|
on Business, Economic and Financial History |
| By: | Cloyne, James; Dimsdale, Nicholas; Postel-Vinay, Natacha |
| Abstract: | The impact of fiscal policy on economic activity is still a matter of great debate. And, ever since Keynes first commented on it, interwar Britain, 1918–39, has remained a particularly interesting and contentious case—not least because of its high-debt environment and turbulent business cycle. This debate has often focused on the effects of government spending, but little is known about the effects of tax changes. In fact, a number of tax reforms in the period focused on long-term and social objectives, often reflecting the personality of British Chancellors. Based on extensive historiographical research, we apply a narrative approach to the interwar period in Britain and isolate a new series of exogenous tax changes. We find that tax changes have a sizable effect on GDP, with multipliers exceeding 2 within two years. Our estimates provide new evidence on the effects of tax changes, contribute to the historical debate about fiscal policy in the interwar period and are also consistent with the sizable tax multipliers found after World War II. |
| Keywords: | macroeconomic policy; fiscal policy; taxation; public finance; fiscal history; multiplier; narrative approach |
| JEL: | E23 E32 E62 H20 H30 N10 N44 |
| Date: | 2024–07–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:123706 |
| By: | Claudia Goldin |
| Abstract: | The fertility decline is everywhere in the world today. Moreover, the decline goes decades back in the histories of rich countries. Birthrates have been below replacement in the U.S. and Europe since the mid-1970s, although further declines occurred after the Great Recession. The reasons for the declines from the 1970s to the early 2000s involve greater female autonomy and a mismatch between the desires of men and women. Men benefit more from maintaining traditions; women benefit more from eschewing them. When the probability is low that men will abandon traditions, some career women will not have children and others will delay, often too long. The fertility histories of the U.S. and those of many European and Asian countries speak to the impact of the mismatch on birth rates. The experience of middle income and even poorer nations may also be due to related factors. Various constraints that I group under matching problems have caused fertility to be lower than otherwise and imply that fertility has a “downside.” |
| JEL: | J10 J16 N30 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34268 |
| By: | Scott Abrahams; Daniel Keniston |
| Abstract: | Between 1854 and 1929, approximately 200, 000 children were transported from East Coast cities to new homes in the American West, motivated by the theory that a change of geography and household environment can transform lives. We leverage quasi-experimental variation in child placements to evaluate both whether being sent West improved outcomes relative to remaining in New York institutions, and whether variation in destination and foster household characteristics affected later life success. Linking tens of thousands of ``orphan train'' riders and comparable non-relocated children to Census records through 1940, we find no systematic evidence that relocation itself improved adult economic outcomes. Among children sent West, substantial variation in county-level economic opportunities also did not predict adult success. In contrast, the individual foster household income predicts children's later incomes, with an estimated intergenerational elasticity of about 0.2. |
| JEL: | J61 N31 R23 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34282 |
| By: | Sandambi, Nerhum |
| Abstract: | After five decades, Angola has proven incapable of breaking out of its cycle of underdevelopment. In this approach, I seek to highlight some evidence that contributes to the failure of the Angolan economy to prosper. Much of this evidence points to the strong contribution of political, administrative, and fiscal centralization to high levels of multidimensional poverty. The past five decades have promoted vicious circles that have contributed to the ability to generate wealth on a private basis. On the other hand, the significantly exclusive institutions that exist have led the economy to stagnation with a strong dependence on international markets, whose economy, lacking the capacity for transformation, has become an economy of expectations based on these markets in particular. On the other hand, the inability to govern naturally reveals the main driver of stagnation in marked underdevelopment, being strongly associated with the inability to generate wealth for the majority. |
| Date: | 2025–09–19 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:8n6hg_v1 |
| By: | Pablo Astorga (Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI)) |
| Abstract: | From a long-term perspective little is known about income inequality in Venezuela. This is regrettable as the country offers a unique opportunity to study distributional dynamics in an economy dominated by oil richness since the 1920s amid an accelerated process of structural change amid demographic and institutional transformations. The main reason for this lacuna is scarcity of data. Consistently-defined household surveys are available from 1974 and cover only labour income. The paper benefits from a new set of Ginis based on dynamic social tables with four occupational groups defined by their skill level, and National Accounts data. This evidence sheds light on inequality in two contrasting periods shaped by the interplay of external forces linked to international oil markets and endogenous transformations: one from 1920 to the 1970s of a rapidly growing economy driven by the consolidation of the oil industry, the rise of the middle class, increasing real wages, and industrialisation; the other, ending in 2013 characterised by economic stagnation, a collapse in real wages, the hollowing out of the middle class, declining oil production, volatile oil rents, and de-industrialisation. Altogether, income inequality has been primarily oil driven, first, by a steady rise in oil production and fiscal revenues influencing the pace and nature of endogenous transformations; and, since 1973, by the timing of oil-price shocks. Overall inequality widened during the 1970s and 2000s booms, but also during the slump of the 1980s and 1990s. Prosperity favoured most those in the top group; adversity impacted worst those in the bottom group. |
| Keywords: | Economic Development, Income Inequality, Wage Structure, Non-renewable Resources, Oil Prices |
| JEL: | O10 O15 J3 Q32 Q43 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0283 |
| By: | Petach, Luke |
| Abstract: | Prior to the widespread adoption of barbed wire in the late 19th century, the absence of cheap fencing materials in the western United States led to violent conflict in the presence of competing claims over land-use. Using data from the full count U.S. Censuses of Mortality for the years 1850 to 1880, I demonstrate that an increase in the cost of property rights enforcement- captured by an increase in fencing costs per-acre-results in an increase in violent mortality. The effect of fence prices on violent mortality is exacerbated in counties with a greater degree of agricultural land-use polarization. The main findings are supported by an instrumental variables specification using the county woodland area share-a measure of the local scarcity of natural fencing materials, and a placebo specification demonstrating that fence prices have no effect on infectious disease mortality. |
| Keywords: | Property Rights, the West, Barbed Wire, Violent Conflict |
| JEL: | N41 D23 K42 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1672 |
| By: | Luca Henrichs; Anton J. Heckens; Thomas Guhr |
| Abstract: | To understand the emergence of Ultrafast Extreme Events (UEEs), the influence of algorithmic trading or high-frequency traders is of major interest as they make it extremely difficult to intervene and to stabilize financial markets. In an empirical analysis, we compare various characteristics of UEEs over different years for the US stock market to assess the possible non-stationarity of the effects. We show that liquidity plays a dominant role in the emergence of UEEs and find a general pattern in their dynamics. We also empirically investigate the after-effects in view of the recovery rate. We find common patterns for different years. We explain changes in the recovery rate by varying market sentiments for the different years. |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2509.10376 |
| By: | Étienne Fakaba Sissoko (Université des sciences sociales et de gestion de Bamako - USSGB - Université des sciences sociales et de gestion de Bamako) |
| Abstract: | This article introduces and theorizes the original concept of sacrofemininity as an epistemological and political paradigm that breaks with the limitations of dominant models of equality, empowerment, and emancipation. Rooted in African cosmologies, feminine spiritualities, and relational ontologies, the concept advocates for an ontological and civilizational revalorization of the feminine as a foundational matrix. At the crossroads of decolonial epistemologies, traditions of care, and symbolic sovereignties, sacrofemininity proposes a reconfiguration of meaning, institutions, and practices in postcolonial contexts. The article explores its theoretical foundations, practical implications, embodied figures, and critical controversies through an explicitly intersectional lens. |
| Abstract: | Cet article introduit et théorise le concept original de sacroféminité comme paradigme épistémologique et politique de rupture face aux impasses des modèles dominants d'égalité, d'empowerment et d'émancipation. Ancré dans les cosmologies africaines, les spiritualités féminines et les ontologies relationnelles, le concept défend une revalorisation ontologique et civilisationnelle du féminin comme matrice fondatrice. À la croisée des épistémologies décoloniales, des traditions de soin et des souverainetés symboliques, la sacroféminité propose une refondation du sens, des institutions et des pratiques en contexte postcolonial. L'article en explore les fondements théoriques, les implications concrètes, les figures incarnées et les controverses critiques, dans une perspective intersectionnelle assumée. |
| Keywords: | Cosmologies africaines, Ontologie relationnelle, Décolonisation., Justice symbolique, Sacroféminité, Décolonisation B54, I31, Decolonization. JEL Codes: B54, Relational Ontology, African Cosmologies, Symbolic Justice, Sacred Feminine, I31 Sacrofemininity, O55, Z13, J16, Féminin sacré, Sacroféminité Féminin sacré Justice symbolique Cosmologies africaines Ontologie relationnelle Décolonisation B54 J16 Z13 O55 I31 Sacrofemininity Sacred Feminine Symbolic Justice African Cosmologies Relational Ontology Decolonization. JEL Codes: B54 J16 Z13 O55 I31 |
| Date: | 2025–08–17 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05212238 |
| By: | Kondor, Péter |
| Abstract: | In financial crises, a period of overheated credit markets turns into a credit crunch accompanied by a systemic breakdown in the financial intermediary sector. Without a deep understanding of their roots, designing policies to decrease the probability of suffering from them or to avoid the worst consequences is like flying blind. In this review, I survey the recent development of the theory of financial crises. I focus on the answers these theories provide to four fundamental questions. What makes the booming phase fragile, and what are the incentives and frictions leading to that fragility? What triggers the crisis? Why is the downturn persistent? Should policy intervene, and if so, how? |
| Keywords: | financial crises; overheated credit markets; credit crunch |
| JEL: | E32 E44 G28 |
| Date: | 2025–08–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:129142 |
| By: | Raquel Fonseca; Simon Lord; Markus Poschke |
| Abstract: | Quebec lags behind its neighbor Ontario in terms of household wealth, a phenomenon that has become more pronounced over the past 25 years. A CIRANO study (Fonseca, Poschke, and Lord, 2025) provides a portrait of the wealth of different socioeconomic groups that make up Quebec and Ontario societies based on a detailed examination of the evolution of total household wealth, as well as the various components of wealth. The authors show that real estate is the main factor explaining the differences in wealth between Quebec and Ontario. Sur le plan de la richesse, le Québec est à la traîne de son voisin ontarien, un phénomène qui s’est accentué au cours des 25 dernières années. Une étude CIRANO (Fonseca, Poschke et Lord, 2025) offre un portrait de la richesse de différents groupes socioéconomiques qui composent les sociétés québécoise et ontarienne à partir d’un examen détaillé de l’évolution de la richesse totale des ménages, et aussi des différentes composantes de la richesse totale. Les auteurs montrent que c’est le patrimoine immobilier qui serait le principal facteur expliquant les différences de richesse entre le Québec et l’Ontario. |
| Date: | 2025–09–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:circah:2025pj-14 |
| By: | Jung, Yeonha; Kim, Minki (University of Mannheim); Lee, Munseob (University of California, San Diego) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the long-term impact of Hyanggyo, state-sponsored educational institutions established during the early Joseon Dynasty in Korea (1392-1592), on human capital accumulation. Although these schools largely ceased functioning as educational centers by the late 16th century, their influence has endured to the present day. Drawing on a newly constructed township-level dataset, we find a robust positive association between historical exposure to Hyanggyo and modern educational attainment. This relationship appears to be driven by enduring local demand for education, supported by three complementary findings. First, regions with greater historical exposure experienced larger gains in Japanese literacy during colonial era school expansions. Second, residents in these areas express stronger pro-education attitudes today. Third, historically exposed regions exhibited lower fertility rates, consistent with a quantity–quality tradeoff in parental investment. Together, our findings highlight the lasting legacy of early educational institutions. |
| Keywords: | Hyanggyo, Human capital, historical institutions, Joseon, cultural transmission |
| JEL: | I23 J24 N35 O15 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18123 |
| By: | Haelim Anderson; Matthew S. Jaremski |
| Abstract: | We examine the effects of changes in an interest rate cap on small loan brokers in New Jersey during the Great Depression. Using newly constructed data on brokers and banks, we find that small loans declined sharply when the cap was lowered, and despite worsening economic conditions, they rebounded when the cap was raised back up. Consumers could not obtain alternative credit from banks, effectively shutting them out of the market. The cap had a permanent impact on the small loan market due to the large number of broker closures, thereby further reducing the availability of small loans and increasing market concentration. Our findings highlight the fundamental trade-off faced by policymakers: strict rate caps may protect borrowers from predatory lending but can eliminate necessary credit options for vulnerable populations. |
| JEL: | G01 G21 G28 N12 N22 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34277 |
| By: | Klaus Prettner (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business); Martin Stojanovikj (Deusto Business School, University of Deusto) |
| Abstract: | We examine how extractive institutions affect the timing of the takeoff to sustained economic growth, the pace of industrialization, and the long-run balanced growth path of an economy. The politically dominant ruling elite can choose to extract a share of output and/or to interfere with creative destruction by extracting innovation resources. In so doing, the ruling elite needs to balance its desire for grabbing a greater share of resources with the constraint of being able to stay in power. We show that the extraction from output delays the takeoff to sustained economic growth and reduces economic growth in the early industrial period. However, taken by itself, output extraction does not reduce the long-run balanced growth rate. By contrast, if the ruling elite interferes with creative destruction by extracting resources meant for innovation, it suppresses economic growth during industrialization and along the balanced growth path. After deriving the main results analytically, we calibrate the model to the U.S. economy to illustrate the adverse long-run development effects of extractive institutions. According to our results, institutions and policies that reduce the extractive power of the ruling elite can boost economic development to a substantial degree. |
| Keywords: | Extractive Institutions, Institutions and Growth, Industrial Takeoff, Schumpeterian Growth, Economic Development, Long-Run Growth, Growth Transitions |
| JEL: | O31 O40 O43 D72 P16 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwwuw:wuwp387 |
| By: | Albin Salmon; Vincent Fleuriet; Paul Vertier |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effects on children and adult height of currency crises experienced during childhood. It uses survey data from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) collected in 57 countries between 1986 and 2023 for hundreds of thousands of children and adults, combined with a monthly dataset indicating the start of currency crises between 1970 and 2017. It finds that children facing a currency crisis between their birth and the date of the survey tend to be shorter, by about - 0.1 standard deviation (SD). Reduced food affordability explains part of the results: estimated effects are larger in net food importing developing countries and smaller when controlling for inflation. Children growing up during a currency crisis are less likely to eat any solid food and to have a diversified diet on the day preceding the survey, mostly because of a reduced consumption of nutrient-rich non-starchy food. Early exposure to currency crises have persistent effects on adult height. Adults having faced a currency crisis between their birth and 10 years old are on average shorter than their peers, with a maximum effect of about -0.04 SD for crises experienced between 5-6 years old. They are also less likely to have completed secondary or higher education. Our results are unlikely to be influenced by differential selection in parenting across households’ wealth levels, and are robust to a large number of alternative specifications and sample restrictions. |
| Keywords: | Currency Crises, Malnutrition, Human Development |
| JEL: | F31 I14 J13 O15 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfr:banfra:1003 |
| By: | François Gourio; Benjamin K. Johannsen; J. David López-Salido |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we describe the Federal Reserve’s 2019–20 review of its monetary policy framework. First, we discuss the historical background of and motivation for the review. We then summarize the structure of the 2019–20 review, which included Fed Listens events, a flagship research conference, a series of staff analyses, and related Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) deliberations. Finally, we present the main outcomes of the review, with particular attention paid to changes to the FOMC’s Statement on Longer Run Goals and Monetary Policy Strategy. |
| Keywords: | Federal Reserve; Framework review; Consensus statement; Inflation targeting; Effective lower bound |
| JEL: | E52 E58 |
| Date: | 2025–08–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2025-65 |
| By: | Joseph G. Altonji (Yale University and NBER); John Eric Humphries (Yale University and NBER); Yagmur Yuksel (Northwestern University); Ling Zhong (Yale University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the gender gap in log earnings among full-time, college-educated workers born between 1931 and 1984. Using data from the National Survey of College Graduates and other sources, we decompose the gender earnings gap across birth cohorts into three components: (i) gender differences in the relative returns to undergraduate and graduate fields, (ii) gender-specific trends in undergraduate field, graduate degree attainment, and graduate field, and (iii) a cohortspecific Òresidual componentÓ that shifts the gender gap uniformly across all college graduates. We have three main findings. First, when holding the relative returns to fields constant, changes in fields of study contribute 0.128 to the decline in the gender gap. However, this decline is partially offset by cohort trends in the relative returns to specific fields that favored men over women, reducing the contribution of field-of-study changes to the decline to 0.055. Second, gender differences in the relative returns to undergraduate and graduate fields of study contribute to the earnings gap, but they play a limited role in explaining its decline over time. Third, much of the convergence in earnings between the 1931 and 1950 cohorts is due to a declining Òresidual component.Ó The residual component remains stable for cohorts born between 1951 and the late 1970s, after which it resumes its decline. |
| Date: | 2025–08–21 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2457 |
| By: | Prettner, Klaus; Stojanovikj, Martin |
| Abstract: | We examine how extractive institutions affect the timing of the takeoff to sustained economic growth, the pace of industrialization, and the long-run balanced growth path of an economy. The politically dominant ruling elite can choose to extract a share of output and/or to interfere with creative destruction by extracting innovation resources. In so doing, the ruling elite needs to balance its desire for grabbing a greater share of resources with the constraint of being able to stay in power. We show that the extraction from output delays the takeoff to sustained economic growth and reduces economic growth in the early industrial period. However, taken by itself, output extraction does not reduce the long-run balanced growth rate. By contrast, if the ruling elite interferes with creative destruction by extracting resources meant for innovation, it suppresses economic growth during industrialization and along the balanced growth path. After deriving the main results analytically, we calibrate the model to the U.S. economy to illustrate the adverse long-run development effects of extractive institutions. According to our results, institutions and policies that reduce the extractive power of the ruling elite can boost economic development to a substantial degree. |
| Keywords: | Extractive Institutions; Institutions and Growth; Industrial Takeoff; Schumpeterian Growth; Economic Development; Long-Run Growth; Growth Transitions |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wus005:77527668 |
| By: | Tianyu Fan; Mai Wo; Wei Xiang |
| Abstract: | This paper systematically estimates and quantifies how geopolitical alignment shapes global trade across three distinct eras: the Cold War, hyper-globalization, and contemporary fragmentation. We construct a novel measure of bilateral alignment using large language models to compile and analyze 833, 485 political events spanning 193 countries from 1950 to 2024. Our analysis reveals that trade flows systematically track geopolitical alignment in both bilateral relationships and aggregate patterns. Using local projections within a gravity framework, we estimate that a one-standard-deviation improvement in geopolitical alignment increases bilateral trade by 20 percent over ten years. Integrating these elasticities into a quantitative general equilibrium model, we find that deteriorating geopolitical relations have reduced global trade by 7 percentage points between 1995 and 2020. Our findings provide empirical benchmarks for evaluating the costs of geopolitical fragmentation in an era of renewed great power competition. |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2509.12084 |
| By: | Jørgen Modalsli (Oslo Business School at Oslo Metropolitan University) |
| Abstract: | How reliable is historical microdata? Understanding historical labor force participation is crucial for assessing long-term trends in economic development and intergenerational mobility. Most existing historical studies are, however, limited to men, and little is known about how reliable quantitative historical sources are when studying labor market outcomes for women. This paper documents that the measurement of women's economic activity in the 1910 Norwegian population census had a high level of consistency. There is extensive discussion of measurement issues in historical census reports, micro data can reproduce historical census tables with a high degree of accuracy, and other contemporary reports such as industrial censuses and tax statistics confirm the results found in the census. In addition, a double-enumeration feature of the Norwegian census is leveraged to assess consistency between enumerators, finding no indication that precision in the occupational classification of women is any lower than for men. Some potential sources of downward bias are found in the historical census microdata set provided by IPUMS. Based on the results in this paper, historical census data appears well suited to study economic activity using modern econometric methods, for women as well as men. A slight upward revision of the 39\% female labor force participation in Norway in 1910 might be in order. |
| Keywords: | Labor force participation, historical census data, gender, occupational measurement, Norway |
| JEL: | N33 J21 J16 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0282 |
| By: | Bellou, Andriana (University of Montreal); Cardia, Emanuela (University of Montreal); Lewis, Joshua (University of Montreal) |
| Abstract: | The United States experienced dramatic swings in fertility over the course of the early- and mid-20th century. This paper presents a novel explanation for these changes, linking the Great Depression to the contemporaneous fertility bust in the early 1930s, the baby boom from the late-1930s through the 1950s, and the subsequent baby bust of the 1960s. Our empirical analysis is based on an event-study approach that links county-level measures of Depression severity to annual fertility rates over an extended 50-year time horizon. We find that the Great Depression can account for roughly half of the bust-boom-bust swings in fertility rates over this period. It can also account for large cross-cohort differences in lifecycle fertility pro les and completed childbearing. We present evidence for a mechanism that accounts for these patterns: the shock incentivized Depression-era women to delay childbearing and to increase lifetime labor force participation. This employment response, in turn, temporarily crowded-out economic opportunities for subsequent generations of women, contributing to their high fertility rates through the 1950s and early 1960s. |
| Keywords: | Great Depression, baby bust, baby boom |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18120 |
| By: | Andersen, Ditte |
| Abstract: | As part of Acta Sociologica’s special issue on ‘Social investment in Action’ we bring an interview with Professor Elizabeth Popp Berman (EPB), author of the widely acclaimed Thinking like an Economist – How Efficiency Replaced Equality in US Public Policy (Princeton University Press, 2022) . Interviewer, Ditte Andersen (DA), probes Berman’s argument on how the economic style of reasoning is linked to specific values, especially the value of efficiency, in ways that crowd out other values (e.g. democratic participation, universal rights) and constrain social policy thinking in contemporary Western societies. Social investment policies epitomize the economic style of reasoning by orientating towards returns of public spending. In policy domains such as education, ‘social investment in action’ forefronts the value of returns (in the future) rather than, for example, the value of equality and universalism (in the present). The interview also turns attention to the role of sociologists in denaturalizing the taken for granted and aid the imagination of alternative futures. |
| Date: | 2025–09–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:j38dt_v1 |
| By: | Alexandre Chirat (Université Marie et Louis Pasteur, CRESE UR3190, F-25000 Besançon, France); Basile Clerc (Université Paris Nanterre, EconomiX, UMR 7235, F-92000 Nanterre, France) |
| Abstract: | Drawing on the historical analogy with War Economy, this article investigates the concept of a “Climate War Economy” (CWE) to address the medium run macroeconomic imbalances inherent in the green transition. We argue that, as in war economies, the green transition is likely to generate a structural disequilibrium between constrained supply and rising demand, leading to medium-run inflationary pressures. This article uses the CWE analogy to open a broader discussion on the economic and political relevance of revisiting the macroeconomic stabilization tools deployed during World War II. It first examines how, in response to wartime constraints, governments suspended market mechanisms through price and quantity controls. Then, it explores the parallels with today’s green transition. By tracing the reasoning behind these interventions, the article shows how this historical experience can inform climate policy-makers and enriched ecological macroeconomics. Finally, the paper addresses the limitations of the war economy analogy, while arguing that price and quantity controls can be used to manage the macroeconomic imbalances of the green transition without undermining liberal democratic principles. |
| Keywords: | Green Transition, Inflation, Price control, War Economy, Planning |
| JEL: | Q54 P11 B00 N00 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crb:wpaper:2025-10 |
| By: | Luisito Bertinelli (University of Luxembourg); Fabio Gatti (University of Bern, Bocconi University); Eric Strobl (University of Bern) |
| Abstract: | Plantation elites continued to dominate local colonial governments in the British West Indies even after the abolition of slavery in 1834, directing public spending towards maintaining public order and protecting their property. As such they resisted any reforms that threatened their power, while the local non-white population, constituting of over 90\% of the colonies’ inhabitants, faced repression, segregation, and limited support. A pivotal shift occurred following the 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica, which prompted Britain to intervene so that by the 1870s most of the West Indian Assemblies were abolished, and the Colonial Office in London assumed direct control of colonial governance. This paper investigates how this shift from the Old Representative System to Crown Colony rule affected government resource allocation. Using public finance data from 16 British West Indian colonies between 1838 and 1938 we demonstrate that the governance reforms led to a significant reallocation of public expenditure towards welfare spending, as well as infrastructure and agricultural development. Our findings contribute to the economic history of colonial governance by revealing how Britain’s political intervention fostered expenditures not necessarily in the interests of the planter oligarchy, thereby promoting a broader modernization of British West Indian economies. |
| Keywords: | Economic History, Colonialism, Political Economics, Public Economics |
| JEL: | N00 H1 H5 O1 N3 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0281 |
| By: | Givens, Terri |
| Abstract: | Settler countries have become what they are through land theft, genocide, oppression of Indigenous People, and enslavement. Those who remain, including African descendants and Indigenous, continue to be seen as unable to attain the education or class status that would give them access to the “fruits of modernity” and are thus excluded from the opportunity to become equal citizens. What is critically important to our understanding of these processes is that they are not limited to “settler” societies like the US, Canada and Australia. Both settler colonial and European countries have histories of dehumanizing those who would come to their countries. The underlying question that I’m trying to address in this article is, what are the key factors driving the development of countries into nation-states with their current day immigration policies, and how those developments are impacted by historical processes of racialization. Theories that try to explain global migration flows often focus on South to North or South-South migration – however, a more global approach needs to include North-South migration that has impacted the development of countries throughout the Western hemisphere (and beyond). |
| Date: | 2025–09–19 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:vtfxm_v1 |
| By: | Bruno Dorin (Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement); Frédéric Landy (LAVUE - Laboratoire Architecture, Ville, Urbanisme, Environnement - UP8 - Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis - ENSAPLV - École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Paris-La Villette - HESAM - HESAM Université - Communauté d'universités et d'établissements Hautes écoles Sorbonne Arts et métiers université - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - ENSA PVDS - École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Paris Val-de-Seine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - MC - Ministère de la Culture) |
| Abstract: | Agricultural policies have always been the subject of theoretical and political controversy. Their history alternates between the legitimacy of intervention in agricultural markets and the withdrawal of the State from these markets. This book examines the complex notion of agricultural policy. |
| Abstract: | Les politiques agricoles ont toujours fait l'objet de controverses théoriques ou politiques. Leur histoire alterne entre légitimité accordée à l'interventionnisme sur les marchés agricoles et retrait de l'État de ces marchés. Cet ouvrage revient sur cette notion complexe de politique agricole. |
| Keywords: | Crises, Bien-être animal, Eau, Terre, Politique agricole commune, Échanges internationaux, Économie et politique agricole, Agriculture |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05248647 |
| By: | Hoehn-Velasco, Lauren (Georgia State University); Huang, Yu-Ting (Georgia State University); Yusuff, Olanrewaju (Georgia State University) |
| Abstract: | Public insurance reimbursement policies shape the structure and reach of healthcare markets. In this study, we examine the 1980 federal Medicaid mandate requiring states to reimburse Certified Nurse-Midwives, one of the first reforms targeting non-physician providers. We find the mandate increased midwife-attended deliveries by 1.1 percentage points, an 80% rise, adding about 1, 100 midwife births annually per state by 1985. We also document a geographic expansion of midwife services into unserved areas and increased hospital employment, consistent with supply-side labor market responses. Our findings demonstrate that reimbursement mandates directly alter healthcare delivery by expanding provider use and reshaping the workforce. |
| Keywords: | non-physician provider, public insurance, certified nurse-midwife, maternal health, Medicaid reimbursements, health insurance. |
| JEL: | H51 H75 I18 I11 I13 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18149 |
| By: | Augustin Bergeron |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how colonial religious institutions reshaped traditional social structures in Africa. Focusing on the Congo, I examine the long-term effects of Christian missions that sought to replace kin-based authority with European-Christian notions of social and moral order. I combine newly digitized data on historical mission locations with an original survey of 975 respondents, measuring attitudes toward family and coethnics, social network composition, referral behavior in a job experiment, and moral values. To address concerns about endogenous mission placement, I construct two counterfactuals: missions that were initially established but later abandoned, and simulated locations that were historically suitable but never selected. I find that exposure to missions persistently reduced bias toward kin and coethnics and weakened the role of kinship ties in networks and referrals. It also eroded communal moral values, such as loyalty to one's group and deference to authority, without a corresponding rise in universal moral principles. Instead, these shifts reflect a redirection of identity and moral obligation from kinship and ethnicity toward religious affiliation. Historical records on mission personnel and infrastructure point to religious instruction and education as key transmission channels. Together, the findings suggest that colonial religious institutions profoundly reshaped the social and moral organization of colonized societies. |
| JEL: | N0 O1 Z12 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34262 |