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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2023‒04‒10
27 papers chosen by |
| By: | Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet (ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech, CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AgroParisTech - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Antoine Missemer (CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AgroParisTech - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | Taking a long-run historical perspective, we analyze how debates about energy efficiency have evolved in the economic literature since the mid-19th century. We distinguish three periods: the classical age, focused on the rebound effect, from Jevons in the 1860s to American institutionalism in the mid-20th century; the modern age, marked by the rise of the energy efficiency gap concept, from the 1970s to the 1990s; the contemporary age, from the early 2000s onwards, focused on the concept of energy performance gap. We find that reflections on energy efficiency have embraced more general developments in the economics discipline: emergence of institutionalism in the classical age, primarily concerned with policy; public economics in the modern age, emphasizing the concept of market failure; behavioral economics and the so-called credibility revolution in empirical economics in the contemporary age, which made energy efficiency a much-favored context for conducting experiments, questioning rationality and implementing nudges. The transitions between phases closely paralleled changes in societal concerns, from resource depletion in the classical age to energy security in the modern age to climate change in the contemporary age. Throughout this long history, we have detected a change in focus from macro- to micro-perspectives. Despite increasing sophistication and constant reinterpretation, energy efficiency remains a subject of controversy, such that no consensus has yet been reached on its potential and effective benefits. In closing, we propose to update Jaffe, Newell and Stavins' landmark energy efficiency gap framework to account for the most recent developments and trace avenues for future research. |
| Keywords: | energy efficiency, energy conservation, rebound effect, market barriers and failures, nudge, empirical turn, history of economic thought |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02301636&r=his |
| By: | Klein, Alexander (University of Kent and CAGE) |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews research on spatial inequalities in the United States focusing on the Manufacturing Belt and Rust Belt. It offers a taxonomy of scholarship in this area and assesses its contribution to our understanding of the evolution of U.S. spatial inequalities since the middle of the nineteenth century. This scholarship has shown that the initial location of the Manufacturing Belt was influenced by natural resources, location of initial European settlements and early development of canals. The dominant position of the belt was the result of its large market potential which allowed firms to take advantage of agglomeration economies, supply-chain linkages and low-cost access to the consumers. Its decline and subsequent emergence of the Rust Belt was the result of rising labor costs and diminished location advantage. |
| Keywords: | manufacturing belt, rust belt, economic geography, spatial inequality JEL Classification: B20, R12, N61, N62, N91, N92 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:657&r=his |
| By: | Ran Abramitzky; Jacob Conway; Roy Mill; Luke Stein |
| Abstract: | We study differences in economic outcomes by perceived skin tone among African Americans using full-count U.S. decennial census data from the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Comparing children coded as “Black” or “Mulatto” by census enumerators and linking these children across population censuses, we first document large gaps in educational attainment and income among African Americans with darker and lighter perceived skin tones. To disentangle the drivers of these gaps, we identify all 36, 329 families in which enumerators assigned same-gender siblings different Black/Mulatto classifications. Relative to sisters coded as Mulatto, sisters coded as Black had lower educational attainment, were less likely to marry, and had lower-earning, less-educated husbands. These patterns are consistent with more severe contemporaneous discrimination against African-American women with darker perceived skin tones. In contrast, we find similar educational attainment, marital outcomes, and incomes among differently-classified brothers. Men perceived as African Americans of any skin tone faced similar contemporaneous discrimination, consistent with the “one-drop” racial classification rule that grouped together individuals with any known Black ancestry. Lower incomes for African-American men perceived as having darker skin tone in the general population were driven by differences in opportunities and resources that varied across families, likely reflecting the impacts of historical or family-level discrimination |
| JEL: | D1 J1 J7 N3 Z13 |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31016&r=his |
| By: | Innset, Ola |
| Abstract: | Review of “What Capitalism Needs. Forgotten Lessons of Great Economists” by John L. Campbell and John A. Hall |
| Date: | 2023–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:xrb5u&r=his |
| By: | Vergara-Vidal, Jorge |
| Abstract: | The enormous everyday and cultural influence of the design carried out by the teams of the public agency Corporación de la Vivienda (CORVI) (Housing Corporation) in Chilean cities gives rise, in this text, to an approach to their period of greatest production as a unique creative moment which, guided by the idea of rationalisation of project decisions, collaborates centrally in the process of their standardisation. To this end, the information on the eighteen project typologies drawn up between 1966 and 1971 by these teams and contained in the document "Tipología de viviendas racionalizadas 1966-1972” (Rationalised housing typologies 1966-1972) is systematised. Not all of these designs were finally built, but their forms, materials, dimensions and programmes give an account of a synthesis of the housing built up to that time and of the similarities between them, which is understood as evidence of a process both typological and standardised, which delimits and symmetrises the structural and spatial aspects between the prototypes of social housing. |
| Date: | 2023–03–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:7wqmt&r=his |
| By: | Jorge Eduardo Carrera; Gaspar Ezequiel Maciel; Esteban Emilio |
| Keywords: | Política Monetaria, Banco Central, Pasivos Remunerados |
| JEL: | E52 E58 |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aep:anales:4448&r=his |
| By: | Juan Carlos de Pablo |
| Abstract: | Basada principalmente en mi memoria, este ensayo plantea una reflexión personal sobre lo ocurrido en las últimas 4 décadas en el escenario internacional, el contexto político local, las autoridades económicas, las políticas ensayadas y los resultados obtenidos. Complementa la obra escrita ajena y propia referida al período 1983-2023. Servirá de poco a quien nada sabe sobre el período; espero que le resulte útil a quienes saben algunas cosas. El 25 de noviembre de 2023 cumpliré mis primeros 80 años, de manera que, desde el punto de vista político institucional de Argentina, viví la primera mitad de mi existencia alternando gobiernos democráticos y militares, y la segunda bajo un régimen democrático que, aunque con importantes vicisitudes, este año cumple 40 años de vida, y todo indica que -gracias a Dios- continuará vigente. Este ensayo complementa toda la obra escrita, la ajena y la propia, referida al período 1983-2023, planteando una reflexión personal, basada principalmente en mi memoria, sobre lo ocurrido en las últimas 4 décadas en el escenario internacional, el contexto político local, las autoridades económicas, las políticas ensayadas y los resultados obtenidos. Dije complementa: le servirá de poco a quien nada sabe sobre el período; espero que le resulte útil a quienes saben algunas cosas o, por razones de edad, las conocen de oídas. |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cem:doctra:850&r=his |
| By: | Alessio Emanuele Biondo |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an agent-based model with the aim to follow, as closely as possible, the rationale of the macroeconomic model advanced by J.M. Keynes in his famous book entitled The General Theory of Unemployment, Interest and Money. Since the task is admittedly ambitious, it has been divided over more than one single paper. In the present one, the modelling choices are described and the main objective of the General Theory will be provided, i.e., to determine the level of income and employment starting from the interest rate, the marginal efficiency of capital, and the marginal propensity to consume. In the forthcoming companion paper, results from a more articulated set of simulations - referred to some exercises of monetary and fiscal policy - will be reported. The description of the elements of the model is provided with several supporting parts of the original text. |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2303.00889&r=his |
| By: | D'Acunto, Francesco; Schnorpfeil, Philip; Weber, Michael |
| Abstract: | Lack of privacy due to surveillance of personal data, which is becoming ubiquitous around the world, induces persistent conformity to the norms prevalent under the surveillance regime. We document this channel in a unique laboratory-the widespread surveillance of private citizens in East Germany. Exploiting localized variation in the intensity of surveillance before the fall of the Berlin Wall, we show that, at the present day, individuals who lived in high-surveillance counties are more likely to recall they were spied upon, display more conformist beliefs about society and individual interactions, and are hesitant about institutional and social change. Social conformity is accompanied by conformist economic choices: individuals in high-surveillance counties save more and are less likely to take out credit, consistent with norms of frugality. The lack of differences in risk aversion and binding financial constraints by exposure to surveillance helps to support a beliefs channel. |
| Keywords: | Cultural Finance, History & Finance, Social Learning, Beliefs, Persistence, Household Finance, Behavioral Finance, Big Data, FinTech |
| JEL: | D14 E21 E51 G21 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:lawfin:51&r=his |
| By: | Damiano Argan and Anatole Cheyssson |
| Abstract: | We study how foreign language proficiency affects brain drain by exploiting the exposure of parts of Albania to Italian television in the second half of the twentieth century. At that time, Albania was isolated from the rest of the world, with controlled internal migration and prohibited international migration. As the Italian TV transmitter accidentally reached Albania, Albanians’ exposure to the signal was as good as random conditional on geographical variables. We find that exposure to Italian TV led to a considerable increase in Italian proficiency rates. It also strongly increased the probability of emigration of highly skilled individuals, but did not affect other skill groups. We rule out other channels through which TV might affect migration and interpret our findings as the effect of foreign language proficiency on brain drain. |
| Keywords: | Migration; Media; International Migration; Language. |
| JEL: | O15 L82 F22 Z13 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eui:euiwps:eco2023/01&r=his |
| By: | Giraud, Yann (Université de Cergy-Pontoise) |
| Abstract: | A transcription of a 2019 conversation with Duke historian E. Roy Weintraub on his intellectual development over the 1980s from mathematician to economist to historian. The conversation also explored Weintraub’s early and continuing attempts to forge new ways to study the history of contemporary economics, and the role of science studies in providing a natural language for such explorations. A French translation has already been published in the journal Zilsel: Science, technique, société. |
| Date: | 2023–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:je6bp&r=his |
| By: | Pack, Spencer |
| Abstract: | Review of “David Ricardo: An Intellectual Biography” by Sergio Cremaschi |
| Date: | 2023–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:9spzx&r=his |
| By: | Lucas Tossolini; Mónica Gómez |
| Keywords: | BANCO CENTRAL, POLÍTICA MONETARIA, HISTORIA ECONÓMICA ARGENTINA |
| JEL: | G21 N26 |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aep:anales:4524&r=his |
| By: | Kunal Sen |
| Abstract: | When India became a republic in 1950, the economy was primarily agrarian, with three-fifths of output originating from agriculture. In the sixty years since independence, there has been a significant transformation of economic activity away from agriculture, with less than one-fifth of output now originating from agriculture and the rest from manufacturing and services. Since the 1980s, along with structural change, there has been strong economic growth, till 2010, followed by a period of declining growth. |
| Keywords: | Economic growth, Structural change, Economic policy, India |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2023-47&r=his |
| By: | Marie Roussie (M-Lab - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres, IHEIE - Institut des Hautes Etudes pour l’Innovation et l’Entrepreneuriat (IHEIE) - Mines Paris - PSL (École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris) - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres); Cédric Denis-Rémis (IHEIE - Institut des Hautes Etudes pour l’Innovation et l’Entrepreneuriat (IHEIE) - Mines Paris - PSL (École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris) - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres) |
| Abstract: | The exploration of the historical relations between science fiction (SF) and foresight approaches, and the construction of a panorama of initiatives mobilizing SF imaginaries within organizations demonstrate that using SF to think about the future is not an innovation. However, this is a new practice within the French armies. |
| Abstract: | L'exploration des relations historiques entre science-fiction (SF) et démarches prospectives, et la construction d'un panorama des initiatives mobilisant des imaginaires de SF au sein des organisations montrent que faire appel à la SF pour penser le futur n'est pas une innovation de pratique dans l'absolu. Il s'agit cependant d'une nouvelle pratique au sein des armées françaises. |
| Keywords: | Foresight, Defence, Science fiction, Science-fiction, Prospective, Défense, Innovation |
| Date: | 2022–11–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03942386&r=his |
| By: | Andrew Seltzer; Jonathan Wadsworth |
| Abstract: | The advent of commuting in 1930s London opened up opportunities to working-class people. Andrew Seltzer and Jonathan Wadsworth show how public transport boosts the labour market. |
| Keywords: | Economic geography, Technological change, labour market, UK Economy, Wages, Social mobility |
| Date: | 2023–02–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepcnp:6444&r=his |
| By: | Agnese, Pablo (UIC Barcelona); Garcia-del-Barrio, Pedro (University of Navarra); Gil-Alana, Luis A. (University of Navarra); de Gracia, Fernando Perez (University of Navarra) |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically examines the degree of persistence in four precious metal prices (i.e., gold, palladium, platinum, and silver) during the last four U.S. recessions. Unit root tests and fractional integration techniques suggest that gold still is the most prominent safe haven asset within this particular asset class. Our analysis highlights gold's traditional role as a hedge against market uncertainty in post-pandemic new era, thus retaining its status quo as a store of value during economic contractions. |
| Keywords: | precious metal prices, U.S. recessions, persistence, COVID-19 |
| JEL: | G10 G11 G15 F10 |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16012&r=his |
| By: | Simone Cremaschi; Juan Masullo J. |
| Abstract: | Can past wartime experiences other than violence have long-term effects on political attitudes and behaviours? How are these legacies sustained across generations and beyond those who directly experienced war? We explore these questions in Italy, a country whose democratic institutions were forged after a civil war (1943-45) fought between an armed resistance movement and Nazi-Fascist forces. We argue that local experiences of resistance left anti-fascist legacies that can be translated into contemporary political action. |
| Keywords: | Civil conflict, Italy, Political attitudes, Fascism |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2023-44&r=his |
| By: | Stefania Albanesi; Claudia Olivetti; Barbara Petrongolo |
| Abstract: | Decades of progress have seen greater opportunities for women in the workplace, but sizeable gender gaps remain in most indicators of economic achievement. Stefania Albanesi, Claudia Olivetti and Barbara Petrongolo review the effect of family policies on women's careers and set out the challenges to come. |
| Keywords: | gender, gender gap, policy, gender gaps, spousal specialisation, family policies |
| Date: | 2023–02–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepcnp:652&r=his |
| By: | Cavit Baran; Eric Chyn; Bryan A. Stuart |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of the First Great Migration on children. We use the complete count 1940 Census to estimate selection-corrected place effects on education for children of Black migrants. On average, Black children gained 0.8 years of schooling (12 percent) by moving from the South to North. Many counties that had the strongest positive impacts on children during the 1940s offer relatively poor opportunities for Black youth today. Opportunities for Black children were greater in places with more schooling investment, stronger labor market opportunities for Black adults, more social capital, and less crime. |
| JEL: | H75 J15 J24 N32 |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31012&r=his |
| By: | Becchio, Giandomenica |
| Abstract: | Review of “Economic Theory in the Twentieth Century, An Intellectual History. Volume II, 1919–1945: Economic Theory in an Age of Crisis and Uncertainty” by Roberto Marchionatti |
| Date: | 2023–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:fp3d6&r=his |
| By: | Wible, James R. |
| Abstract: | Review of “Veblen: The Making of an Economist Who Unmade Economics” by Charles Camic |
| Date: | 2023–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:8yhkr&r=his |
| By: | Pedro Esteban Moncarz; Manuel Flores; Sebastian Villano; Marcel Vaillant |
| Keywords: | América Latina, Integración, Desempeño comparado |
| JEL: | F13 F15 |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aep:anales:4493&r=his |
| By: | Eduardo Fracchia; Martín Calveira |
| Keywords: | crecimiento económico, desarrollo industrial, productividad inclusiva |
| JEL: | O1 O4 |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aep:anales:4472&r=his |
| By: | Guru Dev Teeluckdharry (University of Leicester) |
| Abstract: | This paper sheds light on the collapse of the British American Investment conglomerate in Mauritius also known as the BAI Group. According to the Government of Mauritius, the BAI Group was operating a vast Ponzi Scheme via its banking subsidiary known as the Bramer Banking Corporation Ltd (BBCL). Furthermore, according to the report of nTan Corporate Advisory Pte Ltd which is a consultant of the Bank of Mauritius, the BAI Group's subsidiaries such as the British American Insurance (BAI Co. (Mtius) Ltd) and Bramer Property Fund (BPF) were operating 'Ponzi-like Schemes'. A good number of financial analysts, economists, and accountants contrarily stated that the BAI Group was operating a Pyramid Scheme. Whereas many investors of the BAI Group had the firm belief that it was a victim of political vendetta and conspiracy. Which is which? Dyed-in-the-wool prophets of doom such as the former Prime Minister of Mauritius, the current Prime Minister of Mauritius, the former Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, and Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, the former Minister of Financial Services, Good Governance and Institutional Reforms, the leader of the MMM party and the former Governor of the Bank of Mauritius have all without exception subjectively and descriptively painted a black picture of the BAI Group hither and thither. On top of that, they have acted in 'bad faith' by misleading the Mauritian nation. This paper analyses the other end of the spectrum from a critical perspective based exclusively upon the Academic Literature and takes up the gauntlet with intrepidity to "Give The Devil His Due". |
| Keywords: | BAI Group, Pyramid Scheme, Ponzi Scheme, Ponzi-like Scheme, Bank of Mauritius, Government of Mauritius, Financial Services Commission (FSC), Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Interpol, Mr. Dawood Rawat, BAI Group Pyramid Scheme Ponzi Scheme Ponzi-like Scheme Bank of Mauritius Government of Mauritius Financial Services Commission (FSC) Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) Interpol Mr. Dawood Rawat |
| Date: | 2022–06–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03708031&r=his |
| By: | Felipe Carozzi; Edward Pinchbeck; Luca Repetto |
| Abstract: | How does the memory of lives lost in past wars shape communities and the next generation of soldiers? We use newly collected geolocated data on British servicemen to study the legacy of the Great War mortality shock on local communities and the behaviour of soldiers in WW2. We find that community-wide fatalities in WW1 increase the numbers of deaths of the next generation in WW2 and the likelihood that these soldiers receive military honours. To explain these findings, we report that WW1 deaths had promoted civic-oriented and cooperative behaviours in the inter-war period, as measured by the creation of lasting war memorials, veterans’ associations and charities, and increases in voter participation. Overall, we present evidence that part of the legacy of the Great War on British servicemen runs through and is amplified by civic capital and the remembrance of fallen soldiers. |
| Keywords: | World War, communities, combat motivation, conflict |
| JEL: | D74 D91 O15 Z10 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10298&r=his |
| By: | Izumi Shirai (Japan Business History Institute) |
| Abstract: | This study explores a nursery in the Tohoku region, which was established in 1934 when the region starved because of extremely cold summer damaging crops. The crop failure led to a food shortage, and many children were malnourished. The Iwaki Day Nursery was established in response to this situation. Recently-unearthed records of the nursery, which have been stored in the library of a local high school, have revealed that the nursery was a joint project of various parties; Nihon-kirisutokyo-renmei (National Christian Council of Japan), Christian missionaries and churches, private donors residing in and outside the region, Keifuku-kai (a charitable association with Imperial patronage), central and local governments, and private companies. The most important actor was the Too Gijuku, a missionary school in the region, whose headmaster was the administrative director of the nursery and played a significant role in fundraising with other members of administration. The records also suggest that the donors were not only high-income taxpayers but newly-emerging middle-class people in towns. In addition, women and even children donated small amounts of money as Christians. Whereas previous studies on pre-war nurseries in the countryside in the early 1930s found that most were established by private communal organisations and individuals and were mainly funded by local subsidies, the Iwaki Day Nursery was led by a Christian educational organization and relied largely on donations from outside the community for its financial resources, especially during the period when it was established. Its support was channeled through Christian networks on a national and global scale. |
| Keywords: | relief and care of children, day nursery, crop failure, donation, Christine |
| JEL: | N35 D64 N95 |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:2304&r=his |