960s, and then decreased until the mid-1980s. Since 1985 it has been sharply increasing: In 1985, about 17% of adults in the top decile of capital-income earners were also in the top decile of labor-income earners. In 2018 this indicator was about 30%. This makes the traditional division to capitalists and laborers less relevant today. It makes periods characterized by high interpersonal inequality, high capital-income ratio and high capital share of income in the past fundamentally different from the current situation. High homoploutia has far-reaching implications for social mobility and equality of opportunity. We also study how homoploutia is related to total income inequality. We find that rising homoploutia accounts for about 20% of the increase in total income inequality in the United States since 1986. |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lis:liswps:806&r= |
| By: | Pablo Delgado (Department of Applied Economics and Economic History and Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón, IA2 (UNIZAR-CITA), University of Zaragoza, Spain); Vicente Pinilla (Department of Applied Economics and Economic History and Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón, IA2 (UNIZAR-CITA), University of Zaragoza, Spain); Gema Aparicio (Independent Researcher) |
| Abstract: | It is well known that the expansion of international trade was one of the key elements of the first globalization. Many studies have pointed out that both supply and demand factors in order to explain this process. However, the weight that these factors could have had in the expansion of trade in different products could have been very varied. In general, a perspective that places more emphasis on the characteristics and peculiarities of each product is missing to understand how the international market for them was formed in the first globalization and the reasons for the growth of their trade. In this context, our work deal with the evolution of meat global trade from its formation during the XIX century until the World War Two. Global market trade has two highly interesting features. On the one hand, the technical difficulties involved in transport and on the other hand the almost monosopnist nature of Great Britain. |
| Keywords: | international trade, agribusiness trade, first globalization, great depression |
| JEL: | F14 N50 Q17 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:2104&r= |
| By: | Tomoko HASHINO (Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University); Keijiro Otsuka (The Center for Social Systems Innovation and Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University) |
| Abstract: | It is well-known that Japan successfully imported advanced technology from Europe during the Meiji era (1868-1912), notably in the modern cotton spinning industry which used imported British ring machines and Indian cotton and outcompeted India in Asian cotton yarn market. It is also true that traditional industries, especially the sedentary silk reeling and the cotton and silk weaving districts located in various parts of the country, successfully developed while using imported technologies. This study attempts to explore key factors contributing to the successful industrial development in prewar Japan based on the review of the development of the modern cotton textile and silk reeling industries, and the traditional cotton and silk weaving and sedentary silk reeling industries. We found that these industries commonly selected appropriate technologies and adapted them to the initially abundant endowment of labor followed by its growing scarcity. |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koe:wpaper:2124&r= |
| By: | Claude Diebolt (BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée - UL - Université de Lorraine - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Tapas Mishra (University of Southampton); Faustine Perrin (BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée - UL - Université de Lorraine - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, Lund University [Lund]) |
| Abstract: | Recent theoretical developments in growth models, triggered particularly by unified theories of growth, suggest that the child quantity-quality trade-off is a defining element in our explanation of a transition from Malthusian stagnation to a sustained growth path. This paper presents a model and derives a testable empirical framework to investigate the role of gender in the trade-off between education and fertility for 86 French counties during the 19th century. Endogeneity-mitigated mean-and median-based regressions offer robust empirical predictions for gender-empowered quantity-quality trade-off. In particular, we find the existence of a significant and negative association between education and fertility. Further, while gauging the differential effects of schooling on fertility, we find that the short-run differences between male and female are small whilst the long-run effects are large. From policy perspective, our results imply that for stable long-run growth it matters not just that parents educate their children, but specifically that they choose to educate girls. |
| Keywords: | Model of individuals' choice,Gender difference,Education,Fertility,Unified growth theory,Nineteenth century France,Quantity-quality trade-off,Cliometrics |
| Date: | 2021–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03345562&r= |
| By: | Yiming Cao; Benjamin Enke; Armin Falk; Paola Giuliano; Nathan Nunn |
| Abstract: | According to the widely known ‘culture of honor’ hypothesis from social psychology, traditional herding practices are believed to have generated a value system that is conducive to revenge-taking and violence. We test this idea at a global scale using a combination of ethnographic records, historical folklore information, global data on contemporary conflict events, and large-scale surveys. The data show systematic links between traditional herding practices and a culture of honor. First, the culture of pre-industrial societies that relied on animal herding emphasizes violence, punishment, and revenge-taking. Second, contemporary ethnolinguistic groups that historically subsisted more strongly on herding have more frequent and severe conflict today. Third, the contemporary descendants of herders report being more willing to take revenge and punish unfair behavior in the globally representative Global Preferences Survey. In all, the evidence supports the idea that this form of economic subsistence generated a functional psychology that has persisted until today and plays a role in shaping conflict across the globe. |
| JEL: | N0 Z1 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29250&r= |
| By: | Nathan Lane (University of Oxford) |
| 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 and Chemical 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, East Asian miracle, economic history, industrial development, Heavy-Chemical Industry Drive |
| JEL: | L5 O14 O25 N6 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajr:sodwps:2021-10&r= |
| By: | Claude Diebolt (BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée - UL - Université de Lorraine - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Charlotte Le Chapelain (Université de Lyon); Audrey Rose Menard (UN - Université de Nantes) |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03345552&r= |
| By: | Meng Miao; Jacopo Ponticelli; Yi Shao |
| Abstract: | Why are certain communities more prone to anti-government protests than others? Do past rebellions lead to more protests today? We study the historical roots of social unrest using the experience of China. We document that counties with higher incidence of peasant uprisings against local government officials during the Qing dynasty period (1644-1912) also have higher incidence of anti-government protests in present-day China. To generate plausibly exogenous variation in the incidence of past protests, we exploit differences in the visibility and magnitude of solar eclipses during the Qing dynasty period. In the Confucian tradition, solar eclipses are considered a negative divine signal on the legitimacy of the ruler, facilitating the coordination of protest actions. We test this mechanism using detailed data on the timing and location of anti-government rebellions extracted from local chronicles. Counties within the totality zone of a solar eclipse were significantly more likely to experience a rebellion in the eclipse year. Leaders of early anti-Qing rebellions were recorded in popular culture and celebrated in temples, favoring the transmission of the memory of their actions across generations. The persistent effect of past protests is stronger in counties with such temples and memorials, consistent with a long-term memory of revolutions. |
| JEL: | D74 N3 |
| Date: | 2021–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29182&r= |
| By: | Pablo Delgado (Department of Applied Economics and Economic History and Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón, IA2 (UNIZAR-CITA), University of Zaragoza, Spain) |
| Abstract: | The role played by the Spanish industry in the international markets during the first globalization has led to a deep discussion in the literature. Some scholars point out that, despite of weak national demand, the Spanish industrial firms chose to focus on the domestic market rather than competing in the international markets. We dispute that hypothesis by analysing Spanish exports on the margins and in a highly disaggregated manner in 1890 and 1913. We find that manufacturing firms were highly dynamic finding out several new external markets and exporting new products. Nevertheless, the new markets were characterized by low potential demand due to both size and income. Last, we use the diplomatic network per country as well as several consulate reports to propose that Spanish firms were missing many market opportunities. This could be explained by a lack of diplomacy, emigration, insufficiency of propaganda or credit restriction to export. |
| Keywords: | first globalization, international trade, Spanish industrialization |
| JEL: | F14 N63 N73 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:2105&r= |
| By: | Ashish Arora; Sharon Belenzon; Konstantin Kosenko; Jungkyu Suh; Yishay Yafeh |
| Abstract: | Corporate science in America emerged in the interwar period, as some companies set up state-of-the-art corporate laboratories, hired trained scientists, and embarked upon basic research of the kind we would associate today with academic institutions. Using a newly assembled dataset on U.S. companies between 1926 and 1940 combining information on corporate ownership, organization, research and innovation, we attempt to explain the rise of corporate research. We argue that it was driven by companies trying to take advantage of opportunities for innovation made possible by scientific advances and an underdeveloped academic research system in the United States. Measuring field-specific scientific backwardness in several different ways, we find that large firms, business group affiliated firms, and firms close to the technological frontier were more likely to initiate scientific research. We also find that companies in monopolistic or concentrated industries were more likely to engage in basic research. Corporate research was positively correlated with novel and valuable patents, and with market-to-book ratios. For companies choosing to do so, investment in corporate research seems to have paid off. The results shed light on the link between corporate organization, market structure and corporate science. |
| JEL: | N8 N82 O32 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29260&r= |
| By: | Price V. Fishback; Jonathan Rose; Kenneth A. Snowden; Thomas Storrs |
| Abstract: | We show that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), from its inception in the 1930s, did not insure mortgages in low income urban neighborhoods where the vast majority of urban Black Americans lived. The agency evaluated neighborhoods using block-level information collected by New Deal relief programs and the Census in many cities. The FHA’s exclusionary pattern predates the advent of the infamous maps later made by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) and shows little change after the drafting of those maps. In contrast, the HOLC itself broadly loaned to such neighborhoods and to Black homeowners. We conclude that the HOLC’s redlining maps had little effect on the geographic distribution of either program’s mortgage market activity, and that the FHA crafted and implemented its own redlining methodology prior to the HOLC. |
| JEL: | G21 G22 G28 G5 N22 N42 N92 R31 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29244&r= |
| By: | Marco Ranaldi; Branko Milanovic |
| Abstract: | The paper investigates the relationship between capitalism systems and their levels of income and compositional inequality (how the composition of income between capital and labor varies along income distribution). Capitalism may be seen to range between Classical Capitalism, where the rich have only capital income, and the rest have only labor income, and Liberal Capitalism, where many people receive both capital and labor incomes. Using a new methodology and data from 47 countries over the past 25 years, we show that higher compositional inequality is associated with higher inter-personal inequality. Nordic countries are exceptional because they combine high compositional inequality with low inter-personal inequality. We speculate on the emergence of homoploutic societies where income composition may be the same for all, but Gini inequality nonetheless high, and introduce a new taxonomy of capitalist societies. |
| JEL: | D31 P51 |
| Date: | 2020–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lis:liswps:803&r= |
| By: | María Julia Acosta (Universidad de la República (Uruguay). Facultad de Ciencias Sociales. Departamento de Sociología.); Soledad Nión (Universidad de la República (Uruguay). Facultad de Ciencias Sociales. Departamento de Sociología) |
| Abstract: | This document is focused on the process of participation of the first women economists in the development of the disciplinary field of Economics in Uruguay. It explores the reasons for making decisions about the career and entering to Faculty, as well as the characteristics and meaning of their experiences during the career, occupational insertion and subsequent professional development. In-depth interviews were conducted with a focus close to life stories. The findings show the relevance of the family of origin -particular female figures who stimulated the completion of a university career-, the availability of networks to be able to settle in the capital city when they came from the rest of the country, and the difficulties they had to overcome the care of the elderly. It also shows the existence of compatibilization mechanisms of job career with family life (couple and children). In the reconstruction of the stories, male teachers appear facilitating job insertion. The latter was linked mainly to management, implementation and development of organizations and statistical agencies, stimulated by men who were at the forefront of politics. In this sense, these women played a very relevant role as an operational and management “arm” that allowed the institutional and political development of various organizations. |
| Keywords: | economy, women, presiion, discipline |
| JEL: | A14 J16 |
| Date: | 2021–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulr:wpaper:dt-13-21&r= |
| By: | Cartelier, Jean |
| Abstract: | RESUMEN: La teoría económica ya no tiene el respaldo de los economistas académicos ni de otros intelectuales. Hay muchas razones para este descrédito, pero ellas tienen que ver principalmente con la reducción del área de investigación, como consecuencia de una necesidad cada vez mayor de coherencia y de la voluntad de probar empíricamente algunos supuestos fundamentales que borra la frontera tradicional entre las disciplinas. El desarrollo de técnicas de procesamiento de datos cuantitativos y la naturaleza de las preguntas planteadas, hace que muchos estudios empíricos hagan parte tanto de la economía como de la sociología. Este declive de la teoría económica se refiere principalmente al paradigma dominante, el cual dio a los economistas, simultáneamente, el tipo de problemas a resolver (existencia y optimalidad de los equilibrios) y las herramientas para hacerlo (modelos matemáticos que asocian comportamientos racionales y condiciones de equilibrio). Ese declive tiene poco que ver con el paradigma dominado que Schumpeter llama análisis monetario y que se opone a la teoría del valor. Ilustrado por Steuart en siglo XVIII y por Keynes en el siglo XX, este análisis monetario se caracteriza por otras cuestiones (viabilidad en lugar de equilibrio) y otras representaciones de la economía (matrices de pagos en lugar de matrices de exceso de demanda). ABSTRACT: Economic theory is has lost most of its attractiveness amongst academic economists. Multiple reasons may explain that discredit but two seem of special interest: most severe requirements about logical consistency and questions to be solved have contributed to shrink the field of economic theory while a strong desire to confront assumptions with reality have blurred the frontier between economics and social sciences. The remarkable development of quantitative techniques (big data) and the type of questions on the agenda have made empirical economics and empirical sociology almost impossible to distinguish. The neglect of economic theory is more evident for the dominant paradigm than for the dominate one, called monetary analysis by Schumpeter who opposed it to real or value analysis. Illustrated by Steuart in 18th century and Keynes in the 20th century, monetary analysis deals with different questions (viability rather than equilibrium) and resorts to different tools (payment matrices rather than excess demands). |
| Keywords: | Teoría, postulados, empirismo, análisis monetario |
| JEL: | A10 A11 A12 B10 B20 |
| Date: | 2021–01–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000196:019617&r= |
| By: | Jaedo Choi; Andrei A. Levchenko |
| Abstract: | This paper provides causal evidence of the impact of industrial policy on firms' long-term performance and quantifies industrial policy's long-term welfare effects. Using a natural experiment and unique historical data during the Heavy and Chemical Industry (HCI) Drive in South Korea, we find large and persistent effects of firm-level subsidies on firm size. Subsidized firms are larger than those never subsidized even 30 years after subsidies ended. Motivated by this empirical finding, we build a quantitative heterogeneous firm model that rationalizes these persistent effects through a combination of learning-by-doing (LBD) and financial frictions that hinder firms from internalizing LBD. The model is calibrated to firm-level micro data, and its key parameters are disciplined with the econometric estimates. Counterfactual analysis implies that the industrial policy generated larger benefits than costs. If the industrial policy had not been implemented, South Korea's welfare would have been 22-31% lower, depending on how long-lived are the productivity benefits of LBD. Between one-half and two-thirds of the total welfare difference comes from the long-term effects of the policy. |
| JEL: | O14 O25 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29263&r= |
| By: | Taletha M. Derrington; Alison Huang; Joseph P. Ferrie |
| Abstract: | We examine the effects WWII Lanham Act Nursery Schools (LNS) on high school and young adult educational and labor outcomes of participants in the landmark Project Talent (PT) study. All PT places that received funding for LNS schools and all PT places that did not were identified by examining program records and contemporaneous newspaper accounts. Focusing on students who in 1960 attended high school in the same city or town where they were born, we estimate intent to treat effects of access to LNS preschool on high school academic and social emotional outcomes and on educational attainment and labor outcomes at five and eleven years following high school graduation. Preschool boosts high school academic outcomes for men and (in at least one specification) income 11 years after high school graduation. For women, preschool exposure had a negative effect on some social emotional outcomes in high school. We found no or inconsistent effects for other outcomes. The Lanham experience demonstrates that even with the less sophisticated understanding of child development of the early 1940s, the first universal, government-funded preschool program had positive impacts on boys’ outcomes at least through high school. Given today’s expanded understanding of child development and focus on the quality of early care and education programming, these findings provide some optimism as communities, states, and the federal government contemplate expanding funding for today’s early learning environments. |
| JEL: | I21 I26 J13 N32 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29271&r= |
| By: | Jon D. Wisman |
| Abstract: | Understanding the role of ideology is of fundamental importance for understanding social dynamics since the rise of the state 5,500 years ago. Yet this importance has not received adequate attention from social scientists and historians. Even when addressed, it most often has suffered from imprecise meaning and a failure to clearly specify why it is effective. Following the usage by Marx, this article defines ideology as an instrument of exploitation which enables the stronger to persuade the weaker to support behavior and institutions that are counter to their interests. Exploitation exists because humans are biologically driven to compete for status which provides them with reproductive advantage. What ultimately drives competition among all species is the struggle to send one’s unique set of genes into posterity. The biological ancestors of all currently living beings did so successfully. This article surveys how this biologically driven struggle eventually led to weapons and social organization that enabled the stronger to subjugate and exploit the weaker. Ideology evolved as religion was transformed to justify this exploitation by depicting it as in accord with cosmic forces. Ideology provided a more efficient means of maintaining exploitation than violence. With the rise of capitalism, secular doctrines, and especially political economy and then economics, joined and eventually mostly replaced religion in serving as ideology justifying exploitation. |
| Keywords: | Ideology, exploitation, inequality, legitimation, religion |
| JEL: | B15 N40 Z12 Z13 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:amu:wpaper:2021-03&r= |
| By: | Claude Diebolt (BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée - UL - Université de Lorraine - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Michael Haupert |
| Date: | 2021–08–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03345558&r= |
| By: | Vincent Geloso (Department of Economics, George Mason University); Linan Peng (Department of Economics and Management, DePauw University) |
| Abstract: | After the Civil War, the Democratic party carried an important electoral penalty from being associated with the war. To deal with this penalty, the party took increasingly anti-immigration positions to compete with Republicans. This led some Republican strongholds such as California to become competitive and also forced Republicans to embrace stricter immigration proposals. In this paper, we argue that adopting anti-immigration and raising awareness against immigration made California increasingly competitive in electoral terms. This electoral competitiveness can serve to explain the genesis of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Chinese Exclusion Act, Anti-Chinese Movement, Political Economy |
| JEL: | J15 N31 H59 |
| Date: | 2021–09–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dew:wpaper:2021-02&r= |
| By: | Minho Kim; Munseob Lee; Yongseok Shin |
| Abstract: | Does industrial policy work? This is a subject of long-standing debates among economists and policymakers. Using newly digitized microdata, we evaluate the Korean government's policy that promoted heavy and chemical industries between 1973 and 1979 by cutting taxes and building new industrial complexes for them. We show that output, input use, and labor productivity of the targeted industries and regions grew significantly faster than those of non-targeted ones. While the plant-level total factor productivity also grew faster in targeted industries and regions, the misallocation of resources within them got significantly worse, especially among the entrants, so that the total factor productivity at the industry-region level did not increase relative to the non-targeted industries and regions. In addition, we provide new evidence on how industrial policy reshapes the economy: (i) The establishment size distribution of targeted industries and regions shifted to the right with thicker tails due to the entry of large establishments and (ii) the targeted industries became more important in the economy's input-output structure in the sense that their output multipliers increased significantly more. |
| JEL: | E24 O14 O25 O53 |
| Date: | 2021–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29252&r= |
| By: | Kelly Jones |
| Abstract: | An unintended birth at an early age has the potential to interrupt a woman’s education, with implications for her future career and earnings. This paper investigates the impact of abortion access on women’s economic outcomes later in life. I corroborate earlier findings that abortion access during adolescence and early adulthood reduces early births. I then offer updated evidence that, controlling for contraception access, abortion access increases educa¬tional attainment, career outcomes and earnings of black women and reduces their poverty and reliance on public assistance. Findings suggest that fertility is a significant pathway by which abortion access affects work status and family income, but that other pathways such as expectations and investment in human capital are more relevant for occupational choice and personal earnings. |
| Keywords: | fertility, family planning, abortion, economics of gender |
| JEL: | J13 I2 J24 J16 N32 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:amu:wpaper:2021-02&r= |