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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2023‒06‒26
38 papers chosen by |
| By: | Joel Mokyr; Guido Tabellini |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the historical and social origins of the bifurcation in the political institutions of China and Western Europe. An important factor, recognized in the literature, is that China centralized state institutions very early on, while Europe remained politically fragmented for much longer. These initial differences, however, were amplified by the different social organizations (clans in China, corporate structures in Europe) that spread in these two societies at the turn of the first millennium AD. State institutions interacted with these organizations, and were shaped and influenced by this interaction. The paper discusses the many ways in which corporations contributed to the emergence of representative institutions and gave prominence to the rule of law in the early stages of state formation in Europe, and how specific features of lineage organizations contributed to the consolidation of the Imperial regime in China. |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10405&r=his |
| By: | Solomon, Guy; Wilson, Alan |
| Abstract: | This paper is offered as a contribution to facilitating the integration of qualitative and quantitative analysis in historical study. The method of input-output modelling is applied to the study of the evolution of the cities of England and Wales between 1851 and 1911. The construction of input-output accounts for each city (or city region) is based on ‘heroic’ data assumptions, which enable the construction of a demonstration model illustrating a new iterative approach to historical analysis. In its current application, the model enables estimates to be made of meso-level trade between cities, which enhances our analysis of urban evolution in this period. |
| Date: | 2023–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:r2f4u&r=his |
| By: | Filip Jiroušek (Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic) |
| Abstract: | Czechoslovakia was part of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. Since 1948, the country has been ruled by a monopoly Communist Party that controlled all aspects of daily life. The ruling party enforced the official culture, the official political and social discourse. Opponents were punished by the communist regime. During the 1980s, more and more opposition groups began to circulate in Czechoslovakia and many young people began to speak out against the ruling communist regime and its power. But the situation in Czechoslovakia did not develop as quickly as in Poland or Hungary, for example. This paper focuses on the perspective of the micro-region. It presents the life stories of dissidents and young people who opposed the communist regime in the locality of a village or small town. Two examples of happening resistance are also presented in the text. The historical stories are reconstructed primarily because of recorded oral history interviews with the actors of the events, but also because of archival research. |
| Keywords: | Czechoslovakia, Communist, Oral History, Human Rights, Resistance |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:scmowp:01261&r=his |
| By: | Berger, Thor (Department of Economic History & Centre for Economic Demography, School of Economics and Management, Lund University); Prawitz, Erik (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the identity and origins of Swedish inventors prior to World War I drawing on the universe of patent records linked to census data. We document that the rise of innovation during Sweden’s industrialization can largely be attributed to a small industrial elite belonging to the upper-tail of the economic, educational, and social status distribution. Analyzing children’s opportunities to become an inventor, we show that inventors were disproportionately drawn from privileged family backgrounds. However, among the middle- and working-class children that managed to overcome the barriers to entry, innovation was a path to upward mobility. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; Inventors; Intergenerational mobility |
| JEL: | I25 J62 O31 |
| Date: | 2023–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1462&r=his |
| By: | Grodecka-Messi, Anna (Monetary Policy Department, Central Bank of Sweden); Zhang, Xin (Research Department, Central Bank of Sweden) |
| Abstract: | Central banks have been considering the introduction of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The theoretical literature indicates that this may influence private banks’ lending activity and their profitability with implications for financial stability. To provide empirical evi dence on this debate, we study the effects of the arrival of a new central-bank issued currency on commercial banks in a historical setup. We use the opening of the Bank of Canada in 1935 as a natural experiment to provide evidence that banks mostly affected by the currency competition experienced lower profitability but did not decrease their lending compared to unaffected peers. |
| Keywords: | Money and Banking; Central Bank Digital Currencies; Central Banks; Bank Profitability; Bank Lending; Bank of Canada; Banknote Monopoly |
| JEL: | E42 E50 G21 G28 N22 |
| Date: | 2023–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:rbnkwp:0424&r=his |
| By: | Stefan Bauernschuster; Michael Grimm; Cathy M. Hajo |
| Abstract: | Margaret Sanger established the first birth control clinic in New York in 1916. From the mid-1920s, “Sanger clinics” spread over the entire U.S. Combining newly digitized data on the roll-out of these clinics, full-count Census data, and administrative vital statistics, we find that birth control clinics accounted for 5.0–7.8% of the overall fertility decline until 1940. Moreover, birth control clinics had a significant and meaningful negative effect on the incidence of stillbirths and infant mortality. The effect of birth control clinics on puerperal deaths is consistently negative, yet insignificant. Further suggestive evidence points towards positive effects on female employment. |
| Keywords: | birth control, fertility, mortality, Margaret Sanger, demographic transition |
| JEL: | D10 J13 J23 N32 O12 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10421&r=his |
| By: | Fiorito, Luca; Erasmo, Valentina |
| Abstract: | "There is one aspect, however, where Giddings found himself aligned with many leading progressives of his time, and this is what most concerns us here. With people like Richard T. Ely, John R. Commons, Henry R. Seager, William Z. Ripley, just to name a few, Giddings shared a firm commitment to eugenics, scientific racism, and race-conscious imperialism—a biologically rooted impetus which Thomas Leonard (2016) has placed at the core of Progressive Era reform agenda, and which was particularly strong among the most sociologically inclined figures of the period. In the Principles of Sociology, for instance, Giddings described and classified races, physically and mentally, into natural hierarchies, combining biological “evidence” of racial inferiority with a focus on upward social mobility. Giddings’s support of eugenics and hereditarianism was equally explicit. In this connection, suffice it to say that from 1923 to 1930 he served as a charter member of the advisory council for the American Eugenics Society. These biologically deterministic elements in Giddings’s thought have received only passing attention in the literature (see for instance Williams 1989; Degler 1991; Wallace 1992; and Bonilla-Silva and Baiocchi 2007), and even Leonard, in his acclaimed analysis of the eugenic foundations of progressivism, mentions the name of Giddings only once. The aim of this note is to fill this gap and to present a more systematic discussion of Giddings views on race, immigration, eugenics, and American imperialism, and how these views evolved over time. What follows adds to our general understanding of the extent to which racial and eugenic considerations permeated American social thought during the first decades of the last century and how, in the specific case of Giddings, this influence found expression in an inherently ambiguous and often contradictory fashion." |
| Date: | 2023–05–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:gd7af&r=his |
| By: | Bronwen Manby |
| Abstract: | This paper considers decolonisation as a turning point, or moment of change, in the history of the legal regulation of belonging and membership, with a particular focus on Africa. The papercompares the evolution of concepts of citizenship when African states gained independence with other decolonisations—of the Americas, South Asia, and former Soviet Union. It explores the manysimilarities between Africa and other post-colonial geographies, especially the frequent resilience of colonial institutions and the resentment of those whose presence in a territory is the result ofpopulation movements within the former empires. Yet it also shows how the particular experience of European imperial oppression in Africa created continental dynamics in the imagination and regulation of citizenship that are different from other regions. Finally, however, the paper warns against overemphasizing the differences from the debates over citizenship in Europe. Europe, after all, is also a post-colonial space: European borders established at the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires were equally viewed as artificial; while the legacy of European imperialism lives on in contemporary European immigration and citizenship policies. Although the challenges of imagining the community in Africa’s post-independence states are obvious, the boundaries of community are as mutable as they are in other continents, and concepts of citizenship thus not so dissimilar to those in Europe or elsewhere. |
| Keywords: | Citizenship, decolonisation, Africa, borders |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rsc:rsceui:2023/01&r=his |
| By: | Crespo, Ricardo F. |
| Abstract: | In 1970 Herbert Simon had been invited by the Sociedad Argentina de Organización Industrial (Argentine Society of Industrial Organization, SADOI, by its initials in Spanish) to deliver some lectures on “Business Management in the Technological Era”. On this occasion, he asked for an audience with Jorge Luis Borges, who, at the time, served as Director of the Argentine National Library. Simon had read some of Borges’s stories and was particularly fascinated by La biblioteca de Babel (The Library of Babel), wherein he discovered that Borges, like him, conceived of life as a search through a labyrinth. In fact, during the interview, the roles got reversed: in order to understand Simon’s concerns, Borges ended up asking more questions to Simon than Simon to Borges. The Spanish translation of the interview was published in Primera Plana, an Argentine journal of the time. This paper will show that this brief interview sheds light on some of Simon’s ideas about determinism and free will. His critique on maximizing rationality and his suggested approach to decision-making have contributed to enlarge the concept of rationality as construed by standard economic theory, enabling psychological and sociological dimensions to come into play. Consequently, it may be argued that Simon is incorporating free will in economics. However, though Simon’s position implies an advancement for the role of free will, the whole context of his ideas conditioned it, thus resulting in a “weak” notion of it. During the course of his conversation with Borges, Simon clarified his personal stance, which is consistent with his ideas. The paper will reveal Borges´ and Simon’s understanding of free will. This paper also contains a part of the conversation between Simon and Borges that has not been published previously in English. Although not all of it deals with free will, I believe that introducing it in its entirety is a contribution to the knowledge on Borges’ and Simon’s thought. |
| Date: | 2023–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:qdmcw&r=his |
| By: | Sunna, Claudia; Ricciardo, Traci M. |
| Abstract: | This study deals with the debate which took place among Italian economists and statisticians at the turn of the 20th century on the economic effects of mass emigration. In particular, it is focused on a controversy between Vilfredo Pareto, Alberto Beneduce on the one side, and Francesco Coletti on the other. It analyzes the way these scholars struggled with: (i) the problem of properly elaborating a specific cost-benefit analysis referred to emigration and (ii), as a consequence, the problem of recognizing a clear set of economic policies designed to manage the complex economic and social processes connected to emigration. The paper demonstrates the enduring character of the problems encountered in the early Italian debates, by showing that these questions are similar to those debated in the vast literature developed from the 1950s on the subject of brain drain, and suggests an explanation for the lack of conclusive results in this literature. We think that it is possible to understand this impasse by highlighting that in the analyzed literature a problem of ‘fallacy of composition’ emerges between the microeconomics and macroeconomics of emigration. |
| Date: | 2023–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:nw8qz&r=his |
| By: | Ozge Akinci; Paolo Pesenti |
| Abstract: | In this post we summarize the main results of our contribution to a recent e-book, “The Making of the European Monetary Union: 30 years since the ERM crisis, ” on the economic and financial crises in Europe since 1992-93, and focus on the spillovers of those crises onto the United States and the global economy. We find that the answer to the question in the title of this post is a (moderate) yes. |
| Keywords: | Cross-County; spillovers; Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) models; euro area; sovereign debt crises |
| JEL: | F0 E2 E51 G01 |
| Date: | 2023–05–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednls:96272&r=his |
| By: | HOSHI, Kisho |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effects of the medical school and the associated university hospital constructions in the 1970s on access to doctors and mortality, using the prefecture-level panel data of Japan and an event study design that exploits an exogenous variation in the pre-war location of medical schools. We find the long-term effect of an increase in doctors, and the effect closes the gap in the access to doctors that existed between treated and control prefectures before the policy intervention. We also find a decline in mortality for acute and intractable diseases after the establishment of the university hospital. Our results suggest that opening medical schools in rural areas are a potential policy to mitigate geographical disparities in access to doctors. Our results also indicate that the university hospital and the new medical graduates played an important role in decreasing mortality rates. |
| JEL: | I10 I14 I18 I19 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hitcei:2023-05&r=his |
| By: | Eckert, Fabian; Juneau, John; Peters, Michael |
| Abstract: | We study the joint process of urbanization and industrialization in the US economy between 1880 and 1940. We show that only a small share of aggregate industrialization is accounted for by the relocation of workers from remote rural areas to industrial hubs like Chicago or New York City. Instead, most sectoral shifts occurred within rural counties, dramatically transforming their sectoral structure. Most within-county industrialization occurred through the emergence of new “factory” cities with notably higher manufacturing shares rather than the expansion of incumbent cities. In contrast, today's shift toward services seems to benefit large incumbent cities the most. |
| Keywords: | Rural Health, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure |
| Date: | 2023–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:ucsdec:qt16n3j5rh&r=his |
| By: | Despina Gavresi (University of Ioannina); Anastasia Litina (University of Macedonia); Georgios Tsiachtsiras (AQR-IREA University of Barcelona and University of Bath) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the interplay between the extent of transportation infrastructure and various aspects of trust (interpersonal and political trust). We test our hypothesis by exploiting cross regional variation during the period 2002-2019. We focus on two measures of infrastructure, i.e., the length of railroads and railways in European regions. Interpersonal and political trust variables are derived from individual level data available in nine consecutive rounds of the European Social Survey. We document that individuals who live in regions with extended infrastructure network manifest higher trust both in people and political institutions. To mitigate endogeneity concerns, we extend our analysis to a sample of international and inter-regional immigrants. We further adopt an IV approach, where we use as an instrument the pre-existing Roman roads networks. The results from all three specifications are aligned to those of the benchmark analysis. We explore access to differential levels of trust as one of the underlying mechanisms behind our results. Relying on an expanding literature we hypothesize that the effect of infrastructure on trust operates directly via the degree of exposure to new people and ideas, as well as indirectly, via the effect of infrastructure on the structure of the economy. |
| Keywords: | Motorways, Railroads, Political trust, Interpersonal trust JEL classification: Z10, P48, R10, R40. |
| Date: | 2022–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aqr:wpaper:202208&r=his |
| By: | Derek K. Pinillos Matsuda (Gunma University, Japan) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, the writer will review the trajectory of the Japanese who immigrated to Peru during the first half of the 20th century and ended up in the United States during World War Ⅱ. This hidden history has been told less often; however, they experienced three cultures and languages at that time and have overcome many issues in different countries. Their life trajectory can give the readers a hint to think about people who move and try to settle in a new environment. This paper aims to describe how their trajectory can be illustrated as a transnational movement and try to apply the transnationalism theory to the routes they experienced. In most cases, they moved around in families, and their children experienced a different educational environment at schools. This is because of the educational policy of each country. In some cases, adapting to a new environment was challenging, especially when the language and culture differed. Transnationalism has been focused on people’s adaptation to the new land and how they made transnational bonds with their “motherland, †but not that much on how they transmitted their experiences to the next generation. In this paper, the readers will see how the next generation inherited Japanese descendants’ cultural identity and how their experiences are unique but can be generalized in nowadays transnational movements. |
| Keywords: | transnationalism, root and routes, Nikkei, cultural identity |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:scmowp:01262&r=his |
| By: | Federico Bacchi; Laura neri |
| Abstract: | After the Second World War Italy’s population has shown a gradual growth, but this was not uniformly distributed throughout time and space. An original classification method, based on the demographic trend observed during the last seventy years, is proposed to classify 7914 Municipalities. Considering the population dynamic as a Markov Chain, a division into groups is proposed. As a result of a series of statistical analysis, we observe that the earthquake risk and the quality of internet connection are associated with population dynamics. |
| Keywords: | Classification Methods; Demographic Trend; Depopulation; Italy; Markov Chain; Population Dynamics. |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:887&r=his |
| By: | Duc A. Nguyen; Steven Brakman; Harry Garretsen; Tristan Kohl |
| Abstract: | Place names, or toponyms, provide insight into the initial geographical characteristics of settlements. We present a unique dataset of 3, 705 German toponyms that includes the date of the first historical record mentioning the settlement and the date it was granted city rights. We show that the frequency of geographical toponyms as well as a novel proxy for local geographical advantage lead to a city-size distribution that adheres to Zipf’s law. In addition, we use the toponymical information to identify 168 geographical characteristics and empirically examine their importance for modern urban growth. Our results show that settlements with names referring to rivers, fords, churches, hills and historical clearing activities are associated with higher levels of 1910 population compared to places without named geographical characteristics. In addition, we show that the role of some of these characteristics in explaining urban development changes over time. We find for instance that proximity to castles matters more for initial settlement growth than trade capabilities, and highlight the evolving significance of shifting from defensive geography towards water-based trade over time. |
| Keywords: | toponyms, first-nature geography, Zipf’s law, path dependence, initial conditions, German urban development |
| JEL: | R11 R12 N90 N93 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10435&r=his |
| By: | Gonzalez, Felipe; Straub, Stéphane; Miquel-Florensa, Josepa; Prem, Mounu |
| Abstract: | Transportation infrastructure is associated with economic development, but it can also be used for social control and to benefit the governing elite. We explore the connection between the construction of road networks, state-led repression, and land allocations in the longest dictatorship in South America: Alfredo Stroessner military regime in Paraguay. Using novel panel data from the truth and reconciliation commission, we show that proximity to roads facilitated state-led repression and the illegal allocation of agricultural plots to dictatorship allies. These results suggest that infrastructure projects can also hinder economic development. |
| Keywords: | roads, repression, land allocations, dictatorship, Paraguay, Alfredo Stroessner. |
| Date: | 2023–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:128127&r=his |
| By: | Markus Lampe; Kevin Hjortshøj O'Rourke; Lorenz Reiter; Yoto V. Yotov |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a new dataset on the universe of Canadian imports and tariffs between 1924 and 1936, disaggregated into 1697 goods originating in 112 countries, to analyse the impact on Canadian imports of interwar Canadian trade policy, including the 1932 Ottawa trade agreements. Rather than use a dummy variable approach, we compute the impact of individual tariffs which varied substantially across goods, trade partners, and time. We develop a novel method of controlling for multilateral resistances in the context of a one-country dataset, and perform a variety of counterfactual exercises to determine the impact of tariffs on trade flows. The overall impact of post-1929 tariff shifts, including the 1932 agreements, was relatively small, reflecting the fact that Canadian trade policy was already highly protectionist: trade agreements can have heterogenous effects on participants because the shocks involved are different. Compared with a free trade counterfactual, the impact of the overall structure of protection on the level and composition of trade was large. |
| Keywords: | trade policy, trade agreements, interwar tariffs, multilateral resistance, trade elasticities, Canada, empire |
| JEL: | F10 F13 F14 N72 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10419&r=his |
| By: | Ugo M. Gragnolati; Alessandro Nuvolari |
| Abstract: | We study the determinants of the spatial distribution of patent inventors at the county level for Great Britain between 1700-1850. Our empirical analysis rests on the localization model by Bottazzi et al. (2007) and on the related estimation procedure by Bottazzi and Gragnolati (2015). Such an approach helps in particular to discriminate the role of localized externalities against other descriptors of county attractiveness. Our results show that, while the underlying geography of production remained a strong determinant of inventor location all throughout the industrial revolution, the effect of localized externalities among patent inventors went from being nearly absent in the early phases of industrialization to becoming a major driver of inventor location. In particular, local interactions among the ''mass'' of generic inventors turn out to be at least as important as interactions with ''elite'' inventors. |
| Keywords: | Inventor location; Patents; Localized externalities; Industrial Revolution. |
| Date: | 2023–06–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2023/26&r=his |
| By: | Jeremias Nieminen (Department of Economics, Turku School of Economics, University of Turku.); Salla Simola (Storytel); Janne Tukiainen (Department of Economics, Turku School of Economics, University of Turku.) |
| Abstract: | We study the long-term evolution of party demographics and the associated changes in parliamentary speech patterns of various within-party groups in Finland during 1907-2018. We find significant speech differences by gender and university education status, while other MP characteristics - age, white-collar job, first-term MP status, or urbanicity - do not predict speech patterns. We find that when female seat share began to rise in the late 1950s, there is a concurrent increase in speech differences by gender. As the representation of women increased, there was also a shift in speech topics female MPs specialized in. Additionally, we observe a sharp increase in speech differences by education when the seat share of university-educated increased in the 1960s. These results suggest that descriptive representation of these groups may play a role in changing speech patterns, and thus, in their substantive representation. |
| Keywords: | intra-party politics, parliamentary speech, descriptive representation, substantive representation |
| JEL: | D72 N44 J16 P00 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tkk:dpaper:dp161&r=his |
| By: | kABEY, DELPHIN |
| Abstract: | Mathematics booksThis Sebenta is dedicated to students who will face some new concepts in Mathematics for the first time, with clarity and lightness of exposition, whenever the mathematical rigor is not affected. Contributing to the formation of the scientific conception of the world, understanding the relationships between mathematical models, concepts and results of Mathematics science and the existing material, objective reality, emphasizing that every engineer must consider technical and scientific representations in math. The understanding that the history of the development of Mathematics it is essentially subordinated to the needs of the material life of society. A balance was intended between an exhaustive succession of definitions and theorems in which each Chapter begins with an introduction, objectives and methodology opening a line of thought for further studies. An analysis of Mathematics teaching for engineers and other branches of knowledge, from the early years from the revolution to the present day, allows identifying the main trends that are of unification of Mathematics programs for the Engineering and Exact Sciences course in all specialties in the country, and consolidated with the teaching process plans and learning |
| Date: | 2023–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:je6qn&r=his |
| By: | Sharat Ganapati; Woan Foong Wong |
| Abstract: | This paper considers the evolution of global transportation usage over the past half century and its implications for supply chains. Transportation usage per unit of real output has more than doubled as costs decreased by a third. Participation of emerging economies in world trade and longer-distance trade between countries contribute to this usage increase, thereby encouraging longer supply chains. We discuss technological advances over this period, and their interactions with endogenous responses from transportation costs and supply chain linkages. Supply chains involving more countries and longer distances are reflective of reliable and efficient transportation, but are also more exposed to disruptions, highlighting the importance of considering the interconnectedness of transportation and supply chains in policymaking and future work. |
| JEL: | F01 F15 R4 R40 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10398&r=his |
| By: | Javier G. Gómez-Pineda; Andrés Murcia; Wilmar Alexander Cabrera-Rodríguez; Hernando Vargas-Herrera; Leonardo Villar-Gómez |
| Abstract: | Over the past 30 years, monetary and macroprudential policy in Colombia evolved towards the pursuit of a low and credible inflation target and a stable financial system. The protracted inflation that began in the early seventies was defeated at the turn of the century with the help of the new framework for monetary policy formulation, inflation targeting. In the field of macroprudential policy, the financial crisis of the late nineties led to important institutional developments in the formulation and coordination of macroprudential policy, as well as in the assessment of systemic risk. Along with these developments, important lessons have been learnt. One is that, to preserve macroeconomic stability, the price stability objective must be complemented with the financial stability objective, as well as with macroprudential policy. Another lesson is that the new institutional framework for monetary policy formulation helped Banco de la República overcome 25 years of inflation, then called moderate inflation. The challenges for the future include to continue preserving price and financial stability, strengthening the role of the Banco de la República in macroprudential policy, and to continue strengthening the channels of international coordination and cooperation in macroprudential policy. **** RESUMEN: En los últimos 30 años la política monetaria y macroprudencial de Colombia transitó hacia la búsqueda de un objetivo de inflación bajo y creíble, así como de un sistema financiero estable. La prolongada inflación que comenzó a comienzo de los años setenta fue superada a comienzo del nuevo siglo con la ayuda del nuevo régimen para la formulación de la política monetaria, de meta de inflación. En el ámbito de la política macroprudencial, la crisis financiera de finales de los años noventa llevó a importantes avances institucionales para la coordinación de la política macroprudencial y para la evaluación del riesgo sistémico. A lo largo de estos desarrollos importantes lecciones han sido aprendidas. Una de ellas es que, para preservar la estabilidad macroeconómica, el objetivo de estabilidad de precios debe ser complementado con el de estabilidad financiera, así como con la política macroprudencial. Otra lección es que el nuevo marco institucional para la formulación de la política monetaria ayudó al Banco de la República a superar 25 años de inflación, entonces llamada inflación moderada. Entre los retos están continuar preservando la estabilidad de precios y la estabilidad financiera, reforzar el papel del Banco de la República en la política macroprudencial y continuar fortaleciendo los canales de coordinación y cooperación internacional en la política macroprudencial. |
| Keywords: | Macroprudential policy, Monetary policy, Inflation targeting, Foreign exchange market intervention, Financial stability, Política macroprudencial, Política monetaria, Régimen de meta de inflación, Intervención en el mercado cambiario, Estabilidad financiera |
| JEL: | E5 E52 E44 E58 E61 G01 G18 G21 G28 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdr:borrec:1238&r=his |
| By: | Alireza Naghavi (University of Bologna); Mohsen Shaeyan (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz) |
| Abstract: | Qanats – traditional Persian irrigation systems first built around 1000 B.C. – required a complex of cooperative local institutions for their construction and maintenance. We show that these institutions produced a (local) culture of cooperation in Iran that persists to the present day when qanats are no longer of economic value. We use unique geo-coded data on qanat coordinates in Iran together with information collected and digitized on cooperative enterprises and find a positive relationship between qanat locations and cooperative activities today. We build an IV using grid-level geological preconditions necessary for the construction and functioning of qanats: gently sloped terrains and intermediate clay content. The cooperation culture persists particularly close to historical trade routes and in areas with stable climatic conditions. The results hold for alternative proxies of social capital, namely the degree to which people trust their neighbours and the pervasiveness of charity-based Islamic microfinance establishments. |
| Keywords: | Irrigation, Cooperation, Qanat, Cooperatives, Social capital, Trade routes, Culture, Persistence |
| JEL: | N55 O13 O53 Q13 Q15 Z10 D70 |
| Date: | 2023–06–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jgu:wpaper:2307&r=his |
| By: | Innset, Ola |
| Abstract: | It has been established that the neoliberal creed arising in the interwar- and early postwar years, despite its strong rejection of economic planning, also entailed a rejection of laissez-faire liberalism. This article argues that recent attempts at construing early neoliberalism as thus being a more nuanced or moderate creed than later iterations, are nonetheless flawed. The Dual Argument of early neoliberalism indicated a new approach to market liberalism in which the state was not seen as the market’s opposite, but rather its precondition. This important move is obscured by the language of moderation and nuance. In place of “the radicalization thesis”, the second part of the article considers Philip Mirowski’s concept of a “double truth-doctrine” and argues that the importance of the state for social and economic governance is a common feature of different neoliberalisms, which nonetheless differ in their preferred policy-suggestions for the use of state power. |
| Date: | 2023–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:kyvdm&r=his |
| By: | DAE HYUNG WOO (Yonsei University); JIN SEO CHO (Yonsei University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of precolonial and colonial legacies on the current economic growth rates of ex-colonies. Precolonial legacies have significant positive relationships with current economic growth rates, as well as high model explanatory power. In contrast, colonial legacies have ambivalent effects. Here, Neo-European countries have benefited from the dominant positive effects of their colonial legacy, but that Sub-Saharan African ex-colonies are dominated by negative effects. In the case of Korea, the overall effect of the colonial legacy is not substantially different from zero, and the country’s current high economic growth rate originates mainly from the precolonial legacy. |
| Keywords: | Precolonial legacy; positive and negative effects of colonial legacy; current economic growth rate; ex-colonies; Neo-European economic growth rate; Sub-Saharan African economic growth rate; Korean economic growth rate. |
| JEL: | N10 O40 O47 O50 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yon:wpaper:2023rwp-218&r=his |
| By: | Tatsuki Inoue |
| Abstract: | This study is the first to investigate whether financial institutions for low-income populations have contributed to the historical decline in mortality rates. Using ward-level panel data from prewar Tokyo City, we found that public pawn loans were associated with reductions in infant and fetal death rates, potentially through improved nutrition and hygiene measures. Simple calculations suggest that popularizing public pawnshops led to a 6% and 8% decrease in infant mortality and fetal death rates, respectively, from 1927 to 1935. Contrarily, private pawnshops showed no significant association with health improvements. Our findings enrich the expanding literature on demographics and financial histories. |
| Date: | 2023–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2305.09352&r=his |
| By: | Kirtchik, Olessia; Boldyrev, Ivan |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at understanding social practices and institutions which ensured the transnational diffusion, recognition and renewal of the research program in General Equilibrium Theory, in spite of multiple critics and apparent theoretical dead ends. First, we are tracing the main conceptual developments of the Walrasian GET program since the 1950s and thus elaborate on its intellectual identity. Then, based on a systematic study of the educational and professional trajectories typical for several generations of GET scholars, we analyze a social form taken by this transnational and multidisciplinary “scientific community”: an institutional dynamics of the Walrasian GET program, most common career patterns, and the forms of international and intergenerational transmission. Finally, we apply to this dataset a technique of geometric analysis, a Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA), in order to investigate the relational patterns between attribution of scientific credit (symbolic capital) and biographical properties in a transnational space of the GET scholars. |
| Date: | 2023–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:er2va&r=his |
| By: | Emanuel Kohlscheen; Richhild Moessner; Daniel Rees |
| Abstract: | We test the international applicability of Friedman s famous plucking theory of the business cycle in 12 advanced economies between 1970 and 2021. We find that in countries where labour markets are flexible (Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and United States), unemployment rates typically return to pre-recession levels, in line with Friedman s theory. Elsewhere, unemployment rates are less cyclical. Output recoveries differ less across countries, but more across episodes: on average, half of the decline in GDP during a recession persists. In terms of sectors, declines in manufacturing are typically fully reversed. In contrast, construction-driven recessions, which are often associated with bursting property price bubbles, tend to be persistent. |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2306.01552&r=his |
| By: | Quinn, Martin; Feeney, Orla |
| Abstract: | Successive Irish government policies followed a neoliberal approach and domestic waste services have been transformed to such an extent that in early 2021, one company was valued at over €1 billion. The last three decades has seen domestic waste services in the Ireland evolve from a public service to one delivered entirely by the private sector. The journey to this system has had many policy twists and the outcome of the journey is a domestic waste market, with some very large and profitable companies. This paper examines policy changes over time, outlining how Ireland's domestic waste services became financialized. |
| Keywords: | domestic waste policy, Ireland, financialization |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:qmsrps:271266&r=his |
| By: | Dimand, Robert W. |
| Abstract: | Commitment to the behaviorist approach to utility theory, to the usefulness of mathematics in economic analysis and to equalization of the marginal utility of income as a principle of just taxation brought Irving Fisher and Ragnar Frisch to attempt to measure the marginal utility of income and led them to collaborate in forming the Econometric Society and sponsoring the establishment of the Cowles Commission, institutions advancing economic theory in connection to mathematics and statistics and led Frisch to pioneer an axiomatic approach to utility and microeconomic theory. |
| Date: | 2023–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:vmzua&r=his |
| By: | Ginoux, Jean-Marc; Jovanovic, Franck |
| Abstract: | In his article published in JHET in 2022, Vincent Carret (2022a) criticizes our work. In footnote 19 pages 630-1, he claims that our result “is based on a mistaken interpretation of the paragraph at the bottom of p. 191 of Frisch (1933).” He then states that we “take to mean that the coefficient of each cycle in the general sum of solutions is arbitrary, while […] these coefficients [depended] on initial conditions and the parameters of the system.” The present rejoinder aims at rebutting Carret’s allegation of mistaken interpretation in our work. We demonstrate that his statements are based on a misunderstanding of Frisch’s econometric model and approach. Then, we show that Carret’s results are not supported by the demonstration he claims to have made, and that he misrepresents our arguments. |
| Date: | 2023–05–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:5wam6&r=his |
| By: | Zhiqi Chen (Department of Economics, Carleton University) |
| Abstract: | This case study reviews the history and operation of the international air cargo cartel, in which over 20 airlines around the world colluded on the setting and implementation of fuel and other surcharges for international air cargo services from late 1999 to 2006. To an economist, this cartel has several interesting features, including the choice of a simple variable to collude on, the use of a fuel price index as a facilitating device, and the reliance on a complex web of contacts among the executives of different airlines to enforce the cartel. Most interesting of all is that the airlines colluded on the surcharges without coordinating on the freight rates. On the surface, this cartel seemed to be poorly designed because higher surcharges achieved through collusion could have simply been offset by lower freight rates as the airlines competed for customers. But the theoretical analyses by Chen (2017 and 2022) demonstrate that colluding on surcharges without coordination on base prices could be an effective way of raising the full price of a product. |
| Keywords: | cartels, collusion, surcharges |
| JEL: | L41 |
| Date: | 2023–05–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:car:carecp:23-03&r=his |
| By: | Cathrin Mohr (University of Bonn, Niebuhrstr. 5, 53113 Bonn, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Autocratic regimes can use carrots and/or sticks to prevent being overthrown by protests. Carrots, i.e. resource allocation, reduce the probability of protests, but cannot help to end them. Sticks, i.e. repression, reduce the probability that protests overthrow the regime, but also decrease its popularity. Using a difference-in-differences approach, I show that residential construction and military presence increase in protest municipalities after an uprising in 1953 in former East Germany. This cannot be explained by pre-existing differences, demand for housing, or external warfare considerations. Carrots were furthermore used to counteract sticks' negative effect on popularity. More construction is associated with more regime support. |
| Keywords: | Political Economy, autocracy, Protests |
| JEL: | D72 D74 N44 P26 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:236&r=his |
| By: | Baines, Joseph; Hager, Sandy Brian |
| Abstract: | The concepts of rentiership and intellectual monopoly have gained increased prominence in discussions about the transformation of global capitalism in recent years. However, there have been few if any attempts to construct measures for rentiership and intellectual monopoly using firm-level financial data. The absence of such work, we argue, is symptomatic of conceptual challenges in delineating what precisely qualifies as rent, intellectual or otherwise. In place of static conceptions of rent and intellectual monopoly, we develop a dynamic framework for analyzing the processes of rentierization and intellectual monopolization and apply this framework to the analysis of the transformation of non-financial firms in the United States since the 1950s. We find that the timing and intensity of rentierization and intellectual monopolization differs significantly across sector and firm size and is heavily mediated by the uneven ramifications of government policy across companies and industries. Overall, our framework illuminates the variegated landscape of corporate power in the US, and offers a useful guide for critically interrogating rentierization and intellectual monopolization in other contexts. |
| Keywords: | capital accumulation, competition, degree of monopoly, financialization, intangibles, intellectual property, productivity, profit, United States, rent, scarcity |
| JEL: | P1 D72 L12 D42 D4 O34 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:270981&r=his |
| By: | Leonardo Gasparini (CEDLAS-IIE-FCE-UNLP & CONICET); Jessica Bracco (CEDLAS-IIE-FCE-UNLP) |
| Abstract: | Este trabajo examina el desarrollo de América Latina durante las últimas tres décadas mediante curvas de incidencia del crecimiento y tasas de crecimiento ponderadas calculadas sobre la base de microdatos armonizados de encuestas de hogares. Durante las últimas tres décadas América Latina ha avanzado en términos de la mayoría de los indicadores básicos de desarrollo. En promedio, el crecimiento en el ingreso y en algunas variables educativas y habitacionales ha sido más intenso entre los estratos de menores ingresos. En contraste, en otras dimensiones importantes (ej. educación superior, participación laboral femenina) los avances fueron más lentos entre los más vulnerables. La evidencia señala que, a pesar de los progresos en casi todas las dimensiones medibles del desarrollo en las encuestas de hogares, las carencias y las brechas siguen siendo enormes. |
| JEL: | O1 I31 I24 |
| Date: | 2023–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0314&r=his |
| By: | R. Gordon Rinderknecht (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Daniela V. Negraia (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Sophie Lohmann (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Emilio Zagheni (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | This research examined the extent to which solitary leisure in the U.S. has grown over the past 60 years. The demographic and technological developments of the past decades have profoundly altered the way people live life. An increase in social isolation is one potential such change, though its prevalence remains debated and challenging to directly quantify. To provide this direct quantification, we focused on an area of life where social isolation has the potential to be especially detrimental: leisure time. We assessed changes in leisure spent alone via nationally representative U.S. time-use data spanning six decades. Findings indicate that time spent alone during leisure has more than doubled among working-aged adults, from 57 daily minutes in 1965 to 117 in 2018. More concerningly, the probability of spending five hours or more in solo leisure a day has increased six-fold. Multivariate analyses indicate this trend is partly accounted for by population changes, most notably reductions in marriage rates and increases in living alone, but most of the growth of solo leisure remains unexplained. Leisure is an important source of social capital and network formation, and increasingly solitary leisure may undermine well-being in the moment and across the life course. |
| Keywords: | USA |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2023-025&r=his |