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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2022‒04‒25
thirty-one papers chosen by |
| By: | Rossier, Thierry; Ellersgaard, Christoph Houman; Larsen, Anton Grau; Lunding, Jacob Aagaard |
| Abstract: | This article focuses on historical elite dynamics and investigates elites' integration over time. We describe the changing relations and composition of the central circles in Swiss elite networks at seven benchmark years between 1910 and 2015 by relying on 22,262 elite individuals tied to 2587 organizations among eight key sectors, and identify for each year the most connected core of individuals. We explore network cohesion and sectoral bridging of the elite core and find that it moved from being a unitary corporate elite, before 1945, to an integrated corporatist elite, between the 1950s and 1980s, before fragmenting into a loose group, with an increased importance of corporate elites, in the 1990s onwards. The core was always dominated by business and their forms of legitimacy but, at times of crisis to the hegemony of corporate elites, after the Second World War and (only) shortly after the 2008 financial crisis, elite circles expanded and included individuals with delegated forms of power, such as politicians and unionists. In the most recent cohort (2015), the share of corporate elites in the core is similar to the one before the First World War and during the interwar period. This return to the past echoes findings on wealth inequality and economic capital accumulation by a small group of individuals organized around the most powerful companies. |
| Keywords: | coordination; elites; historical sociology; inequality; networks; social networks; Swiss National Science Foundation within the frame of the “The Swiss Power Elite and Field of Power. Tensions between Elite Coordination and Differentiation since the 1950s” research project (grant number: 181258); and by the Independent Research Fund Denmark within the frame of the LONGLINKS project (grant number: 8019‐00021B |
| JEL: | N0 |
| Date: | 2022–02–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:113830&r= |
| By: | Becker, Sascha O. (Monash University) |
| Abstract: | Forced displacement as a consequence of wars, civil conflicts, or natural disasters does not only have contemporaneous consequences but also long-run repercussions. This eclectic overview summarizes some recent research on forced displacement in economic history. While many of the episodes covered refer to Europe, this survey points to literature across all continents. It highlights new developments, and points to gaps in the literature. |
| Keywords: | disasters, wars, forced displacement, networks |
| JEL: | F22 R23 D74 Q54 N30 |
| Date: | 2022–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15119&r= |
| By: | Antonio Ciccone; Jan Nimczik |
| Abstract: | After the end of World War II in 1945, millions of refugees arrived in what in 1949 became the Federal Republic of Germany. We examine their e ect on today's productivity, wages, income, rents, education, and population density at the municipality level. Our identification strategy is based on a spatial discontinuity in refugee settlement at the border between the French and US occupation zones in the South-West of post-war Germany. These occupation zones were established in 1945 and dissolved in 1949. The spatial discontinuity arose because the US zone admitted refugees during the 1945-1949 occupation period whereas the French zone restricted access. By 1950, refugee settlement had raised population density on the former US side of the 1945-1949 border significantly above density on the former French side. Before the war, there never had been significant di erences in population density. The higher density on the former US side persists entirely in 2020 and coincides with higher rents as well as higher productivity, wages, and education levels. We examine whether today's economic di erences across the former border are the result of the di erence in refugee admission; the legacy of other policy di erences between the 1945-1949 occupation zones; or the consequence of socio-economic di erences predating WWII. Taken together, our results indicate that today's economic di erences are the result of agglomeration e ects triggered by the arrival of refugees in the former US zone. We estimate that exposure to the arrival of refugees raised income per capita by around 13% and hourly wages by around 10%. |
| Keywords: | immigration, productivity wages, refugess, long-run effects |
| JEL: | O4 O11 R11 |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2022_345&r= |
| By: | Franck, Raphael; Galor, Oded; Moav, Omer; Özak, Ömer (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. |
| Date: | 2022–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:bfy52&r= |
| By: | Miotto, M (CERGE-EI and CAGE); Pascali, L (Pompeu Fabra Univerity, Barcelona GSE, CAGE and CEPR) |
| Abstract: | In the 19th century, the process of European expansion led to unprecedented changes in the urban landscape outside of Europe, with the urban population moving towards the coast and tripling in size. We argue that the majority of these changes can be explained by a single innovation, the chronometer, which allowed European explorers and merchants to measure longitude at sea. We use high-resolution global data on climate, ship routes, and demography from 1750 to 1900 to investigate empirically (i) the role of the adoption of the marine chronometer in re-routing trans-oceanic navigation, and (ii) the impact of these changes on the distribution of cities and population across the globe. Our identification relies on the differential impact of the chronometer across trans-oceanic sailing routes. |
| Keywords: | Longitude, Chronometer, Gravity, Globalization, Trade, Development JEL Classification: F1, F15, F43, R12, R4 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:608&r= |
| By: | Marco Del Angel; Gregory D. Hess; Marc D. Weidenmier |
| Abstract: | We investigate the extent to which conflicts between Native American tribes and U.S. Army troops were caused by poor economic conditions in Europe from 1869 to 1890. We hypothesize that contractions in economic activity pushed many Europeans to move to the western United States in search of better economic opportunity. The empirical analysis demonstrates that immigration, interacted with US railroad access, caused the probability of a Native American conflict to increase by approximately 46 percent. |
| JEL: | N10 N4 |
| Date: | 2022–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29812&r= |
| By: | Jean-Marc Lairaudat (VALLOREM - Val de Loire Recherche en Management - UT - Université de Tours - UO - Université d'Orléans) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this communication is to highlight that the past determines the present and can still help the French historic energy company and its agents to plan and invent their future. The main issue of our communication is thus posed: to what extent can EDF's past and the symbolic capital of its agents allow it to preserve its reputation as a social enterprise, a fortiori vis-à-vis customers in situation of fuel poverty? The central hypothesis of our study is that the diversity of forms of internal solidarity specific to large public service organizations is found in the way agents adapt to transformations and fulfill their missions vis-à-vis customers in difficulty. The symbolic capital that has aggregated over time among agents practically contributes to preserving the social reputation of the company, despite its deinstitutionalization combined with other organizational phenomena. |
| Keywords: | Cultural History,energy sector & business,welfare state,France in 20th Century,sociology of organizations,Innovation |
| Date: | 2021–09–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03570956&r= |
| By: | Becker, SO (Monash University and University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | Forced displacement as a consequence of wars, civil conflicts, or natural disasters does not only have contemporaneous consequences but also long-run repercussions. This eclectic overview summarizes some recent research on forced displacement in economic history. While many of the episodes covered refer to Europe, this survey points to literature across all continents. It highlights new developments, and points to gaps in the literature. |
| Keywords: | Forced Displacement, Wars, Disasters, Networks JEL Classification: F22, R23, D74, Q54, N30 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:611&r= |
| By: | Erfurth, Philipp Emanuel |
| Abstract: | This study examines regional inequality among Habsburg regions from the 19th century to today's EU by using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software to recreate historical regions in present-day projections. The findings suggests that regional disparities are markedly higher today than in the 19th century, despite rapid convergence in the past two decades. The study thus provides evidence of retrospective determinism in the study of the Habsburg economy and suggests that, although regional EU policy has been successful over the past two decades, further policy measures are needed to make up lost ground. For the 1867–1913 timeframe, the study finds two regional convergence clubs. Over the entire 1870–2018 period under review, the study finds no evidence of convergence. (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working Paper) |
| Date: | 2022–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:86p27&r= |
| By: | Andreas Ferrara; Joung Yeob Ha; Randall Walsh |
| Abstract: | This paper shows how to remove attenuation bias in regression analyses due to measurement error in historical data for a given variable of interest by using a secondary measure which can be easily generated from digitized newspapers. We provide three methods for using this secondary variable to deal with non-classical measurement error in a binary treatment: set identification, bias reduction via sample restriction, and a parametric bias correction. We demonstrate the usefulness of our methods by replicating two recent studies on the effect of the boll weevil. Relative to the initial analysis, our results yield markedly larger coefficient estimates. |
| JEL: | N01 |
| Date: | 2022–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29808&r= |
| By: | INOUE Hiroyasu; NAKAJIMA Kentaro; OKAZAKI Tetsuji; SAITO Yukiko |
| Abstract: | This study empirically investigates the role of face-to-face contact in innovation, by exploiting the Spanish flu pandemic in Japan from 1918 to 1921, which prohibitively increased the cost of face-to-face contact between inventors. By using unique patent bibliographic data for this period, we estimate the pandemic's impact on innovation for face-to-face contact-intensive technologies using the Difference-in-Differences (DID) approach. The estimation results show that during the pandemic, patent applications for face-to-face contact-intensive technologies significantly decreased, and did not fully recover even after the pandemic ended. We also find that the negative impact is driven by a decrease in new entries into patent applications, that is, patent applications by the inventors who applied for patents for the first time. We further find that productive inventors had experienced incidences of co-invention during their early careers. These results suggest that the decrease in face-to-face contacts with colleagues and seniors in the preliminary stages of inventors' careers reduced the opportunity to nurture new inventors. |
| Date: | 2022–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:22026&r= |
| By: | Hiroyasu Inoue (Graduate School of Simulation Studies, University of Hyogo); Kentaro Nakajima (Institute of Innovation Research, Hitotsubashi University); Tetsuji Okazaki (Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo); Yukiko U. Saito (Graduate School of Economics, Waseda University) |
| Abstract: | This study empirically investigates the role of face-to-face contact in innovation, by exploiting the Spanish flu pandemic in Japan from 1918 to 1921, which prohibitively increased the cost of face-to-face contact between inventors. By using unique patent bibliographic data for this period, we estimate the pandemic’s impact on innovation for face-to-face contact intensive technologies by the Difference-in-Differences (DID) approach. The estimation results show that during the pandemic, patent applications for face-to-face contact intensive technologies significantly decreased, and did not fully recover even after the pandemic ended. We also find that the negative impact is driven by a decrease in new entries into patent applications, that is, patent applications by the inventors who applied for patents for the first time. We further find that productive inventors were experienced co-inventions during their early careers. These results suggest that the decrease in face-to-face contacts with colleagues and seniors in the preliminary stages of inventors’ careers reduced the opportunity to nurture new inventors. |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tky:fseres:2022cf1192&r= |
| By: | Fabio Blasutto (Department of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics); David de la Croix (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)) |
| Abstract: | Censorship makes new ideas less available to others, but also reduces the share of people choosing to develop non-compliant ideas. We propose a new method to measure the effect of censorship on knowledge growth, accounting for the agents' choice between compliant and non-compliant occupations. We apply our method to the Catholic Church's censorship of books written by members of Italian universities and academies over the period 1400-1750. We highlight two new facts: once censorship was introduced, censored authors were of better quality than the non-censored authors, but this gap shrank over time, and the intensity of censorship decreased over time. These facts are used to identify the deep parameters of a novel endogenous growth model linking censorship to knowledge diffusion and occupational choice. We conclude that censorship reduced by 34% the average log publication per scholar in Italy, while adverse macroeoconomic processes are responsible for another 9% reduction. Interestingly, the induced reallocation of talents towards compliant activities explains half the effect of censorship. |
| Keywords: | Censorship, Upper-Tail Human Capital, Publications, Scholars, Early Modern Italy, Occupational Choice |
| JEL: | J24 N33 O33 O43 |
| Date: | 2022–04–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2022011&r= |
| By: | Kohnert, Dirk |
| Abstract: | Famines are almost always man-made often used as a deterrent. Since ancient times, food and hunger have been a weapon of war. Among the most notorious examples in Africa are the Herero and Namaqua genocide in German South-West Africa (now Namibia) from 1904 to 1908. It was the first genocide of the 20th century. Also, the subsequent famines in Biafra (South-East Nigeria, 1967-1969), when an estimated 1.5 million people starved to death, the 1980 famine in Uganda, one of the worst in African history, when 21% of the population died, and the recurring famines in Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan since the 1990s have been burned into human memory. The use of food as a weapon was condemned as a war crime by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in 1998. Since most African countries are Least Developed Countries (LLCs), they will suffer the hardest in the aftermath of Putin's war in Ukraine, especially Africa's poor. They have already suffered the consequences of drought, the corona pandemic and Islamist terrorism. Their already weakened position will be exacerbated by the spill-over effects of Russian aggression in Ukraine, which will further exacerbate hunger and poverty in Africa. All the more so as international development aid to Africa is likely to suffer from a massive redirection of aid to rearmament. Last but not least, Putin's war in Ukraine will have a major impact on EU-Africa relations. In view of the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic for Africa, it will further damage the mutual trust between both partners. About 86% of Africans have yet to receive two doses of vaccine. A growing number of African heads of state and government no longer see Western countries as reliable partners. |
| Keywords: | Russie, invasion, Ukraine, Afrique, famine, commerce international, pouvoir alimentaire, marchés d'armes, État fragile, terrorisme islamiste, Maghreb, Égypte, Maroc, Algérie, Tunisie, Libye, Afrique subsaharienne, Afrique du Sud, Cameroun, Mozambique, Éthiopie, Kenya, Ouganda , Somalie, Namibie, Nigeria, Soudan, sécurité énergétique, Chine, UE, USA |
| JEL: | E26 E31 F02 F13 F35 F51 F54 H56 N47 N57 N77 P26 Q17 Z13 |
| Date: | 2022–04–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:112768&r= |
| By: | Nicholas Sheard |
| Abstract: | The mainline railways in Australia were initially built in three different gauges, with 'breaks-of-gauge' where passengers and goods transferred between them. This paper studies how the gauge situation affected regional development and the railway network in the 20th century. Regional breaks-of-gauge caused substantial local growth, with population and employment levels increasing by around 50% within a decade relative to otherwise similar places. However, these effects were unwound within two decades of the break-of-gauge being closed. There is little evidence for the gauge-segmented railway network causing different paces of regional development. The gauge muddle also appears to have led to a more limited railway network than if a uniform gauge had been used from the beginning. |
| Keywords: | Agglomeration, Rail transport, Railway gauge, Trade frictions, Transport infrastructure |
| JEL: | H54 L92 N77 N97 R42 |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cop:wpaper:g-327&r= |
| By: | Gustavo S. Cortes; Angela Vossmeyer; Marc D. Weidenmier |
| Abstract: | U.S. stock volatility is 33 percent lower during wartime and periods of conflict. This is true even for World Wars I and II, which would seemingly increase uncertainty. In a seminal paper, Schwert (1989) identified the “war puzzle” as one of the most surprising facts from two centuries of stock volatility data. We propose an explanation for the puzzle: the profits of firms become easier to forecast during wartime due to massive government spending. We test this hypothesis using newly-constructed data on more than 100 years of defense spending. The aggregate analysis finds that defense spending reduces stock volatility. The sector level regressions show that defense spending predicts lower stock volatility for firms that produce military goods. Finally, an event-study demonstrates that earnings forecasts of defense firms by equity analysts become significantly less disperse after 9/11 and the invasions of Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003). |
| JEL: | E30 G1 H56 N12 |
| Date: | 2022–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29837&r= |
| By: | Wallace, Matthew; Wilson, Ben |
| Abstract: | The migrant mortality advantage has been observed extensively, but its authenticity is debated. In particular, concerns persist that the advantage is an artefact of the data, generated by the problems of recording mobility among foreign-born populations. Here, we build on the intersection of two recent developments: the first showing substantial age variation in the advantage-a deep U-shaped advantage at peak migration ages-and the second showing high levels of population over-coverage, the principal source of data artefact, at the same ages. We use event history analysis of Sweden's population registers (2010-15) to test whether this over-coverage can explain age variation in the migrant mortality advantage. We document its U-shape in Sweden and, crucially, demonstrate that large mortality differentials persist after adjusting for estimated over-coverage. Our findings contribute to ongoing debate by demonstrating that the migrant mortality advantage is real and by ruling out one of its primary mechanisms. |
| Keywords: | censoring bias; data artefact/artifact; emigration; event history analysis; health; international migration; mortality; over-coverage; population registers; Sweden; 2019-00603]; 2016-07105; 2016–07115; 340- 2013-5164] |
| JEL: | N0 |
| Date: | 2022–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:114300&r= |
| By: | Fenske, James (University of Warwick); Gupta, Bishnupriya (University of Warwick); Neumann, Cora (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | We construct novel data on female population shares by age, district, and religion in South Asia from 1881 to 1931. Sex ratios skew male in Northern India and are more balanced in Southern and Eastern India, including Burma. Male-biased sex ratios emerge most visibly after age 10, and this is not specific to any one region, religion, or time period. Sikhs have the most male-biased sex ratios, followed by Hindus, Muslims, and Jains. The female share correlates across religious groups within districts. Evidence that sex ratios correlate with suitability for wheat and rice is weaker than suggested by the existing literature. |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1402&r= |
| By: | Lehmann-Hasemeyer, Sibylle H.; Neumayer, Andreas; Streb, Jochen |
| Abstract: | Using microeconomic data on 2,500 savers of the savings bank Ludwigsburg, we study individual savings behavior in 19th century-Germany. We show that wealthy savers responded to an increase in the expected inflation rate (and falling real interest rate) by increasing their savings, suggesting that they pursued a real saving target that could only be defended by saving more when investment conditions became adverse. Workers' savings behavior changed over time. For a long time, poorer, often female, working-class savers were forced to reduce their savings in times of high prices because they had to spend most of their income on essential consumer goods. This changed in the 1880s, when the living conditions of the working class improved significantly due to rising real wages and greater social security. We therefore observe a structural break in the savings regime: the originally negative relationship between inflation expectations and savings was reversed into a positive one. Looking only at the aggregate may obscure the true motives and changes in behavior of heterogeneous savers. |
| Keywords: | expectations,inflation,industrialization,inequality,heterogeneous savers |
| JEL: | D15 E21 N33 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:pp1859:33&r= |
| By: | Bělín, Matěj (CERGE-EI); Jelínek, Tomáš (Moravian College); Jurajda, Štepán (CERGE-EI) |
| Abstract: | Survivor testimonies link survival in deadly POW camps, Gulags, and Nazi concentration camps to the formation of close friendships with other prisoners. We provide statistical evidence consistent with these fundamentally selective testimonies. We study the survival of the 140 thousand Jews who entered the Theresienstadt ghetto, where 33 thousand died and from where over 80 thousand were sent to extermination camps. We ask whether an individual's social status prior to deportation, and the availability of potential friends among fellow prisoners influenced the risk of death in Theresienstadt, the ability to avoid transports to the camps, and the chances of surviving Auschwitz. Pre-deportation social status protected prisoners in the self-administered society of the Theresienstadt ghetto, but it was no longer helpful in the extreme conditions of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Relying on multiple proxies of pre-existing social networks, we uncover a significant survival advantage to entering Auschwitz with a group of potential friends. |
| Keywords: | social status, social networks, Holocaust Survival, Nazi concentration camp, ghetto, Theresienstadt/Terezín, Auschwitz-Birkenau |
| JEL: | Z1 |
| Date: | 2022–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15130&r= |
| By: | Zhou, Haiwen |
| Abstract: | For a large economy trying to achieve industrialization, it needs to develop indigenous technological capacities to make growth sustainable. Industrialization can be challenging to achieve because it might be difficult to develop technologies without changing culture and political institutions which are useful to maintain ruling. Rulers in ancient China choose institutions to prevent internal rebellions. Industrialization was a new goal for the Qing government in the 19th century, and previous institutions were not designed to handle this issue. China’s high growth rates after 1978 resulted from internal reforms to increase efficiency and external openness to absorb foreign capital, knowledge, and technologies. China’s state capacity and leadership supported developing technological capacities in the catch-up process. |
| Keywords: | China, economic development, technological capacity, political economy, state capacity |
| JEL: | N95 O14 O53 |
| Date: | 2022–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:112163&r= |
| By: | Aldunate, F; González, F; Prem, M |
| Abstract: | Economic sanctions and covert actions from hegemonic states are common tools used to influence other countries. Less is known about non-state actors such as banks and their impact across borders. We use new firm-level data from Chile to document a substantial decrease in financial relations with U.S. banks after socialist Salvador Allende took office in 1970. An analysis of links with banks from other countries reveals that part of the decrease was specific to the U.S. banking sector. Business reports and stock prices suggest that firms were mostly unaffected by the destruction of links with U.S. banks. Substitution of financial relations towards state-owned banks appears to be the key mechanism to explain these findings. |
| Keywords: | firms, banks, Cold War, United States, Salvador Allende. |
| Date: | 2022–04–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000092:020055&r= |
| By: | Moura, Alban |
| Abstract: | I update the Greenwood, Hercowitz, and Krusell (1997) decomposition of U.S. growth into contributions from neutral and investment-specific technological progress. I allow the decomposition to vary across sub-samples, reflecting the presence of trend breaks in the data. The estimates suggest that neutral technological progress explained virtually all growth between 1950 and the mid-1970s. However, investment-specific technological progress accounts for about 75 percent of growth since the 1980s. These results support splitting the postwar sample and using two-sector models to study the recent period. |
| Keywords: | neutral technology; investment-specific technology; sources of long-run growth; structural breaks |
| JEL: | E13 O33 O41 O47 |
| Date: | 2021–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:112350&r= |
| By: | Viral V. Acharya; Matteo Crosignani; Tim Eisert; Sascha Steffen |
| Abstract: | This paper surveys the theory on zombie lending incentives and the consequences of zombie lending for the real economy. It also offers a historical perspective by reviewing the growing empirical evidence on zombie lending along three dimensions: (i) the role of under-capitalized banks, (ii) effects on zombie firms, and (iii) spillovers and distortions for non-zombie firms. We then provide an overview of how zombie lending can be attenuated. Finally, we use a sample of U.S. publicly listed firms to compare various measures proposed in the literature to classify firms as "zombies." We identify definitions of zombie firms that are adequate to investigate economic inefficiency in the form of real sector competitive distortions of zombie lending. We find that only definitions that are based on interest rate subsidies are able to detect these spillovers and thereby provide evidence in support of credit misallocation. |
| JEL: | E44 E58 G01 G2 G3 |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29904&r= |
| By: | Elliott Ash; Daniel L. Chen; Suresh Naidu |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a quantitative analysis of the effects of the early law-and- economics movement on the U.S. judiciary. We focus on the Manne Economics Institute for Federal Judges, an intensive economics course that trained almost half of federal judges between 1976 and 1999. Using the universe of published opinions in U.S. Circuit Courts and 1 million District Court criminal sentencing decisions, we estimate the within-judge effect of Manne program attendance. Selection into attendance was limited—the program was popular across judges from all backgrounds, was regularly oversubscribed, and admitted judges on a first-come first-served basis—and results are robust to a variety of automatically selected covariates predicting the timing of attendance. We find that after attending economics training, participating judges use more economics language in their opinions, issue more conservative decisions in economics-related cases, rule against regulatory agencies more often, favor more lax enforcement in antitrust cases, and impose more/longer criminal sentences. The law-and- economics movement had policy consequences via its influence on U.S. federal judges. |
| JEL: | B2 K0 |
| Date: | 2022–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29788&r= |
| By: | Jones, Daniel (University of Pittsburgh); Shi, Ying (Syracuse University) |
| Abstract: | The Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 removed barriers to voting for Black Americans in the South; existing work documents that this in turn led to shifts in the distribution of public funding towards areas with a higher share of Black residents and also reduced Black-White earnings disparities. We consider how expanded access to the ballot improved the well-being of children, and in doing so document that the immediate effects of expanded voting access last well into the next generation. Specifically, within a cohort-based differences-in-differences design, we test how early-life exposure to the VRA differentially impacted later-life outcomes of Black Americans. We find that increased exposure to the VRA before the age 18 leads to higher educational attainment and earnings in adulthood for Black Americans, with little or no impact on whites. |
| Keywords: | Voting Rights Act, racial inequality, voting, childhood exposure |
| JEL: | J15 N12 D72 |
| Date: | 2022–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15095&r= |
| By: | Ekamena Ntsama, Nadine Sabine; Ngo Bilong, Adèle Micheline; Alhadji, Abdoul Dani |
| Abstract: | This study aims to assess the effect of bank credit granted to the private sector and gross domestic savings on economic growth in Cameroon. We use the Ordinary Least Squares method on time series data for a period from 1980 to 2019 from the World Bank (WDI). The main results show that credit granted to the private sector by banks and gross domestic savings have a positive and significant effect on economic growth in Cameroon over the study period. In sum, we find the existence of a significant effect of the banking system on economic growth in Cameroon between 1980 and 2019. It emerges the main recommendation that the country's political decision-makers must promote the development of the banking system and focus on restructuring financial development to accelerate sustainable short- and long-term growth |
| Keywords: | Economic growth , private credit , gross domestic savings, financial development |
| JEL: | E51 |
| Date: | 2022–04–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:112649&r= |
| By: | Giulio Cainelli (University of Padua); Carlo Ciccarelli (DEF, University of Rome "Tor Vergata"); Roberto Ganau (University of Padua and LSE) |
| Abstract: | We study how changes in the political-administrative hierarchy of a country affect urban development. We exploit the 1865 administrative reform occurred in the aftermath of Italian unification as a quasi-natural experiment to assess whether district’s capital cities endowed with supra-municipal administrative functions by law gained a population growth premium compared to similar non-capital cities in the period 1871-1921. We rely on difference-in-differences and event study estimation strategies, and find that district’s capital cities recorded a time-persistent population growth premium. Three main mechanisms explain our results: increases in public employment; increases in manufacturing employment; and development of the infrastructure endowment. |
| Keywords: | Administrative reforms; political-administrative hierarchy; urban development; Italian unification. |
| JEL: | H11 N13 O11 R11 |
| Date: | 2022–04–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:538&r= |
| By: | Nathan Nunn |
| Abstract: | I provide a theoretically-guided discussion of the dynamics of human behavior, focusing on the importance of culture (socially-learned information) and tradition (transmission of culture across generations). Decision-making that relies on tradition can be an effective strategy and arises in equilibrium. While dynamically optimal, it generates static `mismatch.' When the world changes, since traits evolve slowly, they may not be beneficial in their new environment. I discuss how mismatch helps explain the world around us, presents special challenges and opportunities for policy, and provides important lessons for our future as a human species. |
| JEL: | B5 B52 N00 O10 |
| Date: | 2022–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29804&r= |
| By: | Pies, Ingo |
| Abstract: | Dieser Aufsatz resümiert 30 Jahre wirtschaftsethischer Theoriearbeit und stellt hierzu insbesondere das ordonomische Forschungsprogramm vor. |
| Keywords: | Gefangenendilemma,Ordnungsethik,Ordonomik,Orthogonale Positi-onierung,Semantik,Sozialstruktur,Prisoners' Dilemma,Order Ethics,Ordonomics,Orthogonal Position,Semantics,Social Structure |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:mlucee:202202&r= |
| By: | Pedro H. G. Ferreira de Souza (IPC-IG) |
| Keywords: | history, inequality, top, incomes, Brazil, 1926, 2015 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:opfran:380&r= |