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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2024‒02‒19
forty papers chosen by |
| By: | Goodhart, C. A. E.; Postel-Vinay, Natacha |
| Abstract: | The City of Glasgow Bank failure in 1878, which led to large numbers of shareholders becoming insolvent, generated great public concern about their plight, and led directly to the 1879 Companies Act, which paved the way for the adoption of limited liability for all shareholders. In this paper, we focus on the question of why the opportunity was not taken to distinguish between the appropriate liability for ‘insiders, ’ i.e. those with direct access to information and power over decisions, as contrasted with ‘outsiders.’ We record that such issues were raised and discussed at the time, and we report why proposals for any such graded liability were turned down. We argue that the reasons for rejecting graded liability for insiders were overstated, both then and subsequently. While we believe that the case for such graded liability needs reconsideration, it does remain a complex matter, as discussed in Section 4. |
| Keywords: | corporate governance; limited liability; bank risk-taking; financial regulation; financial crises; senior management regime; banks; banking |
| JEL: | G21 G28 G30 G32 G39 N23 K22 K29 L20 |
| Date: | 2024–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:wpaper:121956&r=his |
| By: | Thomas MELONIO; Rémy Rioux; Jean-David Naudet |
| Abstract: | La Ayuda Oficial al Desarrollo (AOD) se construyó en los años sesenta como un instrumento temporal para responder a una fase de la historia mundial en la que se mezclaban la descolonización, la guerra fría, la industrialización y las desigualdades flagrantes entre el «Norte» y el «Sur». Cincuenta años más tarde, en un texto influyente, Jean-Michel Severino y Olivier Ray (2009) constataban que la AOD se había convertido en una «política pública mundial», al tiempo que se interrogaban sobre su inminente fin. La AOD parece tener esa particularidad de ser al mismo tiempo una política mundial instituida, apoyada y financiada –y, por lo tanto, resiliente ante los cambios del mundo– y de parecer como perpetuamente en retraso con respecto a su época, carente de ambición e inadaptada para los desafíos del futuro. |
| JEL: | Q |
| Date: | 2024–01–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:avg:wpaper:es14593&r=his |
| By: | Francois de Soyres; Dylan Moore; Julio L. Ortiz |
| Abstract: | In a previous FEDS Note, de Soyres, Moore, and Ortiz (2023), we conducted a comparison of household excess savings across advanced and emerging economies over different historical episodes. In that analysis, we found that the stock of excess savings accumulated during the pandemic in the U.S. was exhausted by 2023Q1, while other advanced economies were not expected to deplete their excess reserve until late in 2023. |
| Date: | 2023–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfn:2023-12-15-3&r=his |
| By: | Bertrand Garbinti (CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique - ENSAI - Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse de l'Information [Bruz] - X - École polytechnique - ENSAE Paris - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR); Cecilia García-Peñalosa (AMU - Aix Marseille Université, CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Banque de France - Banque de France - Banque de France, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR, CESifo - CESifo); Vladimir Pecheu (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, IPP - Institut des politiques publiques); Frédérique Savignac (Banque de France - Banque de France - Banque de France) |
| Abstract: | This paper is the first to compute lifetime earnings (LTE) in France for a large number of cohorts entering the labour market between 1967 and 1987, and to analyze their main determinants, as well as those of the evolution of the gender gap in LTE. We compare our results with evidence by Guvenen et al. (2022a) for the US, documenting sharp differences between the two countries. Median LTE show similar flat trends in both countries, but in France this results from a moderate increase for both genders together with increased female participation, while in the US, LTE declines for men and sharply grows for women. There have been marked changes in age profiles, as for both genders younger cohorts have experienced a decrease in entry wages that has been more than offset by faster wage growth. Our analysis of inequality finds that it is lower when we focus on LTE than in the cross-section, and that it follows a U-shaped pattern, although the increase is much smaller in France than that observed in the US. Lastly, we also find that i) education (returns and changes in attainment) plays a key role in shaping LTE across cohorts, ii) place of birth has a large influence on lifetime earnings and iii) differences in working time explain an increasing part of the gender gap in LTE over time as both men and women have increased the number of years they work but women have done so largely through part-time employment. |
| Keywords: | Lifetime earnings, inequality, gender earnings gaps |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:ipppap:halshs-04424024&r=his |
| By: | Subhayu Bandyopadhyay; Hoang Le |
| Abstract: | An analysis compares the number of terrorism incidents in developing economies with those in advanced economies since 1970 and over the post-9/11 period. |
| Keywords: | terrorism; developing and emerging economies; advanced economies |
| Date: | 2024–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:l00001:97720&r=his |
| By: | Beatrice Cherrier; Pedro Garcia Duarte; Aurélien Saïdi (EconomiX - EconomiX - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Keywords: | [No keyword available] |
| Date: | 2023–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04108500&r=his |
| By: | Zuchowski, David |
| Abstract: | Russia's attacks against Ukraine have triggered massive and unexpected migration movements. In this paper, I examine the impact of the inflow of Ukrainians that resulted from Russia's aggression in 2014 on local migration patterns in Poland. For identification, I use an instrumental variable approach drawing on unique historical data on the forced resettlement of Ukrainians in Poland after World War II. The results show that the regional inflow of immigrants decreases both internal and international out-migration of the Polish population. I provide supportive evidence that the decrease in out-migration is due to the upscaling of local labor markets. |
| Abstract: | Die Angriffe von Russland auf die Ukraine haben massive und unerwartete Migrationsbewegungen ausgelöst. In diesem Artikel untersuche ich die Auswirkungen des Zustroms ukrainischer Arbeitskräfte infolge der russischen Aggression im Jahr 2014 auf lokale Migrationsbewegungen in Polen. Zur Identifizierung der Effekte verwende ich einen Instrumentalvariablenansatz, der sich auf einzigartige historische Daten zur Zwangsumsiedlung ukrainischer Familien in Polen nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg stützt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die regionale Zuwanderung sowohl die interne als auch die internationale Abwanderung der polnischen Bevölkerung verringert. Ich finde Indizien dafür, dass dieser Rückgang der Abwanderung auf das Hochskalieren der lokalen Arbeitsmärkte zurückzuführen ist. |
| Keywords: | Migration, immigrant workers, Poland, Ukraine |
| JEL: | F22 J61 O15 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:281188&r=his |
| By: | Facundo Alvaredo; Francois Bourguignon; Francisco Ferreira; Nora Lustig |
| Abstract: | Drawing on a comprehensive compilation of quantile shares and inequality measures for 34 countries, including over 5, 600 estimated Gini coefficients, we review the measurement of income inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean over the last seven decades. Although the evidence from the first quarter century -- roughly until the 1970s -- is too fragmentary and difficult to compare, clearer patterns emerge for the last fifty years. The central feature of these patterns is a broad inverted U curve, with inequality rising in most countries prior to the 1990s, and falling during the early 21st Century, at least until the mid-2010s, when trends appear to diverge across countries. This broad pattern is modified by country specificities, with considerable variation in timing and magnitude. Whereas this broad picture emerges for income inequality dynamics, there is much more uncertainty about the exact levels of inequality in the region. The uncertainty arises from the disparity in estimates for the same country/year combinations, depending on whether they come from household surveys exclusively; from some combination of surveys and administrative tax data; and on whether they attempt to scale income aggregates to achieve consistency with National Accounts estimates. Since no single method is fully convincing at present, we are left with (often wide) ranges, or bands, of inequality as our best summaries of inequality levels. Reassuringly, however, the dynamic patterns are generally robust across the bands. |
| Keywords: | income inequality, measurement, Latin America and the Caribbean |
| JEL: | D31 D63 O54 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:wpaper:2401&r=his |
| By: | Osiris Jorge Parcero; Emiliano Villanueva |
| Abstract: | By using an econometric approach this paper looks at the evolution of the world wine industry in the period 1961-2005. A particular stylized fact is the appearance of nontraditional producing and exporting countries of wine from the beginning of the nineties. We show that the success of these new producing and exporting countries can be explained by the importance of the demand from non-producing countries with little or no tradition of wine consumption, relative to the world demand. This stylized fact is consistent with a testable implication of the switching cost literature and to the best of our knowledge this is the first time that this implication is tested. |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2401.04696&r=his |
| By: | Louison Cahen-Fourot (Institut de sciences sociales et de commerce, Université de Roskilde); Gaël Plumecocq (AGIR - AGroécologie, Innovations, teRritoires - Toulouse INP - Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) - UT - Université de Toulouse - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Franck-Dominique Vivien (REGARDS - Recherches en Économie Gestion AgroRessources Durabilité Santé- EA 6292 - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne - MSH-URCA - Maison des Sciences Humaines de Champagne-Ardenne - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne) |
| Date: | 2023–12–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04398543&r=his |
| By: | Masashige Hamano (Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University); Toshihiro Okubo (Faculty of Economics, Keio University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the dynamics specific to various firm cohorts and their implications at an aggregate level. Utilizing a structural model that incorporates entry, exit, and selection of heterogeneous firms, we demonstrate that the dynamics of firms from each generation, and thus the historical economic landscape, can be reconstructed. Moreover, we estimate generation-specific parameters in both demand and supply within our theoretical model, using Japanese data. Our findings reveal that fixed operational costs for firms established immediately after the Second World War are relatively lower compared to subsequent generations of firms, resulting in an increased market congestion for these early-born enterprises. |
| Keywords: | Heterogeneity; fixed cost; business cycles |
| JEL: | D24 E23 E32 L11 L60 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wap:wpaper:2307&r=his |
| By: | Béatrice Cherrier (ENSAE Paris - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique, X - École polytechnique, CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique - ENSAI - Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse de l'Information [Bruz] - X - École polytechnique - ENSAE Paris - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Aurélien Saïdi (EconomiX - EconomiX - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Francesco Sergi (LIPHA - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire d'étude du Politique Hannah Arendt Paris-Est - UPEC UP12 - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12 - Université Gustave Eiffel) |
| Date: | 2023–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04319029&r=his |
| By: | Raphaël Franck; Victor Gay |
| Abstract: | This study argues that urbanization changed the relationship between the occupation of candidates running in parliamentary elections and their electoral success. To identify local-level variation in urbanization, we leverage exogenous changes to the boundaries of electoral constituencies in the 1928, 1932, and 1936 French parliamentary elections. The results suggest that urbanization was detrimental to the electoral success of lawyers but beneficial to that of employees and workers. This electoral effect of urbanization was especially felt on the left of the political spectrum, whereby left-wing employees and workers crowded out left-wing lawyers. |
| Keywords: | elections, political representation, urbanization |
| JEL: | D72 K16 N44 N94 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10885&r=his |
| By: | André Lapidus (PHARE - Philosophie, Histoire et Analyse des Représentations Économiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne); Pierre Januard |
| Abstract: | Throughout the Middle Ages, the charging of interest on monetary loans, as well as the sale of sacraments, were generally considered to be special types of sins: respectively, usury and simony. The repeated condemnations of these acts suggests to the contemporary reader that they could be viewed as prefigurations of contested commodities. Relying on Thomas Aquinas's works written in the second half of the 13th century, it is shown in this chapter that money and sacraments were indeed viewed as exchanged, though, in a sense, as traded for no price. The result is the existence, in the framework of exchange, of various situations which might be ranked according to increasing commodification: first, an absolute non-commodification for the money loan, whose price is zero due to the prohibition of the payment of interest to the lender due to the loan itself, although an indemnity can be paid for other reasons and, from an economic viewpoint, appears as a counterpart for the opportunity cost of the loan. Then, two ways of expressing a kind of commodification in dealing with the sacraments: a lexical commodification in which sacraments do have a "price", as Aquinas mentioned, but one that is out of reach on this earth; and a partial operational commodification, again for sacraments (especially for the Eucharist through mass offerings), in which something like an exchange for sacraments takes place, not at an impossible price but according to a kind of tariff which allows the priest to live. |
| Keywords: | Thomas Aquinas, Simony, Usury, Money loans, Sacraments, Just price, Commodification |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04396111&r=his |
| By: | Adolfo Cristobal Campoamor; Osiris Jorge Parcero |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a two blocks and three regions economic geography model that can account for the most salient stylized facts experienced by Eastern European transition economies during the period 1990 2005. In contrast to the existing literature, which has favored technological explanations, trade liberalization is the only driving force. The model correctly predicts that in the first half of the period, trade liberalization led to divergence in GDP per capita, both between the West and the East and within the East. Consistent with the data, in the second half of the period, this process was reversed and convergence became the dominant force. |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2401.05107&r=his |
| By: | Juhasz, Reka; Steinwender, Claudia |
| Abstract: | We discuss recent work evaluating the role of the government in shaping the economy during the long 19th century, a practice we refer to as industrial policy. We show that states deployed a vast variety of different policies aimed at, primarily, but not exclusively, fostering industrialization. We discuss the thin, but growing literature that evaluates the economic effects of these policies. We highlight some fruitful avenues for future study. |
| Keywords: | industrial policy; first wave of globalization; industrialization; infant industry protection; technology policy; transport infrastructure; telegraph; 19th century |
| JEL: | L5 N1 N4 N6 |
| Date: | 2023–10–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:121313&r=his |
| By: | Thomas Ferguson (Institute for New Economic Thinking) |
| Abstract: | This is the English version of the author's preface to the Japanese translation of Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political Systems (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995). The Japanese version is published in two volumes by Keiei Kagaku Publishing and this preface appears with its permission. The paper discusses some of the problems the author's early work in archives highlighted with conventional approaches to understanding political power. It also locates the book's argument in relation to earlier studies of industrial structures and politics and surveys some of the most important later results of quantitative research within the book's framework. |
| Keywords: | median voter, New Deal, political money, elections, industrial structure. |
| JEL: | D72 H10 H4 P16 L50 M14 N82 |
| Date: | 2023–08–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:thk:wpaper:inetwp211&r=his |
| By: | Nicolas Bourgeois (SAMM - Statistique, Analyse et Modélisation Multidisciplinaire (SAmos-Marin Mersenne) - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne); Laurent Herment (CRH (UMR 8558 CNRS / EHESS) - Centre de Recherches Historiques (CRH) _ Unité Mixte de Recherches (UMR 8558 CNRS / EHESS) - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | With a few exceptions, historians have conceded since the work of Labrousse (1932) that grain markets are characterized by a strong seasonality linked to the need for farmers to sell their wheat quickly after harvest. As recent works indicate, the analysis of price movements makes it difficult both to understand the motivations of the stakeholders and to account for the pace of trade. Using statistical methods applied to volumes on 13 markets located in the supply area of the Paris Basin between 1828 and 1852, the analysis of transactions makes it possible to affirm that the phenomena of seasonality are not universal and that they only very imperfectly reflect the functioning of the cereal markets, in particular for maslin, oats and barley, which sometimes represent the bulk of transactions. Seasonality phenomena only concern certain markets, linked to the main trade routes. This study also makes it possible to demonstrate that the modernization of the grain trade in the Paris Basin precedes the establishment of the rail network. It shows too that such modernization is based on the modernization of the local road network and, to a certain extent, on the elimination of traditional markets, particularly for oats. Finally, it makes it possible to propose a typology of markets that takes into account not only the importance of transactions, but their inclusion in regional exchange systems. |
| Keywords: | grain markets, France, 19 th century, seasonality, mercados de grãos, século XIX, sazonalidade. |
| Date: | 2023–03–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04367715&r=his |
| By: | Braun, Robin (Federal Reserve Board of Governors); Miranda-Agrippino, Silvia (Bank of England); Saha, Tuli (Bank of England) |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces the UK Monetary Policy Event-Study Database (UKMPD), a new and rich dataset of high-frequency monetary policy surprises for the United Kingdom. Intraday surprises are computed around the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee’s announcements, as well as around the press conference that accompanies the publication of the quarterly Monetary Policy Report. The dataset also includes factors that allow to disentangle the different dimensions of UK monetary policy. We use the data to provide updated estimates of the causal effects of rate decisions and forward guidance on financial markets and macroeconomic aggregates in the UK, and provide novel insights on how markets have responded to the changes in the communication strategy of the Bank of England. |
| Keywords: | UK monetary policy surprises; event-study; intraday; monetary policy transmission; dataset |
| JEL: | E43 E44 E52 E58 G14 |
| Date: | 2023–11–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boe:boeewp:1050&r=his |
| By: | Drakopoulos, Stavros A. |
| Abstract: | This short paper is the entry on Encyclopedia of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Spirituality (edited by Marques, J.). Springer, Cham, 2024. The entry describes the role, function, and nature of labor unions and their leadership from a non-orthodox perspective. It shows that since the end of the 19th century, a division between orthodox and non-orthodox approaches toward the study of labor unions can be discerned. The orthodox framework was formed in the late 19th century with the gradual establishment of Marginalism, and it consolidated itself with the dominance of early neoclassical economics. Orthodox economic theory did not devote much attention to the economic analysis of unions. On the contrary and during the same period, non-orthodox economists such as Sidney and Beatrice Webb and early institutionalists, had paid considerable attention to the study of unions, perceiving them as politico-economic organizations and emphasizing their wider role as social institutions. The legacy of those two approaches continued in the 20th century and contemporary analyses of labor unions. The orthodox approach (originating mainly from the work of John Dunlop), generally conceives unions as purely economic units, analogous to firms, which can be studied by applying the standard tools of microeconomic theory. In this framework, the notion of union leadership plays a minimum role. In contrast, the non-orthodox viewpoint (originating mainly from Arthur Ross’ works), embraces a holistic, institutional-political-based attitude to the study of labor unionism. |
| Keywords: | Trade Unions; Labor Union Leadership, Gender inequality |
| JEL: | J51 J70 M50 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:119787&r=his |
| By: | Andrew J. Seltzer |
| Abstract: | The Victorian Factories and Shops Act of 1896, the second minimum wage law in the world, empowered administrative agencies ("Special Boards") to set trade-specific minimum rates based on age, sex, and occupation. Much like modern debates, Victorian supporters of minimum wages argued that they would protect vulnerable workers while opponents argued that they would increase employers’ costs, resulting in unintended consequences for workers. Evidence from the actual minimum wages passed under the Act suggests that Boards were loosely constrained by market factors, but also that they had some discretion in minimum wage setting. This discretion was used differently by individual Boards; some essentially followed the market for their trades while others set minimum rates that were binding for at least some workers. To the extent that rates were binding, they tended to reduce inequality among adult male workers, particularly after a 1907 Federal ruling established a living wage for employers with operations in multiple states. However, minimum wages also increased inequality across groups, increasing wages of adult men relative to those of women and youths. The Act formally institutionalised gender-based pay differences, a practice that continued in Australian minimum wage setting for over 70 years. |
| Keywords: | Minimum wages, Australia, Protective Legislation |
| JEL: | N47 N37 J88 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:hpaper:118&r=his |
| By: | Shaikh, Sameer (Central Bank of Ireland); Kilgarriff, Paul (Central Bank of Ireland); Gaffney, Edward (Central Bank of Ireland) |
| Abstract: | This Note assesses entry rates of mortgages into arrears since 2012 using loan-level data for Irish domestic banks, with a focus on the monetary tightening period from June 2022 to June 2023. Entry into mortgage arrears reached very low levels by mid-2022 and has remained low, though increasing slightly in 2023. Mortgages with a history of performance problems are more likely to enter arrears, as are mortgages that originated before 2009 and older borrowers. Since 2022, tracker-rate mortgages have been more likely to miss payments than other mortgages. Although most flows into arrears are among mortgages with historical repayment challenges and tracker mortgages, 16 per cent of borrowers entering arrears were on fixed or standard variable rates with no history of mortgage non-performance. |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbi:fsnote:9/fs/23&r=his |
| By: | Emilio Congregado (Universidad de Huelva, Spain); Vicente Esteve (Universidad de Valencia and Universidad de Alcalá, Spain); Juan A. María A. Prats (Universidad de Murcia, Spain and European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we provide a formal test of Barro’s tax-smoothing model, using Spanish data covering the period 1850-2022. First, we found that the tax-tilting component has been very important for the Spanish government and is a symptom of the existence of a public deficit bias that has existed in Spanish public finances over the sample period. Second, our empirical findings do also support the existence of tax-smoothing in Spanish fiscal policy throughout the sample period. Consequently, there is some evidence that the Spanish economy has engaged in tax-smoothing behavior over the period analyzed, as the Spanish governments responded to expected future changes in government spending by running budget imbalances, rather than altering contemporaneous government revenues. |
| Keywords: | Optimal taxation; Public debt management; Tax-smoothing; Tax-tilting, Spain |
| JEL: | E62 H21 H62 O52 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eec:wpaper:2401&r=his |
| By: | Hans-Bernd Schaefer; Rok Spruk |
| Abstract: | We examine the impact of Islamic legal institutions to the comparative economic decline of the Middle East behind Latin Europe, which can be observed since the late Middle Ages. To this end, we explore whether the sacralization of Islamic law and its focus on the Sharia as supreme, sacred and unchangeable legal text, which reached its culmination in the 13th century had an impact on economic development. We use the population size of 145 cities in Islamic countries and 648 European cities for the period 800-1800 as proxies for the level of economic development, and construct novel estimates of the number of law schools (i.e. madaris) and estimate their contribution to the pre-industrial economic development. Our triple-differences estimates show that a higher density of madrasas before the sacralization of Islamic law predicts a more vibrant urban economy characterized by higher urban growth. After the consolidation of the sharia sacralization of law in the 13th century, greater density of law schools is associated with stagnating population size. We show that the economic decline of the Middle East can be partly explained by the absence of legal innovations or substitutes of them, which paved the way for the economic rise of Latin Europe, where ground-breaking legal reforms introduced a series of legal innovations conducive for economic growth. We find that the number of learned lawyers trained in universities with law schools is highly and positively correlated with the western European city population. We also show with counterfactual estimates that almost all Islamic cities under consideration would have had much bigger larger by the year 1700 if legal innovations comparable to those in Western Europe were introduced. By making use of a series of synthetic control and difference-in-differences estimators our findings are robust against a large number of model specification checks. |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2401.14435&r=his |
| By: | Volha Lazuka (University of Southern Denmark, Lund University, IZA); Peter Sandholt Jensen (Linnaeus University) |
| Abstract: | Can the effect of a positive health shock, such as childhood vaccination, transmit across three generations? To answer this question, we estimate the impact of smallpox vaccination in childhood on the longevity and occupational achievements of three generations using unique individual-level data from Sweden, covering the last 250 years. We apply different estimation strategies based on linear and non-linear probability models. To address endogeneity concerns, we construct a shift-share instrumental variable, utilizing the fact that vaccination in Sweden was administered by the low-skilled clergy, who otherwise did not perform public health duties. Overall, our results show that a positive shock to the health of the first generation, such as smallpox vaccination, operating through various channels, enhances both health and socio-economic outcomes for at least two more generations. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational transmission of health, smallpox vaccination, shift-share instrumental-variables |
| JEL: | I18 J24 J62 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0251&r=his |
| By: | Cummins, Neil |
| Abstract: | Using individual-level records of all wealth-at-death in England from 1892 to 1992, together with new estimates of the wealth-specific rate of return on wealth, this study estimates a plausible minimum level of the amount of inherited wealth that is hidden. Elites conceal around 35 per cent of their inheritance. Among dynasties, this hidden wealth, independent of declared wealth, predicts appearance in the Offshore Leaks Database of 2013–16 and is correlated with postcode house-value in 1999 and Oxbridge attendance in 1990–2016. Accounting for hidden wealth eliminates about 28 per cent, at minimum, of the observed decline of the top 1 per cent wealth-share, at the dynastic level, over the past century. Findings show 9 077 dynasties that are hiding £8.9 billion. |
| Keywords: | hidden wealth; inequality; economic history; big data; tax evasion |
| JEL: | N00 N33 N34 D31 H26 |
| Date: | 2022–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:113490&r=his |
| By: | Michela Barbot (IDHES - Institutions et Dynamiques Historiques de l'Économie et de la Société - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - UP8 - Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - ENS Paris Saclay - Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay) |
| Abstract: | How was the correlation between prices and value understood before the birth of economic science? And what were the institutional and material foundations of valuation procedures? The field of civil law offers an interesting perspective to explore these questions as it allows to analyse the plurality of means by which the preindustrial societies coped with a common challenge: reducing the risk of price conflicts in order to ensure the enforcement of contractual commitments. |
| Abstract: | Comment la dialectique entre les prix et la valeur des biens était-elle appréhendée avant d'entrer dans le giron de la science économique ? Et quels étaient les fondements institutionnels et matériels des opérations d'estimation ? La sphère du droit civil offre un angle intéressant pour répondre à ces questions puisqu'elle permet d'observer la pluralité des solutions que les sociétés d'Ancien Régime ont apportées à un même défi : celui de réduire le risque de conflits sur les prix afin de garantir le respect des accords contractuels. |
| Keywords: | Price, values, institutions, law, contracts |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04373041&r=his |
| By: | Burbach, Jörg; Trautzsch, Nadine |
| Abstract: | Die Geschichte der Videospiele reicht bis in das Jahr 1950 zurück. Damals stellte der Kanadier Josef Kates auf der Canadian National Exhibition den vier Meter hohen Computer "Bertie, the Brain" aus, gegen den die Ausstellungsbesucher eine Version von Tic-Tac-Toe spielen konnten. Seitdem haben sich die technischen Möglichkeiten, die Hardware, die Spielmechaniken, das Game Play und die Möglichkeiten der audiovisuellen Darstellung enorm weiterentwickelt. Viele gute und schlechte Games wurden entwickelt, verworfen oder veröffentlicht. In diesem Artikel analysieren wir die Spielelemente der Classic Games und ihre Limitierungen und untersuchen, wie diese das Spielerlebnis der Spieler:innen beeinflussten. Wir sehen uns den Zusammenhang zwischen Einschränkungen und Kreativität an und diskutieren, welche Ansätze wir als Game Designer:innen heute (wieder) für innovative Game-Entwicklung nutzen können. |
| Keywords: | Game Studies, Game History, Game Design, Technologie, Game Art, Game Asthetics |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iudpda:281779&r=his |
| By: | Liu, Dr Ziang |
| Abstract: | This article studies the long-term wage development in China between 1530 and 1840. In the long run, nominal wages moved in tandem with prices, but did not respond as quickly as the increase in prices. Real wages experienced two substantial falls between the 1620s-1650s and the 1740s-1760s, but remained relatively stable in the remainder of the period examined. Rural-urban wage disparities suggest that the agricultural sector, rather than urban industries, continued to absorb surplus labour. A comparison of wages in Lower Yangzi China and England suggests that the wage gap widens after 1700. |
| Keywords: | wage; living standard; labour market; early modern China; great divergence; Elsevier deal |
| JEL: | N30 N15 J21 J31 |
| Date: | 2023–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:121169&r=his |
| By: | Nuno Palma; Guilherme Lambais |
| Abstract: | More enslaved Africans disembarked in Brazil than in any other country in the New World. Using new archival data (over 12, 000 observations), we analyze the consequences of the slave trade. We build the first real wages and inequality series covering more than three centuries (1574 to 1920) in Brazil, and find that these were initially on a similar level to Europe, but as the slave trade increased, wages decreased and inequality increased. Real wages for unskilled workers became among the lowest in the world, and only recovered with the end of the slave trade. We use slave trade prohibition shocks (1808, 1831, and 1850) to estimate the causal effect of ending slave imports on wages and inequality. The first prohibition led to an average increase of 24% in unskilled wages and a decrease of 25% in wage inequality, while later prohibitions led to even larger wage increases. We propose a mechanism suggesting that the slave trade affected long-run development through a labor market supply channel. |
| Keywords: | historical living standards, real wages, welfare ratios, comparative development, inequality, slave trade, colonial Brazil, frontier settlement, synthetic control methods |
| JEL: | N36 N96 J31 J47 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:man:allwps:0001&r=his |
| By: | Marco Molteni (Geneva Graduate Institute and University of Oxford) |
| Abstract: | This paper employs quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the link between overbanking, banking competition, and financial distress during the interwar period in Europe, focusing on Italy as a case study. Econometric analysis on bank balance sheet data and a systematic review of contemporary printed sources show that banks experiencing distress had opened many branches and were operating in areas with harsher competition. Poor managerial choices had led banks to face higher operational costs, pushing them towards more remunerative but riskier activities. The 1920s saw a profound transformation of the Italian banking system, with extensive branch expansion and cut-throat competition for deposits. This work argues that such changes in the banking system’s structure made it more fragile, exposing it more to the negative effects of the international crisis following the New York Stock Exchange crash in 1929. Available evidence on other European countries suggests that Italy was not an isolated case. The study contributes to the literature on banking crises during the Great Depression and on the relationship between banking competition and financial stability. |
| Keywords: | overbanking, banking competition, banking crises, Great Depression, branch banking, Italy, interwar period |
| JEL: | N14 N24 G01 G21 G32 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:workqs:qse_51&r=his |
| By: | Merouani, Youssouf (Department of Economic History, Lund University); Perrin, Faustine (Department of Economic History, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | The gender patenting gap is well-established and is wide. Despite important progress made over the past decades, the gap remains. Why are women underrepresented in patenting activities? What are the roots of the gender patenting gap? How did the gap evolve since the ‘modern’ patenting system was established? Our knowledge of women’s contribution to innovative activities in the past is extremely scarce. We build an original dataset covering the entirety of French patents to investigate the extent to which women patented relative to men in France during the long nineteenth century and explores the factors behind the historical gender patenting gap. We find that despite the absence of scientific and technical education opportunities for women and the presence of institutional barriers, women, including those who were married, took an active part in the innovation process. The empirical analysis conducted in the paper suggests that explanations of the origins and persistence of the gender patenting gap have to be found outside of the patent system itself. |
| Keywords: | Patent; Innovation; Gender; Women; Nineteenth Century; France |
| JEL: | J16 N33 O30 |
| Date: | 2024–01–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:luekhi:0255&r=his |
| By: | Komarov Artemiy (Department of Economics, Lomonosov Moscow State University); Mirzoyan Ashot (Department of Economics, Lomonosov Moscow State University) |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the impact of cultural characteristics of countries on the consequences of the global financial crisis of 2008-2009.The analysis revealed, What countries, in which decisions were made quickly and smoothly, fell less than the others.., This influence was maintained in the analysis of cultural transmission mechanisms, with the addition of which there was significance in other cultural characteristics: for example, levels of individualism and autonomy negatively affected the economy during the recession, and the distance of power and the hierarchy of society led to milder consequences. When dividing countries into groups by cultural characteristics, it turned out, that countries with similar values suffered comparable damage in 2009. In addition, the dynamics of economic development in the pre-crisis period was important: collectivist countries emerged from the crisis less painfully, As opposed to individualistic. |
| Keywords: | socio-cultural economy, informal institutions, transfer mechanisms, great recession, financial crisis |
| JEL: | C51 E02 O43 Z13 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upa:wpaper:0064&r=his |
| By: | Perry Mehrling (Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University) |
| Abstract: | Bagehot is difficult for modern economists to read with understanding, for three reasons. He was a classical economist not neoclassical, his orientation was global not national, and, most importantly, his intellectual formation was as a practicing country banker not an academic. This paper adopts all three perspectives, and uses this frame to reinterpret his mature work, both Lombard Street and the unfinished Economic Studies, as the origin of the key currency tradition which continues as a minority view in modern economics. |
| Keywords: | Bagehot Rule, key currency, money view, Lombard Street, Ricardo |
| JEL: | B12 B17 B31 |
| Date: | 2024–01–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:thk:wpaper:inetwp216&r=his |
| By: | Jonathan Colmer; Suvy Qin; John Voorheis; Reed Walker |
| Abstract: | This paper uses administrative tax records linked to Census demographic data and high-resolution measures of fine small particulate (PM2.5) exposure to study the evolution of the Black-White pollution exposure gap over the past 40 years. In doing so, we focus on the various ways in which income may have contributed to these changes using a statistical decomposition. We decompose the overall change in the Black-White PM2.5 exposure gap into (1) components that stem from rank-preserving compression in the overall pollution distribution and (2) changes that stem from a reordering of Black and White households within the pollution distribution. We find a significant narrowing of the Black-White PM2.5 exposure gap over this time period that is overwhelmingly driven by rank-preserving changes rather than positional changes. However, the relative positions of Black and White households at the upper end of the pollution distribution have meaningfully shifted in the most recent years. |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:24-04&r=his |
| By: | Titus Galama (University of Southern California); Andrei Munteanu (Universite du Quebec a Montreal); Kevin Thom (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) |
| Abstract: | Using linked records from the 1880 to 1940 full-count United States decennial censuses, we estimate the effects of parental exposure to compulsory schooling (CS) laws on the human capital outcomes of children, exploiting the staggered roll-out of state CS laws in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. CS reforms not only increased the educational attainment of exposed individuals, but also that of their children. We find that one extra year of maternal (paternal) exposure to CS increased children's educational attainment by 0.015 (0.016) years - larger than the average effects on the parents themselves, and larger than the few existing intergenerational estimates from studies of more recent reforms. We find particularly large effects on black families and first-born sons. Exploring mechanisms, we find suggestive evidence that higher parental exposure to CS affected children's outcomes through higher own human capital, marriage to more educated spouses, and a higher propensity to reside in neighborhoods with greater school resources (teacher-to-student ratios) and with higher average educational attainment. |
| Keywords: | Census, educational attainment, 19th century, maternal education, racial disparities |
| JEL: | E24 H52 J15 J12 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2024-003&r=his |
| By: | Sarah McNamara (ZEW Mannheim); Guido Neidhöfer (ZEW Mannheim); Patrick Lehnert (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | We estimate intergenerational mobility of education for people born 1940-1999 at the subnational level for 40 European countries. The result is a panel of mobility indices for 105 mesoregions (NUTS1), and 215 microregions (NUTS2). We use these indices to make three contributions. First, we describe the geography of intergenerational mobility in Europe. Second, adapting a novel weighting procedure based on cohorts’ relative economic contribution, we transform cohort-linked measures into annual measures of intergenerational mobility for each region. Third, we investigate the relationship between intergenerational mobility and innovation, and find robust evidence that higher mobility is associated with increased innovation. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational Mobility, Equality of Opportunity, Human Capital, Innovation, Regional Economic Performance, Europe |
| JEL: | D63 I24 J62 O15 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2024-664&r=his |
| By: | Bauluz, Luis; Bukowski, Pawel; Fransham, Mark; Lee, Annie Seong; López Forero, Margarita; Novokmet, Filip; Breau, Sébastien; Lee, Neil; Malgouyres, Clément; Schularick, Moritz; Verdugo, Gregory |
| Abstract: | The rise of economic inequalities in advanced economies has been often linked with the growth of spatial inequalities within countries, yet there is limited comparative research that studies the relationship between national and subnational economic inequality. This paper presents the first systematic attempt to create internationally comparable evidence showing how different countries perform in terms of geographic wage inequalities. We create cross-country comparable measures of spatial wage disparities between and within similarly-defined local labour market areas (LLMAs) for Canada, France, (West) Germany, the UK and the US since the 1970s, and assess their contribution to national inequality. By the end of the 2010s, spatial inequalities in LLMA mean wages are similar in Canada, France, Germany and the UK; the US exhibits the highest degree of spatial inequality. Over the study period, spatial inequalities have nearly doubled in all countries, except for France where spatial inequalities have fallen back to 1970s levels. Due to a concomitant increase in within-place inequality, the contribution of places in explaining national wage inequality has remained fairly constant over the 40-year study period, except in the UK where we document a significant increase. Whilst common global social, economic and technological shocks are important drivers of spatial inequality, this variation in levels and trends of spatial inequality opens the way to comparative research exploring the role of national institutions in mediating how global shocks translate into economic disparities between places. |
| Keywords: | regional inequality; wage inequality; local labour markets; ES/V013548/1; EXC 2126/1– 390838866 |
| JEL: | J3 R1 R23 |
| Date: | 2023–08–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:121290&r=his |
| By: | Upward, Richard; Wright, Peter |
| Abstract: | We provide new evidence on the effects of economic shocks on political support, voting behaviour and political opinions over the last 25 years. We exploit a sudden, large and long-lasting shock in the form of job loss and trace out its impact on individual political outcomes for up to 10 years after the event. The availability of detailed information on households before and after the job loss event allows us to reweight a comparison group to closely mimic the job losers in terms of their observable characteristics, pre-existing political support and voting behaviour. We find consistent, long-lasting but quantitatively small effects on support and votes for the incumbent party, and short-lived effects on political engagement. We find limited impact on the support for fringe or populist parties. In the context of Brexit, opposition to the EU was much higher amongst those who lost their jobs, but this was largely due to pre-existing differences which were not exacerbated by the job loss event itself. |
| Keywords: | job loss, political support, voting |
| JEL: | C21 C23 D72 J63 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iwhdps:281194&r=his |
| By: | Carozzi, Felipe; Pinchbeck, Edward William; Repetto, Luca |
| Abstract: | What drives soldiers to risk their life in combat? We show that the legacy of war creates lasting conditions that encourage younger generations to take greater risks when fighting for their country. Using individual-level data from over 4 million British war records, we show that WWI deaths deeply affected local communities and the behaviour of the next generation of soldiers. Servicemen from localities that suffered heavier losses in WWI were more likely to die or to be awarded military honours for bravery in WW2. To explain these findings, we document that WWI deaths promoted civic capital in the inter-war period - as demonstrated by the creation of lasting war memorials, veterans' associations and charities, and increased voter participation. In addition, we show that sons of soldiers killed in WWI were more likely to die in combat, suggesting that both community-level and family-level transmission of values were important in this context. |
| Keywords: | world war; combat motivation; conflict; civic capital; memory; BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant SRG2021- 210936 |
| JEL: | D74 D91 O15 Z10 |
| Date: | 2023–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:121292&r=his |