|
on Business, Economic and Financial History |
| By: | Depetris-Chauvin, Emilio; Özak, Ömer (Southern Methodist University) |
| Abstract: | We explore the effect of historical ethnic borders on contemporary conflict in Africa. We document that the intensive and extensive margins of contemporary conflict are higher close to historical ethnic borders. Exploiting variations across artificial regions within an ethnicity's historical homeland and a theory-based instrumental variable approach, we find that regions crossed by historical ethnic borders have 27 percentage points higher probability of conflict and 7.9 percentage points higher probability of being the initial location of a conflict. We uncover several key underlying mechanisms: competition for agricultural land, population pressure, cultural similarity, and weak property rights. |
| Date: | 2024–05–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:k76mt_v1 |
| By: | Pencavel, John H. (Stanford University) |
| Abstract: | The operation of American labor markets during the two World Wars is described and the well-being of civilian workers during those years is assessed. These were periods when decentralized capitalism was replaced with a system of centralized direction and control that some would call socialism. The state's activities were those of a monopsonist - the dominant or, even, single buyer - in the markets for many goods and services. Why was decentralized capitalism discarded as a mechanism to allocate resources during these critical periods? How well did civilian workers fare during these years? |
| Keywords: | World War, employment, wages, unionism, laissez faire, socialism |
| JEL: | J20 N32 P23 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17680 |
| By: | Scanlan, Oliver |
| Abstract: | The influential narrative of tribal divergence argues that identities professed by Scheduled Tribes, Adivasis and Indigenous Peoples in South Asia today are colonial artefacts. The creation of specific “non-regulation” territories, governed separately from the rest of British India, was the key mechanism that facilitated the emergence of this myriad of ethnicities. The British rationale was either ideological, or divide-and-rule tactics, or a combination of the two. An alternative reading is that such governance arrangements were the practical result of the colonial liberal project’s pursuit of frugal government and security. They were not exceptional, comprising one of many institutional arrangements implemented in an empire characterized by administrative heterogeneity. Special territories demographically separated rather than consolidated individual communities. Their impact should have been, in anything, anti-ethnographic. Tribal spaces did not create ethnic difference; there was ethnic difference and therefore the British created tribal spaces. |
| Date: | 2025–01–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:vx9kq_v1 |
| By: | Scanlan, Oliver; Mankhin, Anitta; Ritchil, Parag |
| Abstract: | In the mid-1980s, the state summarily cancelled the property rights of the Indigenous Peoples of Madhupur, Bangladesh, that hitherto were thoroughly embedded in the national legal-administrative architecture. The removal of capital from formal circuits of exchange is irrational in economic terms. This is a case where neoliberalism has been constrained by the state’s defense of a racialized hierarchy embedded in majoritarian understandings of the nation. Further exploration of how racial capitalism works by excluding certain ethnic groups from capital is likely to shed new light on processes of dispossession, particularly in regions where ethnic complexity, biological diversity and “old land wars” intersect. |
| Date: | 2025–01–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:7s68d_v1 |
| By: | Orhan, Mehmet A. (EM Normandie Business School); Bal, P. Matthijs; van Rossenberg, Yvonne |
| Abstract: | This article presents a fictional narrative about Professor Sackker, the solitary researcher in the field of Sackker Studies, once known as Management and Organizational Studies. Despite its absurdity, the story portrays Sackker’s dominance, marked by his inevitable rise with record-breaking publications and citations, stifling competition, and leaving him as the ultimate winner and ruler. Through personal reflections, his story explores his career strategies, provides insights into his success, and explains how he shaped, transformed, and eventually (but unwittingly) destroyed the field. This narrative, though fictional, mirrors real concerns in today’s reality: growing inequalities, the dominance of elite scholars, and erosion of meaning in academic careers as a function of hyper-competition. We examine the prevalence of systemic issues plaguing academia. Despite challenges, the article also aims to inspire hope. By illuminating these problems and integrating them into scholarly discussions, there lies an opportunity for change, empowering the next generation of academics. |
| Date: | 2024–07–26 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:r63uz_v1 |
| By: | Luc Marco (CEPN - Centre d'Economie de l'Université Paris Nord - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Université Sorbonne Paris Nord) |
| Abstract: | This book describes the birth, the maturity and the relative decline of the National association of PHD in Economics and Management. This is about France between 1953 and 2023. This history was writed for the 70th Anniversary of the Association : this is the second edition, reviewed and augmented. |
| Abstract: | Cet ouvrage décrit la naissance, l'essor et le déclin relatif de l'association nationale des docteurs ès sciences économiques et en sciences de gestion. Cela concerne la France de 1953 à 2023. Ce livre a été rédigé pour les soixante-dix ans de l'association et nous avons fait une deuxième édition pour tenir compte de l'évolution récente de ses membres. |
| Keywords: | ANDESE, Histoire, France, 1953-2023 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04962627 |
| By: | Incerti, Trevor (Yale University); Miyano, Sayumi; Stanescu, Diana; Yamagishi, Hikaru |
| Abstract: | Political economists have long speculated about the effects of connections between bureaucracies and the private sector. However, data tracing flows of civil servants from the bureaucracy to the private sector remains rare. This article presents a new dataset, Amakudata, which contains individual-level data of virtually all Japanese bureaucrats retiring into positions outside of the bureaucracy from 2009 to 2019. We first present how the dataset was created and validated. Next, we describe what the data reveals about the revolving door in Japan and beyond, and show that some sectors may be larger hirers of government personnel than previously thought. We conclude by discussing how the data can be used to investigate empirical and causal questions in diverse subjects such as corruption and regulatory capture; procurement, pork, and government waste; bureaucratic representation; and international trade and investment. |
| Date: | 2024–09–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:fqnkz_v1 |
| By: | Adeolu, Adewole Musiliu |
| Abstract: | Several studies have documented the persistence of economic development outcomes across space and over a long period of time. Other studies have argued that there has been a reversal of fortune over time and space. Since different areas of current Nigeria were once under the rule of states with different degrees of political centralization and later investment in Koranic education, this study sought to explore whether areas or districts under more centralized political system are more likely to participate in large scale school expansion programmes such as the 1976 Universal Primary Education (UPE) and 1999 Universal Basic Education (UBE). To check for evidence of reversal of fortune, we determine whether degree of state centralization on school participation was more or less in areas that have large investments in Koranic education. The important motivation for this study was the observation that participation in the tuition-free large-scale school expansion programmes implemented nationwide have not closed the disparity in school participation across the various regions of Nigeria. Even more surprising is that regions, such as the North-West and North-East, which fell under pre-colonial states with complex political arrangements have fallen behind in the education race relative the South-East, often regarded as a stateless society, and to some extent the South-South region which had a less complex political structure. This is contrary to the findings of several studies which show a positive relationship between this historical measure of state centralization and several indices of contemporary development outcomes. To explain this special case, we hypothesized that regions that had intensive and extensive contacts with Islamic culture and by extension Koranic education before the onset of Christian missionaries were unlikely to reap the full benefits of pre-colonial centralization. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) results showed that while the index of state centralization has a positive and significant impact on enrolment in UPE and UBE programmes, the effect is negative and statistically significant for those with heavy investment in Koranic education (measured by district fraction of 1914-1946 cohorts with Koranic education). The results are robust to an adding extensive range of explanatory variables and a range of other specification tests. While the structure of the economy at the onset of Islamic activities in Nigeria may have made investment in Koranic education worthwhile, the contemporary world does not require Koranic education to make either regional or national advancement possible. Thus, there is a clear case of mismatch between the demands of modern economic life and the skills possessed by a large-section of it. Thus, well thought out policies are required to address this mismatch and accelerate inclusive economic development |
| Date: | 2024–08–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aer:wpaper:936f8c96-1ab1-435c-9125-92f1b5463ca8 |
| By: | Pablo Iglesias; Jure Kotnik; Karina Acevedo; Diego Ambasz; Tigran Shmis; Maria Ustinova; Dmitry Chugunov; Devika Singh |
| Keywords: | Urban Development-Municipal and Civil Engineering |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:41894 |
| By: | Madandar Arani, Sara |
| Abstract: | As contemporaneous writers, Howard Phillips Lovecraft and Sadegh Hedayat’s Gothic fiction has been concerned with a dramatization of the hidden fears of characters; however, their narratives go beyond a mere representation of human woes. This study explores how both authors write about minds polluted by fear, anxiety, and return of the repressed, and simultaneously reflect these afflictions in their narrative structures. Edgar Allan Poe’s Gothic tradition influenced both authors, despite their distinct cultural and geographical contexts, revealing that while Lovecraft’s Gothic leans toward cosmic horror and Hedayat’s toward realism, both are unified by a humanistic core and a profound engagement with the uncanny. In both authors’ works, upon the resurgence of the Freudian uncanny in the narrated world a concomitant shockwave is sent back onto the narrative plane, representing the depicted psychological fragmentation of the characters. This article examines how their narratives act as a symbiotic extension of the Gothic worlds they create, demonstrating how the experience of the uncanny disrupts the narrative structure, influencing both its temporality and emplotment. Through their shared narrative strategies as well as their stylistic divergences the Gothic emerges as a medium capable of transcending cultural boundaries and addressing modern anxieties. |
| Date: | 2025–01–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:vnf2s_v1 |
| By: | Prodromidis, Nikolaos (University of Duisburg-Essen); Karlsson, Martin (University of Duisburg-Essen); Kühnle, Daniel (University of Duisburg-Essen) |
| Abstract: | Despite the importance of regulating working hours for workers' health and maintaining labour productivity, the literature lacks credible causal estimates on the impact of reduced working hours. We provide new evidence for the causal effect of shorter workweeks on mortality using full population register data, exploiting a nationwide policy in Sweden that reduced the weekly working hours from 55 to 48 hours for certain occupations only in 1920. Using difference-in-differences and event-study models, we show that lower working hours decreased mortality by around 15% over the first six years. We identify several mechanisms behind this effect: the policy led to fewer workplace accidents, a decline in work-related disability, and a reduction in sick days taken by employees. Causal forest estimators indicate particularly strong effects for older workers. Our results imply that many lives could be saved worldwide by reducing long working hours for labour-intensive occupations. |
| Keywords: | working hours, employment legislation, mortality, Sweden |
| JEL: | I18 I18 J10 J81 N14 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17707 |