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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
| By: | Krištofóry, Tomáš |
| Abstract: | Do you want to know more about an economist who before Mises conceived of economics as a science of human action? Someone who at the same time was an ordoliberal sooner than Eucken? Someone who added politics to his many talents and who saved Czechoslovakia from hyperinflation then raging in Mises' Vienna, as well as in Budapest, Berlin and other major European cities? A Neoliberal deprived of his liberties by the Nazis and communists alike? Someone who then didn't give in to the dictatorship but fought for democracy with his mighty pen? Then feel free to read my publication titled Meet Karel Engliš (1880-1961), A Prominent Czech Economist, Logician and Scholar. Introduction and his Bibliography in Foreign Languages. The publication contains an international bibliography of the works of Karel Engliš, founder of Masaryk University, a prominent Czech economist whose work was also appreciated by representatives of the Austrian school such as L. von Mises, F. A. von Hayek and I. M. Kirzner. Karel Engliš was one of the most prominent figures in European economics in the interwar period, but after 1948 the communist regime banned his publishing, lecturing and foreign activities, and his books were withdrawn from library collections. An overview of his works in English, German, French and other languages, supplemented by links to online resources and secondary literature, provides a valuable basis for a new research of his work and significance. The aim of the publication is to renew international awareness of Engliš's teleological economics and to facilitate further research into his legacy. |
| Keywords: | Karel Engliš, teleology, praxeology, ordoliberalism, Czechoslovakia, Central Europe, Mises, Eucken, history of economics, Austrian school, Iron Curtain |
| JEL: | A31 B13 B25 B31 B41 P50 |
| Date: | 2025–10–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:126795 |
| By: | Giorgio Chiovelli; Leopoldo Fergusson; Luis R. Martínez; Juan David Torres; Felipe Valencia Caicedo |
| Abstract: | We study the interplay between state modernization, extractive institutions, and political upheaval in the colonial world. Our analysis focuses on the introduction of a new corps of governors called intendants, overseeing a new set of intermediate administrative units called intendancies, throughout Spain’s American empire during the late 18th century. Leveraging granular microdata and the staggered adoption of the reform, we show that the intendancy system alleviated agency problems and led to improvements in state capacity along four key dimensions: (i) greater state presence in peripheral areas; (ii) higher fiscal revenue; (iii) production of new cartographic information; and (iv) reduced incidence of Indigenous conflict. However, additional evidence based on naming patterns, a catalog of letters, and biographies of notable individuals, indicates that the reform also led to heightened anti-Spanish sentiment amonglocal elites, who saw their economic privileges curtailed, and bolstered Latin America’s nascent independence movement in the early 19th century. |
| Keywords: | State Capacity, Taxation, Bureaucracy, Conflict, Elites, Colonialism, Independence, Latin America |
| JEL: | D73 D74 H71 N46 P48 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mnt:wpaper:2504 |
| By: | Davis, John B. (Department of Economics Marquette University); (Department of Economics Marquette University) |
| Abstract: | The Ramsey-Keynes exchange regarding the nature of probability is investigated in connection with the development of interwar Cambridge economics and Ramsey and Sraffa’s influences on Keynes and Wittgenstein. First discussed are Ramsey’s criticisms of Keynes and Wittgenstein; then Sraffa’s criticisms of Marshall and Wittgenstein. Ramsey was influenced by Peirce and pragmatism and Sraffa by Gramsci and the theory of cultural hegemony. Ramsey died in 1930 but Sraffa continued to interact with both Keynes and Wittgenstein. After his critique of Marshall he participated in the ‘Cambridge circus’ and turned to recovering the Classical economics of Ricardo. Keynes’s General Theory statement of what the essence of his theory was and Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations distinction between rules of language and language-games both parallel Sraffa’s Classical outside forces operating in the economic field argument and Gramsci’s state power and non-state institutions view. Keynes and Wittgenstein determined the nature of interwar Cambridge economics and philosophy. Ramsey and Sraffa were instigators of this change. |
| Keywords: | Ramsey, Keynes, Sraffa, Wittgenstein, Peirce, General Theory, Philosophical Investigations |
| JEL: | A12 B20 B30 B40 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrq:wpaper:2025-06 |
| By: | Delcey, Thomas; Goutsmedt, Aurélien (UC Louvain - F.R.S-FNRS); Truc, Alexandre |
| Abstract: | This article demonstrates how unsupervised quantitative methods can enrich the history of economic thought. Using the largest English-language corpus ever assembled for the field—nearly 290, 000 economics journal articles from 1900 to 2009 with citation data—we analyze the evolution of the concept of rationality. Combining large language model–based semantic analysis with bibliometric and network methods, we identify and cluster discussions of rationality across time and scales, such as the circulation of bounded rationality and the emergence of behavioral economics. We provide an open-source interactive tool to support transparency and reuse. |
| Date: | 2025–12–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:38na2_v1 |
| By: | Julia Baarck (LMU Munich); Moritz Bode (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen); Andreas Peichl (LMU Munich) |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational Mobility, Social Mobility, Income, Education, Inequality. |
| JEL: | J62 I24 D63 |
| Date: | 2025–12–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kud:kucebi:2515 |
| By: | Ruijun Hou; Samuel Baker; Stephanie von Hinke; Hans H. Sievertsen; Emil Sorensen; Nicolai Vitt |
| Abstract: | We study the long-term health and human capital impacts of local economic conditions experienced during the first 1, 000 days of life. We combine historical data on monthly unemployment rates in urban England and Wales from 1952 to 1967 with data from the UK Biobank on later-life outcomes. Leveraging variation in unemployment driven by national industry-specific shocks weighted by industry’s importance in each area, we find no evidence that small, common fluctuations in local economic conditions during the early life period affect health or human capital in older age. |
| Date: | 2025–04–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bri:uobdis:25/814 |
| By: | Michael Bordo (Rutgers University); Oliver Bush (Bank of England); Ryland Thomas (Bank of England) |
| Abstract: | This narrative paper provides a detailed account of the Great Inflation in the United Kingdom from 1961 to 1997, serving as a companion to the analytical account of fiscal policy presented in Bordo, Bush, and Thomas (2025). We discuss the background fundamentals in place at the outset of the Great Inflation and document the distinct phases of inflation, the unique features of the UK’s experience relative to other advanced economies, and the interplay between fiscal, monetary, and incomes policies. By placing the UK’s inflationary episodes within their institutional and historical context, this paper offers a qualitative perspective that complements the quantitative analysis of the main paper and informs ongoing debates about the causes and consequences of persistent inflation. |
| Keywords: | Great Inflation, fiscal policy, inflation expectations, money growth, United Kingdom |
| JEL: | E4 E6 N10 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cepsud:348 |
| By: | Massimo Anelli, Paolo Pinotti, Zachary Porrecw |
| Abstract: | We study the short- and long-term effects of organized crime across neighborhoods in U.S. cities by exploiting the migration of Sicilian Mafia members in the 1920s who fled a large-scale repression campaign in Italy. Using newly linked administrative and historical data from the U.S. Census, Social Security records, and declassified files of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, we show that neighborhoods hosting enclaves of migrants from Sicilian towns targeted by the repression later became centers of Italo-American Mafia activity. These neighborhoods experienced higher violence, incarceration, and financial exclusion in the short run, but higher educational attainment and employment in the long run. The results suggest that while the arrival of organized criminal networks initially intensified conflict and exclusion, their subsequent consolidation generated localized economic spillovers, helping to explain the long-term resilience and persistence of organized crime. |
| Keywords: | Electoral Rules, Immigration, Salience |
| JEL: | D72 J24 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:baf:cbafwp:cbafwp25259 |
| By: | Mohite, Manasi Sandeep; Gaikwad, Rahul Shashikant (Investments Key Limited, Canary Wharf, UK) |
| Abstract: | This research critically examines the Khoti system in the Konkan region of western India as a historical manifestation of agrarian exploitation, wherein intermediary landlords imposed exorbitant rents upon cultivators – predominantly from marginalized castes – systematically depriving them of land ownership, rights, and dignity. Situating this feudal framework within the broader socio-economic discourse, the study investigates how entrenched hierarchies sustained structural inequality and economic disenfranchisement. Central to the analysis is Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s constitutional vision, which redefined Indian democracy through the inseparable pursuit of social and economic justice. His transformative legal architecture not only dismantled exploitative land relations but also facilitated the emergence of an inclusive middle class across diverse sectors. Employing a historical-analytical methodology, this paper interrogates the transition from feudal dependency to constitutional empowerment by engaging with economic theory, constitutional provisions on equality, abolition of untouchability, and land reforms. By juxtaposing pre- and post-Constitutional realities, the research elucidates how juridical reform can function as an instrument of social emancipation and equitable redistribution. Ultimately, this study contributes to global discourses on agrarian justice by positioning India’s constitutional experience as a replicable model for reform, capable of addressing similar socio-economic inequities in other parts of the world. Keywords: Khoti system; Agrarian exploitation; Marginalized castes; Agrarian justice JEL Classification: Q15; N55; O13; D63; P48; J43 |
| Date: | 2026–01–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:k5edn_v1 |
| By: | Francois R. Velde |
| Abstract: | Britain’s debt was nil in 1688 and 60% of GDP in 1717. From 1717 to 1722 the debt was restructured, including through the South Sea operation of 1720. I discuss the reasons for the restructuring and the tensions it revealed between taxpayers and creditors. The South Sea bubble turned the operation into an ex-post Ponzi scheme and redistributed among creditors, from late to early entrants, and from creditors to taxpayers. Parliament intervened to redistribute among creditors (but far less than was feasible) and, very reluctantly, from taxpayers to creditors. Commitment to honor the debt was still weak thirty-five years after the Glorious Revolution. |
| JEL: | H63 N13 |
| Date: | 2025–10–29 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedhwp:102270 |
| By: | Diegmann, André (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg, Germany); Dummert, Sandra (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg, Germany); Gottschalk, Sandra (ZEW); Lubczyk, Moritz (Rockwool Foundation Berlin) |
| Abstract: | "The data from the Treuhandanstalt (THA, "Trust agency") and the Federal Agency for Special Tasks Related to Unification (BvS) of the Federal Archives, linked to the Establishment History Panel of the IAB (THA-BHP), cover the period from 1989 to 2023. The data is linked using a comprehensive record linkage procedure. By linking the data, it is now possible to identify former GDR companies and their establishments that were privatised by the THA/BvS in the IAB's administrative establishment data and to track their development." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | 10.5164/IAB.THA-BHP8923.de.en.v1 |
| Date: | 2025–12–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabfda:202517(de) |
| By: | Daron Acemoglu (MIT) |
| Keywords: | Prosperity; institutions |
| JEL: | O11 O43 |
| Date: | 2025–06–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:nobelp:021906 |
| By: | Hemanshu Kumar; Meeta Kumar (Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi); Rohini Somanathan (Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi) |
| Abstract: | Literacy was extremely low in colonial India - by 1931, average gross literacy was about 8%. In comparison, the princely state of Baroda stood out by achieving an average literacy rate close to 18% in the same year. The ruler of Baroda introduced a set of policies in 1906 that included compulsory education and public provision of free, primary schools. We examine the short and long-run effects of this set of policies. We do this through a comparison of areas within Baroda with regions bordering them, using a difference-in-difference framework. Since administrative boundaries changed dramatically over this period, our long-run comparisons rely on a careful mapping of boundaries. We find large effects through the colonial period and in the decades immediately following independence. These differences eventually narrowed as public good provision expanded. In 2011, sixty-four years after independence, there still remained a gap in literacy rates in areas that were historically in Baroda, and those that were outside it. |
| Keywords: | Literacy, persistence, education policy, compulsory education, colonial India, princely states, Baroda JEL codes: I21, I28, N35 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cde:cdewps:356 |
| By: | Simon Johnson (MIT) |
| Keywords: | Prosperity; institutions |
| JEL: | O11 O43 |
| Date: | 2025–07–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:nobelp:021908 |
| By: | Nenovsky, Nikolay; Marinova, Tsvetelina |
| Abstract: | We focus on two of the leading representatives of the Bulgarian intelligentsia during the late Ottoman Empire, Ivan Bogorov and Georgi Sava Rakovski, who engaged in discussions on economic issues. Each of them believed that the collective national and economic goal of the Bulgarians could be solved within the framework of a certain economic worldview, which seems eclectic and contradictory to the contemporary economist, but consistent and logical when taking into account the era in which the two authors lived and wrote. |
| Keywords: | economic modernization, Ottoman Empire, bulgarian economic thought, Bulgaria, Ivan Bogorov, Georgi Sava Rakovski |
| JEL: | B1 B10 B31 N00 N93 |
| Date: | 2025–12–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:127299 |
| By: | Sonia R. Bhalotra; Damian Clarke; Atheendar Venkataramani |
| Abstract: | We leverage the introduction of the first antibiotic therapies in 1937 to examine the long-run effects of early-childhood pneumonia on adult educational attainment, employment, income, and work-related disability. Using census data, we document large average improvements across all outcomes, alongside substantial heterogeneity by gender and race. Among women, health gains led to changes in marriage and fertility that partially offset their labor market improvements. Among Black Americans, we uncover a pronounced gradient linked to systemic racial discrimination in the pre–Civil Rights era: individuals born in more discriminatory Jim Crow states realized much smaller gains than those born in less discriminatory states, despite larger reductions in pneumonia exposure. There is no similar gradient among white Americans. Together, these findings highlight the central role of institutional environments in shaping whether investments in early-life health translate into long-run socioeconomic gains. |
| JEL: | I0 I10 I14 I18 I3 J71 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34606 |
| By: | James Robinson (University of Chicago) |
| Keywords: | Prosperity; institutions |
| JEL: | O11 O43 |
| Date: | 2025–05–21 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:nobelp:021910 |
| By: | Klump, Rainer (Ed.); Wendehorst, Stephan (Ed.) |
| Abstract: | This volume contains the papers presented at the conference "Reich, Recht und Schulden, " which took place on September 12, 2025, at the House of Finance of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. The papers address various aspects of the financial history of the Holy Roman Empire between 1648 and 1806, focusing in particular on the differing approaches to deal with public debt across the Empire's territories. Many indebted princes used the leasing of troops to foreign powers to increase their income through financial subsidies. The Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel were even able to accumulate considerable wealth in this way and then grant loans to other princes. The increase of existing taxes or the introduction of new ones for the purpose of permanent debt reduction, as demonstrated by the case of the Duchy of Westphalia, was strictly limited, however, by the participatory rights of the estates. Interestingly, in the ecclesiastical territories of the Empire a tendency to limit public debt can be observed and likely be attributed to institutionally debt brakes enshrined in the episcopal election capitulations. Such election capitulations, like treaties among princly families, exemplify the highly differentiated regulations in German international law during the 17th and 18th centuries. |
| Keywords: | debt, Holy Roman Empire, external financial subsidies, public credit supply, tax policy, debt brakes, horizontal and vertical international law |
| JEL: | N23 N43 N93 K12 K33 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ibfpps:334171 |
| By: | Bhalotra, Sonia R. (University of Warwick); Clarke, Damian (University of Chile); Venkataramani, Atheendar (Massachusetts General Hospital) |
| Abstract: | We leverage the introduction of the first antibiotic therapies in 1937 to examine the long-run effects of early-childhood pneumonia on adult educational attainment, employment, income, and work-related disability. Using census data, we document large average improvements across all outcomes, alongside substantial heterogeneity by gender and race. Among women, health gains led to changes in marriage and fertility that partially offset their labor market improvements. Among Black Americans, we uncover a pronounced gradient linked to systemic racial discrimination in the pre-Civil Rights era: individuals born in more discriminatory Jim Crow states realized much smaller gains than those born in less discriminatory states, despite larger reductions in pneumonia exposure. There is no similar gradient among white Americans. Together, these findings highlight the central role of institutional environments in shaping whether investments in early-life health translate into long-run socioeconomic gains. |
| Keywords: | infectious disease, institutions, systemic discrimination, disability, income, education, human capital production, race, medical innovation, early childhood, pneumonia, antibiotics, sulfa drugs |
| JEL: | I10 I14 J71 H70 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18327 |
| By: | Francois R. Velde |
| Abstract: | I study the expenditures of the Comédie française from 1759 to 1793 and the company’s debt from 1723 to 1793. Expenditures were well controlled and changes in venues account for their increase over time. The debt, however, was less controlled, because of the company’s partnership structure and the incentives it created for actors to compensate with debt any shortfall in income due to low tickets sales or delayed payments from the king. I analyze the debt instruments used and the social background of the lenders. I also study the total income of individual actors and the earnings profile over their career. A government intervention in 1759 provided only long-term financial relief but imposed better debt management. The company was in a fragile position when the Revolution broke out, but the hyperinflation of 1795–96 wiped out a large part of the debt. |
| Keywords: | Entertainment industry; history of theater; Oligopoly; France |
| JEL: | L11 L82 N73 N83 |
| Date: | 2025–10–29 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedhwp:102274 |
| By: | Kiyoshi Hirowatari (Research Fellow, Faculty of Economics, Kobe University) |
| Abstract: | This article re-examines Britain's Operation Robot of 1952 and the subsequent Collective Approach from both economic and monetary perspectives. Operation Robot was a radical plan to restore sterling convertibility through a floating exchange rate. It faced fierce resistance in Churchill's Cabinet and was dismissed after six months. Following Robot's failure, Britain shifted to the Collective Approach, which sought floating-rate convertibility through combined action by the Commonwealth, Western Europe, and the United States. However, America's "pretty frosty refusal" led to its demise. Britain subsequently adopted de facto fixed-rate convertibility, becoming incorporated into the IMF's "fixed but adjustable system." Traditional historiography has treated Operation Robot as merely a transitional experiment. This article positions Robot and the Collective Approach as interconnected events examined through dual rationales. Economically, floating rates would provide automatic adjustment, while opponents feared depreciation would trigger inflation and unemployment. In monetary terms, Robot aimed to protect sterling's international status. Sterling's "marginal inconvertibility" created exchange control leakages through cheap sterling markets, undermining its credibility as an international currency. The Collective Approach replaced "floating" with "flexible" rates and attempted to revive the IMF's scarce currency clause. Britain proposed that while debtor countries would adopt deflationary measures, the US should pursue "good creditor policies, " particularly tariff reductions. However, the US Treasury remained skeptical, and Congressional protectionism prevented the expected support. By mid-1955, the Collective Approach had failed. Although floating convertibility was abandoned, the monetary rationale persisted, eventually achieving fixed-rate convertibility through gradual stages. The article recontextualizes Operation Robot within the "impossible trinity" framework. Through flexible exchange rates, the Robot planners sought to expand policy discretion to achieve full employment. This was not a return to nineteenth-century laissez-faire but a search for a conservative "third way" that would maintain Keynesian full employment and the welfare state while shifting from Labour's control-oriented planning toward market mechanisms. Robot's failure demonstrated that Britain lacked the power to unilaterally reshape the international monetary system as it had in the 1930s, nor could it rely on Anglo-American alliance diplomacy. The failure, together with the Suez Crisis, pushed Britain toward European integration and onto a path of "genuflection" to the IMF under US dominance. Ironically, this pre-emptive crisis had transformative effects, marking Britain's transition from the American rescue of the nation-state toward the European rescue. |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koe:wpaper:2525 |
| By: | Jean Lacroix; Ricardo Piqué |
| Abstract: | Conflict-driven internal displacements are a common yet understudied phenomenon. We explore the political consequences of such displacements on hosting communities using the case of the forced evacuation of Alsatians to the French interior at the start of WWII. Our identification strategy leverages exogenous variations in exposure to evacuees generated by unexpected deviations from the French evacuation plan. Municipalities that were to receive evacuees from the front zone, a strip of land between the Maginot Line and the French-German border, received a larger-than-expected number of evacuees relative to others. Increased exposure to Alsatian evacuees led to greater support for left-of-center parties after WWII. Additional evidence suggests that an identity response to contact with a co-national but culturally different out-group explains these results. |
| Keywords: | internal displacements, electoral outcomes, identity, WWII, France |
| JEL: | D72 D74 N44 P00 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12314 |
| By: | Nenovsky, Nikolay; Marinova, Tsvetelina |
| Abstract: | The article presents the Bulgarian economist Georgi Petrov and his importance for the political economy of socialism. The debates surrounding the economic reform in Bulgaria in the 1960s. A general view of Georgi Petrov's creative project and its logic. The basis of prices – not value and cost price, but production prices (production prices). Theoretical problems of the planned economy and property. Planning, economic levers and economic growth. Summary notes. Bibliography. |
| Keywords: | political economy of socialism, market economy, economic reforms, Bulgaria |
| JEL: | B20 B24 B31 N0 N00 P2 |
| Date: | 2025–11–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:126683 |
| By: | Simon Johnson (MIT) |
| Abstract: | Interview with the 2024 laureate in economic sciences Simon Johnson on 6 December 2024 during Nobel Week in Stockholm, Sweden. |
| Keywords: | Prosperity; institutions |
| JEL: | O11 O43 |
| Date: | 2024–12–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:nobelp:021909 |
| By: | Heng-fu Zou |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a continuous-time growth model in which the central driver of modern economic progress is a cumulative stock of liberal ideas and institutions-the republican spirit of innovism. This stock combines dignity for ordinary people, liberty of entry and speech, and the prospect of fair reward, echoing the arguments of McCloskey, Phelps, Landes, and Mokyr. Liberal-ideas capital raises productivity and also enters directly into well-being by making life richer in meaning and opportunity. A share of labor is devoted to building and sustaining this liberal environment, while the rest produces goods. The model shows that long-run growth depends entirely on the growth of the liberal-ideas stock and on society's willingness to devote effort to sustaining it. Economies that place high value on dignity, openness, and creative initiative converge to paths of sustained enrichment, while those that neglect or erode liberal institutions fall into stagnation. Small differences in cultural and institutional commitment can therefore generate large and persistent differences in growth outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Republican spirit of innovism, liberal ideas capital, nonseparable preferences, endogenous growth, institutions and culture, Great Enrichment |
| JEL: | O40 O43 O11 N10 P16 Z13 |
| Date: | 2025–12–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cuf:wpaper:805 |
| By: | Daron Acemoglu (MIT) |
| Abstract: | Interview with the 2024 economic sciences laureate Daron Acemoglu, recorded on 6 December 2024 during Nobel Week in Stockholm, Sweden. |
| Keywords: | Prosperity; institutions |
| JEL: | O11 O43 |
| Date: | 2024–12–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:nobelp:021907 |
| By: | James Robinson (University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | Interview with the 2024 economic sciences laureate James A. Robinson, recorded on 6 December 2024 during Nobel Week in Stockholm, Sweden. |
| Keywords: | Prosperity; institutions |
| JEL: | O11 O43 |
| Date: | 2024–12–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:nobelp:021911 |
| By: | Kilduff, Alice M. |
| Keywords: | Crop Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty, Agricultural and Food Policy |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea24:343884 |
| By: | Travers, Tony |
| Abstract: | Housing policy in England has undergone significant reform on several occasions since 1945. Consensus approaches in the late 1940s and 50s to build large numbers of council houses and new private homes gave way to more ideologically driven policies in the 1970s and 80s. Fashions for modern architecture, system building and the layout of estates (and reactions to such fads) fed the politicisation of housing, notably in relation to attitudes to the relative benefits of owner‐occupation as compared to social renting. A substantial number of council homes were sold off at a discount under the Thatcher government's Right to Buy policy. Successive governments failed to maintain the social housing estate, whether owned by local government or housing associations. Since 2000, a new consensus has emerged where a modest increase in social housing is seen as desirable, alongside policies to encourage owner‐occupation and to improve the private rental sector. |
| Keywords: | housing; new towns; architecture; renting; owner-occupation; inner cities |
| JEL: | N0 Q15 |
| Date: | 2025–12–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:130474 |
| By: | Kim, Helena Hahyoon |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the historical development and social implications of farming innovations introduced through the K-Ricebelt initiative in Africa—a collaborative agricultural project spearheaded by South Korea to enhance rice production across several African nations. By tracing the evolution of rice farming techniques from traditional subsistence methods to modern technological practices, the study examines how these innovations have shaped rural livelihoods, economic structures, and community dynamics. Drawing on case studies from Ghana, Uganda, and Kenya, it analyzes the socio-economic outcomes of increased yields, mechanized farming, and agricultural training programs, with particular attention to income distribution, gender roles, and rural employment. While the K-Ricebelt has contributed to improved food security and the transfer of agricultural knowledge, this paper also addresses critiques concerning environmental sustainability and unequal access to resources. Ultimately, the research offers a nuanced perspective on how external agricultural interventions can reshape local societies, emphasizing the need for context-sensitive and inclusive innovation strategies in development efforts. |
| Date: | 2026–01–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:dbsqk_v1 |
| By: | Wiebe, Michael |
| Abstract: | Brooks and Liscow (2023) studies the cost of constructing the US interstate highway. They find that the cost per mile tripled from the 1960s to the 1980s, and that this cost increase is not explained by selection of geography or rising input prices. Using restricted data and the original code, I successfully replicate the original results. I perform several robustness checks and find that the original results are robust. |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:i4rdps:275 |
| By: | Grodecka-Messi, Anna (Financial Stability Department, Central Bank of Sweden); Kliem, Martin (Deutsche Bundesbank); Muller, Gernot J. (University of Tübingen, CEPR and CESifo) |
| Abstract: | Are central bank losses inflationary? We address this question at two levels. First, we revisit the theory and show that central bank losses constrain the conduct of monetary policy and are indeed inflationary provided the central bank is (a) not automatically recapitalized by the government and (b) concerned about its net worth. Second, we collect 350 years of data on the world’s oldest central bank, the Sveriges Riksbank. We construct a time series for its return on assets and a narrative measure of profitability shocks. We find that inflation increases strongly and persistently in response to exogenous declines in central bank profits. |
| Keywords: | Inflation; Central Banks; Central Bank Profitability; Central Bank Losses; Sveriges Riksbank |
| JEL: | E52 E58 N13 N14 |
| Date: | 2025–11–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:rbnkwp:0457 |
| By: | Anna Balestra (Dipartimento di Politica Economica, DISCE, & International Peace Science Center (IPSC), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano, Italy); Raul Caruso (Dipartimento di Politica Economica, DISCE, & International Peace Science Center (IPSC), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano, Italy); Sara Mombelli (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy - International Peace Science Center (IPSC), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano, Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the determinants of defense burden sharing among EU member states from 1980 to 2024. Using a dataset that combines established factors with historical and institutional indicators, we analyze how structural features shape national share of total EU military expenditure. Fixed-effects panel regressions, complemented by fractional logit and probit models, reveal that economic features, colonial legacy, constitutional complexity, and technological sophistication systematically influence defense contributions among non-leader states. In addition, we show that France, Germany and the United Kingdom behave as structural leaders whose commitments remain high and largely insensitive to domestic conditions, thereby masking key relationships in full-sample estimations. The results provide a comprehensive account of the drivers of defense effort and highlight the asymmetric foundations of collective defense in Europe. |
| Keywords: | defense burden sharing, military spending, institutions, H2O random forest, European Union |
| JEL: | C23 F50 H56 O52 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie5:dipe0054 |
| By: | Francois R. Velde |
| Abstract: | Queen Anne’s Bounty was a corporation created in 1704 to redistribute income within the Anglican clergy. Structurally a saver needing a liquid asset, the corporation pursued a conservative strategy of investing in the dominant form of government debt, adapting as the market changed. It was involved in the South Sea Bubble but only made losses and steered clear from corporate equity and bonds thereafter. |
| Keywords: | investors; Bubble; Public debt |
| JEL: | N23 |
| Date: | 2025–09–19 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedhwp:102249 |
| By: | William Skoglund (Uppsala History of Inequality and Labor Lab, Uppsala University); Jakob Molinder (Uppsala History of Inequality and Labor Lab, Uppsala University, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the role of unionization in shaping income distributions during the Great Leveling, comparing Sweden and the United States—two countries with markedly different union traditions and levels of organization. Using data from the 1940 and 1950 U.S. censuses and Swedish tax registers, we exploit plausibly exogenous variation in unionization and estimate distributional effects using quantile regressions and interactions with worker characteristics. Our results indicate that stronger unions elevated earnings in both countries, but the elasticity was roughly double in the United States compared with Sweden. U.S. unions also had a more radical impact on the earnings distribution: the effect at the 10th percentile was almost twice that at the 90th percentile while also reducing earnings differences between workers with different levels of skill and education. We relate the difference between the two countries to their patterns of union membership: in the United States, it was concentrated among lower-skilled workers, whereas in Sweden it was high across the occupational distribution and among employees with both low and high levels of education, shaping their incentives to negotiate higher wages and compress the earnings distribution. Our study shows that unions played a pivotal role in the Great Leveling in two countries at opposite ends of the labor-market-regime continuum. While there appears to be a trade-off between unions’ organizational reach and impact on wages, Sweden’s more encompassing unions have been more successful in engendering a compressed income distribution. U.S. unions have instead gradually lost their power to affect outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Inequality, Unions |
| JEL: | J31 J51 N41 N44 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0292 |
| By: | Sergio A. Correia; Tiffany Fermin; Stephan Luck; Emil Verner |
| Abstract: | Call Reports are regulatory filings in which commercial banks report their assets, liabilities, income, and other information. They are one of the most-used data sources in banking and finance. In this post, we describe a new dataset made available on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s website that contains time-consistent balance sheets and income statements for commercial banks in the United States from 1959 to 2025. |
| Keywords: | banks; data; call reports |
| JEL: | G01 |
| Date: | 2025–12–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednls:102269 |
| By: | Nenovsky, Nikolay; Marinova, Tsvetelina |
| Abstract: | We provide brief information about the context of the 1963 reform. This is followed by a presentation of the main themes and ideas in Georgi Petrov's life research project, which systematically and logically derives the need for decentralisation of the economy, a transition from directive planning to economic levers, granting full autonomy to enterprises included in market mechanisms and profit incentives. |
| Keywords: | Socialist market reform, socialist economy, socialist and marxist theory, socialist Bulgaria, Georgi Petrov |
| JEL: | B24 B31 B40 N14 P2 |
| Date: | 2025–11–26 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:127034 |
| By: | Nenovsky, Nikolay; Marinova, Tsvetelina |
| Abstract: | In the paper we provide brief information about the context of the 1963 reform. This is followed by a presentation of the main themes and ideas in Georgi Petrov's life research project, which systematically and logically derives the need for decentralisation of the economy, a transition from directive planning to economic levers, granting full autonomy to enterprises included in market mechanisms and profit incentives |
| Keywords: | socialist economy, socialist market economy, socialist reforms, planning, Bulgaria, bulgarian economic thought, Georgi Petrov |
| JEL: | B24 B31 N14 P21 |
| Date: | 2025–10–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:127162 |
| By: | Persaud, Bishnodat; Persaud, Lakshmi |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Relations/Trade |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:carc68:263934 |