|
on Business, Economic and Financial History |
|
Issue of 2022‒03‒21
27 papers chosen by |
| By: | W. Walker Hanlon |
| Abstract: | Why was the Industrial Revolution successful at generating sustained growth? Some have argued that there was a fundamental change in the way that new technology was developed during this period, but evidence for this argument remains largely anecdotal. This paper provides direct quantitative evidence showing that how innovation and design work was done changed fundamentally during the Industrial Revolution. This change was characterized by the professionalization of innovation and design work through the emergence of the engineering profession. I also propose a theory describing how this change could have acted as one mechanism behind the transition to modern economic growth. |
| JEL: | N13 N73 O3 |
| Date: | 2022–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29751&r= |
| By: | Stanfors, Maria (Department of Economic History, Lund University); Karlsson, Tobias (Department of Economic History, Lund University); Andersson, Lars-Fredrik (Unit of Economic History, Umeå University); Eriksson, Liselotte (Umeå Centre for Gender Studies, Umeå University) |
| Abstract: | Industrialization brought significant economic and social changes. As a response to the risk of income loss due to illness and workplace accidents, mutual health insurance was the main financial vehicle for workers at the turn of the twentieth century across the Western world. We studied individual and firm-level determinants of membership in health insurance societies among male workers in Swedish manufacturing by using matched employer-employee data from the tobacco, printing, and mechanical engineering ndustries. Such data are extremely rare but important for our purpose. They cover all workers (i.e., members and non-members) and firms in a specific year around 1900 (N>12,000). In the years before the first statutory attempts to improve working conditions, we find remarkably high rates of membership, especially in mechanical engineering. We also find an association between membership and age, which is mainly a difference between younger and older adults, but the societies’ egalitarian pricing gave workers no reason to defer enrolment until a higher age related to health problems. Social interaction may explain early membership in the printing and tobacco industries, where we find a positive association between membership among older workers and the enrolment of younger workers. |
| Keywords: | health; health insurance; adverse selection; mutual aid societies; micro data; matched employer-employee data; labour markets; manufacturing industry; industrialization; Sweden; 19th century; 20th century |
| JEL: | I13 N33 N63 |
| Date: | 2022–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:luekhi:0238&r= |
| By: | Muldoon, James; Müller, Mirjam; Leipold, Bruno |
| Abstract: | Feminist and socialist movements both aim at emancipation yet have often been at odds. The socialist feminists of the Paris Commune provide one of the few examples in late nineteenth-century Europe of a political movement combining the two. This article offers a new interpretation of the Commune feminists, focusing on the working-class women’s organisation the Union des femmes. We highlight how the Commune feminists articulated the specific form of oppression experienced by working-class women as both women and workers, which consequently required a joint, yet differentiated, struggle to overcome. We explore three aspects of this framework. First, the Commune feminists offered a vision of the transformation of the social through reforms to girls’ education, the family and women’s work. Second, they practised a politics of coalition building by connecting their struggle with those of other oppressed groups, such as male workers, peasants and workers of other nations. Third, these ideas were instantiated in the Union des femmes’ novel proposal for women’s worker co-operatives as part of a socialist re-organisation of the economy. |
| Keywords: | commune feminism; feminism; France; Paris Commune; socialism; socialist feminism |
| JEL: | B14 B24 P2 P3 |
| Date: | 2022–01–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:113763&r= |
| By: | Ma, Debin; Zhao, Liuyan |
| Abstract: | This article provides the first systematic econometric study on the evolution of Chinese silver exchange and monetary regimes during the period 1898–1933. Using high-quality datasets of monthly and daily prices of silver dollars, we apply the threshold autoregressive models to estimate the silver points between Shanghai and 18 other cities in northern and central China. We find a noticeable improvement in monetary integration between Shanghai and Tianjin from the 1910s, which then spread to other cities in our sample throughout the 1920s and 1930s. We supplement our analysis with new datasets on volumes and costs of silver flows and with an in-depth historical narrative. This article re-evaluates the efficiency of the silver regime and China's economic performance in the Republican era. |
| JEL: | N15 |
| Date: | 2020–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:104056&r= |
| By: | Smith, Harry; Bennett, Robert J.; van Lieshout, Carry; Montebruno, Piero |
| Abstract: | This article uses the British Business Census of Entrepreneurs (BBCE) to examine the relationship between the household and entrepreneurship in England and Wales between 1851 and 1911. The BBCE allows three kinds of entrepreneurial households to be identified: those where an entrepreneur employs co-resident family members in their business, those where two or more household members are partners in the same firm, and households with two or more entrepreneurs resident who are running different firms. The article traces the number of these different households across the period and examines their sector and gender breakdowns as well as their geographical distribution. The article demonstrates that these different kinds of entrepreneurial households served different purposes; co-resident family businesses were used in marginal areas where other sources of labour and capital were scarce and the incidence of such firms decreased over this period. In contrast, household partnerships and co-entrepreneurial households were used to share risk or diversify; they were found throughout England and Wales at similar levels during this period. |
| Keywords: | census; economic history; England and Wales; entrepreneurship; household; ES/M010953; RG66385 |
| JEL: | R14 J01 N0 |
| Date: | 2020–08–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:106262&r= |
| By: | Oded Galor (Brown University); Omer Moav (University of Warwick); Ömer Özak (Southern Methodist University) |
| Abstract: | This research explores the persistent effect of the Neolithic Revolution on the evolution of life expectancy in the course of human history. It advances the hypothesis and establishes empirically that the onset of the Neolithic Revolution and the associated rise in infectious diseases triggered a process of adaptation reducing mortality from infectious diseases while increasing the propensity for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Exploiting an exogenous source of variation in the timing of the Neolithic Revolution across French regions, the analysis establishes the presence of these conflicting forces - the beneficial effects on life expectancy before the second epidemiological transition and their adverse effects thereafter. |
| Keywords: | Life Expectancy, Health, Mortality, Neolithic Revolution, Epidemiological Transition, Infectious Disease, Auto-immune Disease, Diabetes, Crohn's Disease, HIV, COVID-19 |
| JEL: | I10 I15 J10 N00 N30 O10 O33 Z10 |
| Date: | 2022–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smu:ecowpa:2201&r= |
| By: | Schneider, Eric B. |
| Abstract: | Economic historians have long been aware of many forms of bias that could lead to spurious causal inferences. However, our approach to these biases has been muddled at times by dealing with each bias separately and by confusion about the sources of bias and how to mitigate them. This paper shows how the methodology of directed acyclical graphs (DAGs) formulated by Pearl (2009) and particularly the concept of collider bias can provide economic historians with a unified approach to managing a wide range of biases that can distort causal inference. I present ten examples of collider bias drawn from economic history research, focussing mainly on examples where the authors were able to overcome or mitigate the bias. Thus, the paper addresses how to diagnose collider bias and also strategies for managing it. The paper also shows that quasi-random experimental designs are rarely able to overcome collider bias. Although all of these biases were understood by economic historians before, conceptualising them as collider bias will improve economic historians’ understanding of the limitations of particular sources and help us develop better research designs in the future. |
| Keywords: | collider bias; directed acyclical graphs; sample-selection bias |
| JEL: | N01 N30 |
| Date: | 2020–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:106578&r= |
| By: | Angel De la Fuente |
| Abstract: | Se describe brevemente la última actualización de RegData hasta el 2020, una base de datos que recoge los principales agregados económicos y demográficos de las regiones españolas durante las últimas seis décadas. We describe the latest update (to 2020) of RegData – a database that gathers together the main economic and demographic aggregates of the Spanish regions over the last six decades. |
| Keywords: | homogeneous series, series homogéneas, income, renta, regional population of Spain, población regional de España, Employment, Empleo, Spain, España, Regional Analysis Spain, Análisis Regional España, Working Papers, Documento de Trabajo |
| Date: | 2022–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bbv:wpaper:2201&r= |
| By: | Pramod Kumar Sur |
| Abstract: | Recent democratic backsliding and the rise of authoritarian regimes around the world have rekindled interest in understanding the causes and consequences of authoritarian rule in democracies. In this paper, I study the long-run political consequences of authoritarianism in the context of India, the world's largest democracy. Utilizing the unexpected timing of the authoritarian rule imposed in the 1970s and the variation in a draconian policy implemented during this period, I document a sharp decline in the share of the then incumbent party's, the Indian National Congress, votes and the probability of its candidates winning in subsequent elections. The decline in the incumbent party's political dominance was not at the expense of a lower voter turnout rate. Instead, a sharp rise in the number of opposition candidates contesting for election in subsequent years played an important role. Finally, I examine the enduring consequences, revealing that confidence in politicians remains low in states where the draconian policy was high. Together, the evidence suggests that authoritarianism in a democracy has a persistent effect on voting behavior, political representation, and confidence in institutions. |
| Date: | 2022–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2202.03682&r= |
| By: | Ivo Maes (Robert Triffin Chair, University of Louvain and Ichec Brussels Management School); Ilaria Pasotti (Consultant at the Intesa Sanpaolo Group Historical Archives) |
| Abstract: | Especially with the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998, Asian countries have advocated a profound reform of the international financial architecture. Their proposals focused on two main axes: a reform of the global financial system and stronger regional monetary integration in Asia. There are here significant parallels with the ideas of Robert Triffin (1911-1993). Triffin became famous with trenchant analyses of the vulnerabilities of the international monetary system, especially his book Gold and the Dollar Crisis. Triffin put forward several proposals for reforming the global monetary system, but he also developed proposals for regional monetary integration. These were very much based on his experience with the European Payments Union, and focused on the creation of a (European) Reserve Fund and a (European) currency unit. In this paper we focus on Triffin’s proposals for an Asian payments union in the late 1960s, giving special attention to Japan (in Triffin’s time the biggest Asian economy). |
| Keywords: | : Triffin, Bretton Woods, international liquidity, regional monetary integration, Asian Payments Union, Japan |
| JEL: | A11 B22 B31 E30 E50 F02 F32 |
| Date: | 2022–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbb:reswpp:202203-405&r= |
| By: | Biavaschi, Costanza; Giulietti, Corrado; Zenou, Yves |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the causal pathways through which ethnic social networks influence individual naturalization. Using the complete-count Census of 1930, we digitize information on the exact residence of newly arrived immigrants in New York City. This allows us to define networks with a granularity detail that was not used before for historical data - the Census block - and therefore to overcome issues of spatial sorting. By matching individual observations with the complete-count Census of 1940, we estimate the impact that the exogenous fraction of naturalized co-ethnics in the network observed in 1930 has on the probability of immigrants to acquire citizenship a decade later. Our results indicate that the concentration of naturalized co-ethnics in the network positively affects individual naturalization and that this relationship operates through one main channel: information dissemination. Indeed, immigrants who live among naturalized co-ethnics are more likely to naturalize because they have greater access to critical information about the benefits and procedures of naturalization. |
| Keywords: | Social networks,assimilation,naturalization,migration |
| JEL: | J61 J62 N32 Z1 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1049&r= |
| By: | Leander Heldring; James A. Robinson; Sebastian Vollmer |
| Abstract: | We use a dataset of the entire population of English Parliamentary enclosure acts between 1750 and 1830 to provide the first causal evidence of their impact. Exploiting a feature of the Parliamentary process that produced such legislation as a source of exogenous variation, we show that Parliamentary enclosures were associated with significantly higher crop yields, but also higher land inequality. Our results are in line with a literature going back to Arthur Young and Karl Marx on the effects of Parliamentary enclosure on productivity and inequality. They do not support the argument that informal systems of governance or “private orderings”, even in small, cohesive, and stable communities, were able to efficiently allocate commonly used and governed resources. |
| JEL: | D01 N5 O43 |
| Date: | 2022–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29772&r= |
| By: | Kurz, Heinz D. (University of Graz) |
| Abstract: | The paper reconsiders Menger’s Grundsätze (1871). It recalls, first, that the theory of marginal utility was developed by representatives of the so-called “German Use Value School”; secondly, that Menger’s criticism of the theories of value and distribution of the classical economists is based on severe misunderstandings; third, that his alternative construction is marred with difficulties spotted by Böhm-Bawerk and Wieser; fourth, that relative prices reflect inter alia the substances that “transmigrate” into commodities in the course of production. The Grundsätze are nevertheless a “great” work, because it invites to correct what is problematic in it and develop what is sound. |
| Keywords: | Classical economics; Essentialism; German Use Value School; Imputation problem; In-come distribution; Marginalism; Menger; Carl; Production; Rau; Karl Heinrich; Ricardo; David; Smith; Adam; Subjectivism; Successivism; Value |
| JEL: | A12 B12 B13 B31 D11 D24 D33 D42 D46 D51 D80 N00 O10 |
| Date: | 2022–03–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:sraffa:0052&r= |
| By: | Stephanie von Hinke (School of Economics, University of Bristol, Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Institute for Fiscal Studies); Emil N. S{\o}rensen (School of Economics, University of Bristol) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a large UK cohort to investigate the impact of early-life pollution exposure on individuals' human capital and health outcomes in older age. We compare individuals who were exposed to the London smog in December 1952 whilst in utero or in infancy to those born after the smog and those born at the same time but in unaffected areas. We find that those exposed to the smog have substantially lower fluid intelligence and worse respiratory health, with some evidence of a reduction in years of schooling. |
| Date: | 2022–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2202.11785&r= |
| By: | Gilbert Cette (Banque de France - Banque de France - Banque de France); Aurélien Devillard (AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Vincenzo Spiezia (OECD - The Organisation for Economic Coopération and Development) |
| Abstract: | Using a new and original database, our paper contributes to the growth accounting literature by singling out the contribution of robots through two channels: capital deepening and TFP. The contribution of robots to productivity growth through capital deepening and TFP appears to have been significant in Germany and Japan in the sub-period 1975–1995 and in several Eastern European countries in 2005–2019. However, robotization does not appear to be the source of a significant revival in productivity. |
| Keywords: | growth,productivity,robots |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03140435&r= |
| By: | Pierre Gervais (CRAN - Centre de Recherche sur l'Amérique du Nord - CREW - CREW - Center for Research on the English-speaking World - EA 4399 - Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3) |
| Abstract: | The accounting methods used in the Early Modern period are hotly debated, particularly from the point of view of a possible «capitalist spirit» (the so-called «Sombart-Weber thesis», linking accounting and the development of capitalism). Because of the diversity of these methods, from day books to single-entry and double-entry book-keeping as well as charge and discharge, and the even wider range of practices, each source needs to be critically examined. Double-entry bookkeeping in particular, a method linked to the merchant world since manufacturers and large landholders tended to rely on charge and discharge, was actually used in ways specific to the period, in spite of the apparent modernity of the vocabulary. It did not focus on balance sheets, cost accounting, profit calculations or returns on investment, but was rather a tool allowing its users to manage the highly complex credit flows which structured merchant activity, thus allowing for the proper circulation of information, and underpinning the cartels and networks which controlled market segments and generated merchant profit. |
| Abstract: | Les comptabilités de l'époque Moderne sont l'objet de vifs débats, particulièrement par rapport à une possible « mentalité capitaliste » (la « thèse Sombart-Weber », d'après le lien fait par Max Weber et Werner Sombart entre comptabilité et capitalisme). La diversité des modèles, livres de raison, partie simple, charge et décharge, partie double, et surtout la multiplicité des pratiques, imposent une approche critique des sources. Malgré la modernité apparente du vocabulaire, la partie double en particulier, associée au monde marchand alors que les producteurs manufacturiers et les propriétaires fonciers utilisaient plutôt le système en charge et décharge, est en réalité un outil spécifique à la période. Les acteurs de l'époque, loin de se focaliser sur les bilans, calcul de coûts, mesures du profit et autres retours sur investissement, l'utilisaient avant tout pour gérer des flux de crédit multiformes, qui structuraient l'activité marchande en garantissant la circulation de l'information et la perpétuation de réseaux cartellisés contrôlant des segments de marché. |
| Date: | 2021–12–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-03559483&r= |
| By: | Henrik Kleven (Princeton University); Camille Landais (London School of Economics); Johanna Posch (Analysis Group); Andreas Steinhauer (University of Edinburgh); Josef Zweimüller (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | Do family policies reduce gender inequality in the labor market? We contribute to this debate by investigating the joint impact of parental leave and child care, using administrative data covering the labor market and birth histories of Austrian workers over more than half a century. We start by quasi-experimentally identifying the causal effects of all family policy reforms since the 1950s on the full dynamics of male and female earnings. We then map these causal estimates into a decomposition framework building on Kleven, Landais and Søgaard (2019) to compute counterfactual gender inequality series. Our results show that the enormous expansions of parental leave and child care subsidies have had virtually no impact on gender convergence. |
| Keywords: | Family, Gender Inequality, Austria |
| JEL: | J13 |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:econom:2021-62&r= |
| By: | Atif Mian (Princeton University); Ludwig Straub (Harvard University); Amir Sufi (Chicago Booth) |
| Abstract: | Rising income inequality since the 1980s in the United States has generated a substantial increase in saving by the top of the income distribution, which we call the saving glut of the rich. The saving glut of the rich has been as large as the global saving glut, and it has not been associated with an increase in investment. Instead, the saving glut of the rich has been linked to the substantial dissaving and large accumulation of debt by the non-rich. Analysis using variation across states shows that the rise in top income shares can explain almost all of the accumulation of household debt held as a financial asset by the household sector. Since the Great Recession, the saving glut of the rich has been financing government deficits to a greater degree. |
| Keywords: | Saving, Household Debt |
| JEL: | D31 E21 E44 G51 |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:econom:2021-70&r= |
| By: | Kristian Blickle; Markus K. Brunnermeier; Stephan Luck |
| Abstract: | We use the German Crisis of 1931, a key event of the Great Depression, to study how depositors behave during a bank run in the absence of deposit insurance. We find that deposits decline by around 20% during the run and that there is an equal outflow of retail and non-financial wholesale deposits from both ex-post failing and surviving banks. This implies that regular depositors are unable to identify failing banks. In contrast, the interbank market precisely identifies which banks will fail: the interbank market collapses for failing banks entirely but continues to function for surviving banks, which can borrow from other banks in response to deposit outflows. Since regular depositors appear uninformed, we argue that it is unlikely that deposit insurance would exacerbate moral hazard. Instead, interbank depositors are best positioned for providing “discipline” via short-term funding. |
| JEL: | G20 G21 |
| Date: | 2022–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29753&r= |
| By: | Kitamura, Shuhei; Lagerlöf, Nils-Petter |
| Abstract: | In this paper we propose that state structure in European history is linked to how geography affects the effective distance between state capitals. First we document that military battles tend to occur close to the shortest-distance corridors between the capitals of the belligerent powers, *except* where that corridor is intercepted by certain types of geography, specifically seas, mountains, and marshes. Geography thus seems to have influenced the effective military distance between the belligerents’ capitals. Then we explore similar corridors between a multitude of European cities, documenting two patterns: (1) state capitals tend to be closer to each other when the geography between them is more separating, as measured by similar types of geography found to affect battle locations; (2) controlling for distance, the likelihood that any two cities are located in the same state decreases with the same types of geography between them. We present a model consistent with these patterns. |
| Date: | 2021–11–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:cfrzs&r= |
| By: | Schelkle, Waltraud; Bohle, Dorothee |
| Abstract: | This special issue leverages the variation across Europe to expand on the conceptualisation of and the empirical knowledge about finance and financialization. As we will show, focussing on Europe can offer a richer understanding of the reach of financialization than the prevalent focus on the Anglo-American world, with surprising insights that may be of more general relevance to other world regions. More specifically, a focus on Europe allows new insights on the reach of financialization, central actors that brought it about, and the choices and trade-offs that have shaped the process. |
| Keywords: | banking; European integration; financialization; financial crisis; power; public finances; welfare state |
| JEL: | J1 F3 G3 |
| Date: | 2020–08–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:105859&r= |
| By: | Alessandro, Fornaroli |
| Abstract: | This thesis aims to study the political change taking place in Vietnam. The analysis was based on a thorough systematic review, including the main articles and data on the topic. The analytic perspective adopted was that of polyarchy, which acted as a lens subsequently used to answer two questions. First: What are the points of contact between economic development, political liberalization, and civil society? And second: What political factors lead to the consideration of Vietnam as a polyarchy? |
| Date: | 2021–11–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:8bgmu&r= |
| By: | Robert W. Fairlie; Frank Fossen |
| Abstract: | Was the $278 billion reboot of the $800 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) in early 2021 disbursed equitably to minority communities? This paper provides the first analysis of how PPP funds were disbursed to minority communities in the third and final round of the program, which was specifically targeted to underserved and disadvantaged communities. Using administrative microdata on the universe of PPP loans, we find a strong positive relationship between PPP flows, as measured by the number of loans per employer business or loan amounts per employee, and the minority share of the population or businesses in the third round. In contrast, the relationship was negative in the first round of 2020 and less positive in the second round of 2020. We find a stronger positive relationship between minority share and loan numbers or amounts to employer businesses for first draw loans than second draw loans in 2021 (capturing some persistence in inequities). The patterns are similar for loan numbers and amounts to nonemployer businesses but with a strong positive relationship with minority share for both first draw and second draw loans. The rebooted PPP that ran from January to May 2021 appears to have been disbursed to minority communities as intended. |
| JEL: | J15 L26 |
| Date: | 2022–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29732&r= |
| By: | Jean-Paul Simon; Pierre-Jean Benghozi (X-DEP-MIE - Département de Management de l'Innovation et Entreprenariat de l'École polytechnique - X - École polytechnique) |
| Abstract: | Over the last decades, media, IT and telecoms have been transitioning away from siloed markets dominated by legacy players. New entrants have been the engines of disruptive changes and the media sectors have witnessed new dynamics, opening up a phase of increased competition with competing business models. The context of convergence thus differs deeply from 20 years ago. The first section of the paper presents a picture of the European audio-visual markets, stressing its main features. It concentrates on the audiovisual service markets, describing its streams of revenue and structure. The second section tracks the way the European Commission has been dealing with the regulation of content over the last three decades. It sums up its main initiatives, goals and rationales. It shows how the European Commission has been catching up with technology with the progressive setting up of a two-pronged framework: sectoral (broadcasting-telecommunications) on the one hand, information society (e-commerce now digital services) framework on the other hand. The paper concludes with an assessment of the design and effectiveness of the policies, particularly DSA/DMA, and a view on the transition of the audiovisual markets. Based on a series of reports and research updated by desk research, the article reviews some of the existing literature, official publications and industry and consultancy data. |
| Keywords: | digital economy,audiovisual industry,convergence,European regulation |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-03503856&r= |
| By: | Eric T. Swanson |
| Abstract: | This chapter provides an overview of the federal funds market and how the equilibrium federal fund rate is determined. I devote particular attention to comparing and contrasting the federal funds market before and after 2008, since there were several dramatic changes around that time that completely changed the market and the way in which the equilibrium federal funds rate is determined. The size of this structural break is arguably as large and important as the period of reserves targeting under Fed Chairman Paul Volcker from 1979–82. Finally, I discuss the relationship between the federal funds rate and other short-term interest rates in the U.S. and the outlook for the federal funds market going forward. |
| JEL: | E43 E52 E58 |
| Date: | 2022–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29762&r= |
| By: | Roland Roland Bénabou (Princeton University); Davide Ticchi (Marche Polytechnic University); Andrea Vindigni (University of Genova) |
| Abstract: | We study the coevolution of religion, science and politics. We first uncover, in international and U.S. data, a robust negative relationship between religiosity and patents per capita. The model then combines: (i) scientific discoveries that raise productivity but sometimes erode religious beliefs; (ii) a government that allows innovations to diffuse, or blocks them; (iii) religious institutions that can invest in doctrinal reform. Three long-term outcomes emerge. The Western-European Secularization regime has declining religiosity, unimpeded science, and high taxes and transfers. The Theocratic regime involves knowledge stagnation, unquestioned dogma, and high religious-public-goods spending. The American regime combines scientific progress and stable religiosity through doctrinal adaptations, with low taxes and some fiscal-legal advantages for religious activities. Rising income inequality can, however, empower a Religious-Right alliance that starts blocking belief-eroding ideas. |
| Keywords: | science, discovery, innovation, progress, knowledge, religion, secularization, tolerance, religious right, theocracy, politics, populism, denialism, inequality, redistribution |
| JEL: | E02 H11 H41 O3 O43 P16 Z12 |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:econom:2020-24&r= |
| By: | Gilles Campagnolo (AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); E. Picavet (ISJPS - Institut des sciences juridique et philosophique de la Sorbonne - UMR 8103 - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03546212&r= |