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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
| By: | Barbara Boelmann; Carola Stapper |
| Abstract: | Over the past century, women have gained formal political rights, yet remain underrepresented in leadership—partly due to lower demand for representation among women themselves. In this paper, we shift the perspective from why men extended political rights to women toward what shaped women’s own demand for representation. Specifically, we study how male absence during World War I affected German women’s demand for the franchise, exploiting exogenous variation in drafting intensity across regions for identification. To make demand for political representation directly measurable, we construct a newly digitised panel dataset of the universe of German suffragette clubs—a revealed-preference measure of demand, given the considerable costs of maintaining a club, especially under wartime restrictions on political activism. Our results show that women were more likely to keep suffragette clubs open in counties with greater male absence. This effect is driven by regions where women publicly led war relief efforts, pointing to agency and specifically women’s experience in visible leadership roles as the central mechanism. We further show that this demand for representation persisted after the franchise was extended, with women more likely to run for parliament and to vote in counties with greater wartime male absence and a suffragette club. |
| Keywords: | women's political representation, suffrage movement, agency |
| JEL: | J16 N44 D72 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2025_740 |
| By: | Debin Ma (Fudan University); Jared Rubin (Chapman University); Weiwen Yin (University of Macau) |
| Abstract: | This paper revisits the old thesis of the contrasting paths of modernization between Japan and China. It develops a new analytical framework regarding the role of knowledge acquisition (propositional vs. prescriptive) and political centralization as the key drivers behind these contrasting paths. Our model and historical data highlight how the introduction of these elements contributed to Meiji Japan’s decisive turn towards the West and Qing China’s lethargic response to Western imperialism. Our analytical framework, developed from a comparative historical narrative and quantitative data, sheds new light on the importance of knowledge acquisition in enabling developing countries to reach the world’s economic frontier. |
| Keywords: | propositional knowledge, prescriptive knowledge, China, Japan, economic development, economic divergence, Meiji Reform, centralization, decentralization |
| JEL: | P52 N45 N40 Z10 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chu:wpaper:26-04 |
| By: | Juan CARVAJALINO; Herrade IGERSHEIM |
| Abstract: | This article revisits the debate between John Rawls and John Harsanyi by drawing on newly explored archival materials. Traditionally viewed as a short-lived, technical disagreement of the 1970s over the rational criterion for choice under uncertainty—the maximin versus average utility rules—their exchange in fact spanned nearly four decades, from their first encounter in 1964 to the late 1990s. The paper reconstructs this dialogue to reveal its ethical and philosophical depth, showing that what began as a technical dispute gradually evolved into a confrontation over the moral foundations of justice. The paper traces four stages of this evolving relationship, emphasizing Harsanyi’s later overlooked “philosophical turn” and his continuing attempts to defend utilitarianism against Rawls’s egalitarianism. By revealing all the facets of their exchange, the study enriches our understanding of the modern dialogue between economics and philosophy and of the enduring opposition between utilitarian and egalitarian conceptions of social justice. |
| Keywords: | John Rawls, John Harsanyi, Maximin, Utilitarianism, Social justice. |
| JEL: | B21 B31 D60 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2026-07 |
| By: | Pawel Janas |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the long-run labor market consequences of lender-of-last-resort (LLR) intervention during the Great Depression. I exploit a natural experiment created by the Federal Reserve district border separating counties under the jurisdiction of the Atlanta and St. Louis Federal Reserve Banks. During the banking panic of 1930, the Atlanta Fed aggressively extended liquidity to distressed banks, while the St. Louis Fed largely refrained from intervention. Using newly digitized county-level manufacturing data and linked individual-level census records from 1930 and 1940, I examine how exposure to this liquidity support affected local economic activity and worker outcomes. Counties within the Atlanta district experienced fewer bank failures and stronger manufacturing performance in the early 1930s. These differences translated into persistent labor market effects: individuals in treated counties were more likely to remain in manufacturing employment and less likely to migrate across state lines by 1940. The results suggest that financial stabilization policies can shape the long-run allocation of labor across regions and sectors. |
| JEL: | E58 G01 N22 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34988 |
| By: | Jusufi, Islam |
| Abstract: | One argument asserts that international relations (IR) were constructed to serve the identity of a particular state and remain so today. In Albania, IR was initially considered an "alien species, " but later became an important instrument for shaping national identity on the eve of and in the aftermath of the formation of an independent Albanian state in 1912. This paper aims to answer the question of what the initial Albanian conception of IR was in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. To this end, the paper relies on the views of Eqrem bej Vlora (1885–1964), a prominent historical figure in Albania, to examine how he framed the initial Albanian understanding of IR by emphasizing the identities assigned to Albania. Albania’s identity is composed of three layers, as described in Eqrem bej Vlora's writings. The first layer comprises a firmly embedded identity based on Albanian national historical references. The second layer includes the conceptualization of Albania's role as a European country. The third layer relates to the relevance of Ottomanism to Albanian identity. Together, these layers attempt to show how Eqrem bej Vlora viewed Albania’s identities and place in the world. |
| Keywords: | International Relations, Albania, Eqrem bej Vlora, identity |
| JEL: | F51 F52 F53 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:127639 |
| By: | Attila Gáspár (ELTE Centre for Economic and Regional Studies); Pawel Bukowski (University College London; Polish Academy of Sciences); Gregory Clark (University of Southern Denmark; University of California at Davis); Rita Pető (ELTE Centre for Economic and Regional Studies) |
| Abstract: | In the rich political history of Hungary, between 1780 and 2025 there have been 5 consolidated political regimes: monarchy (until 1867), constitutional monarchy, 1867-1918, authoritarian nationalism, 1920-1945, socialism, 1947-1989, and parliamentary democracy, 1989-2025. In this paper we show how the relative frequency of elite and underclass surnames among elite occupations and political positions can be used to map out both the social status of traditional elites in Hungary, but also the traditional underclass. This data suggests that across all 5 regimes the underclasses in Hungary saw a slow but steady rise in social status. They remain however, after 200 years still in position of social disadvantage. Political regimes, however, did have substantial impact on the social status of the traditional elite. In particular this elite prospered in the nationalist era, 1920-45, and temporarily suffered under socialism, 1947-89. |
| Keywords: | Social Mobility, Intergenerational mobility, Inequality |
| JEL: | J62 N33 N34 D31 P26 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:has:discpr:2518 |
| By: | Henderson, Lou; Kaiser, Moritz |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the interaction between political economy and social mobility during early industrialization in England. We analyze changes in male social mobility patterns in industrializing Coventry (c.1790–1850) following a transformation of key institutions affecting the labor market. Social mobility was framed by the interaction between trade policy, occupational skill formation, and municipal government. Using a longitudinal dataset and regression-discontinuity analysis, we find that liberal reforms to trade policy and municipal government during the late-1820s and early-1830s eroded the value of industry-specific social capital, while increasing the contribution of general human capital to social mobility. |
| Keywords: | social mobility; human capital; industrialisation; labour markets; institutions; political economy |
| JEL: | N33 |
| Date: | 2025–08–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:126202 |
| By: | Catelén, Ana Laura |
| Abstract: | For decades, Argentina's long-run divergence has intrigued economic historians. While by the late nineteenth century the country ranked among the world's richest economies, it now occupies a middle position in the global income distribution (Bolt and van Zanden, 2020). A distinctive feature of Argentina's experience, relevant for explaining this outcome, is the marked rise in macroeconomic volatility since the mid-1970s. Unlike other South American economies, this instability has intensified over time (Catelén, 2025), and elevated volatility undermines long-run growth (Badinger, 2010; Loayza & Hnatkovska, 2004; Pastor, 2017; Ramey & Ramey, 1994). Latin American structuralist theory provides a useful framework to understand why volatility itself becomes persistent through the emergence of vicious cyclical dynamics. These dynamics involve recurrent interaction processes that amplify and prolong fluctuations. A central mechanism in this approach is structural distributive conflict, defined as the gap between workers' wage aspirations and the economy's productive capacity (Rapetti & Gerchunoff, 2016). This paper revisits this theoretical tradition and combines it with a modern empirical approach based on a structural VAR framework that allows for causal interpretation to assess whether the interaction between distributive conflict and economic policy can account for Argentina's recurrent cycles of instability that undermine long-run growth. The analysis examines the historical evolution of distributive conflict across three development regimes (the agro-export model, state- led industrialization, and the second globalization) within a structuralist framework linking external constraints, distributive conflict, and macroeconomic instability. |
| Keywords: | Crecimiento Económico; Volatilidad; Ciclos Económicos; Argentina; 1890-2020; |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nmp:nuland:4470 |
| By: | Shuo Chen (Fudan University); Xinyu Fan (Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business); Luc Renneboog (Tilburg University); Yanfei Yin (University of California at Santa Barbara) |
| Abstract: | Wealth flows of top-notch elites reflect the socioeconomic structural changes of the times. Pareto’s theory of circulation of elites questions whether and how wealth flows from old elites to new ones, from political elites to economic ones, and vice versa. We adopt a novel approach to trace wealth flows of pre-modern social elites by tracking masterpiece artwork ownership dynamics, by means of 42, 948 collection stamps on 8, 555 masterpiece artworks in historical China (from the 8th century Tang dynasty until the fall of the Qing empire in 1911). The masterpieces tended to flow from higher to lower social classes within the same dynasty, whereas dynastic changes, often re-centralized art ownership to top-notch political elites. Wealthy classes without political power increasingly acquired the masterpiece artworks from those with political power, validating the theory of elite circulation in pre-modern societies from a wealth perspective. Masterpieces increasingly flowed from higher to lower social classes in regions with higher social mobility. The results are robust when controlling for political turmoil, governance instability, and social unrest. We advance our understanding of elite mobility and transition between political and economic elites by creating a new method to evaluate wealth flows in pre-modern societies where modern indicators are not available. |
| Keywords: | Ownership, Social Mobility, Governance, Art Masterpiece, Political Power |
| JEL: | N35 D31 P46 O15 G51 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cue:wpaper:awp-03-2026 |
| By: | Ponthiere, Gregory |
| Abstract: | According to the Italian philosopher Tilgher (1922), the birth of the bourgeois society during the Pre-Industrial era involved the replacement of the Ancient Man by the Modern Man, and consisted of a reorienta- tion of efforts from spiritual exercises developing the inner self (what Marcus Aurelius called the 'Inner Citadel') to efforts reshaping the out- side world. However, from a microeconomic perspective, a reallocation of efforts/time does not necessarily reveal a change of preferences. To study the conditions under which the Pre-Industrial rise in working time reveals a shift in life-goals (the emergence of Modern Man), this paper develops a uni…ed growth model with endogenous preferences and time allocation choices, where individuals …rst choose whether they pursue extra-world self-realization (Ancient Man) or intra-world self-realization (Modern Man), and, then, based on their preferences, allocate their time between spiritual labor and material labor. It is shown that, contrary to Tilgher's hypothesis, a rise in working time does not necessarily re- veal a shift from extra-world to intra-world self-realization, but can occur while keeping life-goals unchanged. Our model contributes also to inform debates about the decline of religious holidays in France (1640-1780). |
| Keywords: | unified growth theory, endogenous preferences, time allocation, Industrious Revolution, secularization |
| JEL: | E24 N33 Z12 Z13 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1726 |
| By: | Engelbert Stockhammer |
| Abstract: | The paper discusses the historical development of the debate on financialization supported by bibliometric analysis. There are several origins of the concept of financialisation in the 1990s and in the early 2000s this consolidates in a transdisciplinary project: an attempt to create a critical conversation across academic disciplines about the impact of finance on the economy and society. This was driven by the team of CRESC by organising workshops and special issues, involving critical business studies, constructivist approaches on the household and heterodox macroeconomics. This created the basis for the success of the concept and, since the global financial crisis, enabled an explosive rise of studies on financialisation. But with success also come a fragmentation of the debate and its disintegration along disciplinary lines. Thus, research on financialization today is published in more prestigious journals, but it has decoupled from the core financialisation debate of the 2000s. |
| Keywords: | financialization, sociology of science, bibliometric analysis, history of thought |
| JEL: | B29 B59 G30 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pke:wpaper:pkwp2608 |
| By: | Eiji Yamamura |
| Abstract: | Immediately after the establishment of the New Meiji Government in the 19th century, a system of conscription was adopted. The exemption rule has changed several times. Using individual-level panel data on the academic performance of Keio Gijuku, I found a surge in the family head's student rate between 1884 and 1888, and the rate declined immediately thereafter. After regaining privileges for private school students, family head performance declined, and the difference between head and non-family heads disappeared. This made it evident that conscription increased educational attendance quantitatively, but did not qualitatively improve academic performance. |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2603.09005 |
| By: | Aarifah Razak |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the geography of intergenerational income mobility in South Africa across districts and metropolitan municipalities as well as historically disadvantaged former-homelands. South Africa's high inequality has a geographical dimension (spatial inequality), shaped by a long history of spatially implemented discrimination. Consequently, with the degree of disparate development and access to resources, where children grow up in South Africa strongly influences their prospects. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational Mobility, Income, Spatial inequality, Instrumental variable, South Africa |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2026-25 |
| By: | Voigtländer, Nico; Voth, Hans-Joachim |
| Abstract: | In Voigtländer and Voth (2012), we show that German towns and cities that attacked their Jewish communities during the Black Death in 1348/9 were more anti-Semitic in the interwar period. Francis recodes our sources using large language models (LLMs). He argues that his re-examination shows our results to be fragile and driven by doubtful coding choices. Here, we show that a) even when we take Francis' recoded data at face value, none of our conclusions is overturned. Results remain quantitatively similar, and most individual outcomes remain statistically significant. Crucially, the principal component summarizing overall anti-Semitism in the 1920s/30s (which Francis does not report) remains highly significant under his recoding. Moreover, in our preferred geographic matching specifications - comparing nearby towns with and without Black Death pogroms (also not reported by Francis) - most individual outcomes and their principal component continue to display highly significant persistence, yielding near-identical results despite changes to roughly 8% of the codings. b) In addition, Francis' codings are replete with linguistic and historical mistakes and misunderstandings. |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:i4rdps:282 |
| By: | Takagi, Shinji |
| Abstract: | We explore a phenomenon observed during the Second Sino-Japanese War in which the value of the Japanese yen in Shanghai fell below the official rate. Shanghai provided a parallel market in which yen could be traded indirectly against British pounds through the intermediation of the Chinese yuan. The implied yen-pound rate was broadly approximated by purchasing power parity (PPP) before a significant divergence from PPP emerged in favour of the pound. This likely reflected negative news that signalled, among other things, a prospective withdrawal of Japanese yen as occupation money, which meant that the parallel market would close. |
| Keywords: | China during the Second Sino-Japanese War, parallel foreign exchange market, occupation currency, Japanese occupation currency in China, Sino-Japanese War |
| JEL: | F31 F33 E42 N25 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:agi:wpaper:02000262 |
| By: | Asuamah Yeboah, Samuel |
| Abstract: | This study examines Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958) as a literary representation of institutional and socio-economic dynamics in pre-colonial and colonial African societies. While previous scholarship has primarily focused on cultural identity and colonial critique, this paper interprets the novel through the combined lenses of institutional economics, political economy, and behavioural economics to investigate how governance structures, cultural norms, and individual incentives shaped economic behaviour and social stability within Igbo society. Using a qualitative textual-economic analysis, key narrative events were coded and analysed in relation to indigenous institutions, agricultural production, and colonial intervention. The findings reveal that pre-colonial Igbo institutions effectively coordinated economic activity and maintained social cohesion, while the introduction of colonial institutions generated institutional displacement, social fragmentation, and economic disruption. Behavioural factors, including leadership rigidity and social identity, further mediated responses to institutional change. The study contributes to interdisciplinary scholarship by demonstrating that literary texts can illuminate historical and economic processes, offering insights for contemporary governance and development policy in African contexts. These findings underscore the importance of integrating traditional institutions, aligning development initiatives with cultural norms, and promoting adaptive leadership to enhance institutional resilience and socio-economic development. |
| Keywords: | Things Fall Apart, institutional economics, political economy, behavioural economics, African development, governance, institutional change |
| JEL: | B52 D91 N37 O10 Z11 |
| Date: | 2026–02–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:128278 |
| By: | David Autor; Caroline Chin; Anna M. Salomons; Bryan Seegmiller |
| Abstract: | We study the role of expertise in new work–novel occupational roles that emerge as technological and economic conditions evolve–using newly available 1940 and 1950 Census Complete Count files and confidential American Community Survey data from 2011-2023. We show that new work is systematically distinct from simply more work in existing occupations in four respects. First, it attracts workers with distinct characteristics: new work is disproportionately performed by younger and more educated workers, even within detailed occupation-industry cells. Second, new work commands economically significant wage premiums that persist beyond workers' initial entry into new work, consistent with returns to scarce, specialized expertise rather than temporary market disequilibrium. Third, these premiums decline across vintages as expertise diffuses, with 'newer' new work commanding larger premiums than older new work. Fourth, the emergence of new work can be traced to specific demand shocks in particular locations and time periods, suggesting that expertise formation responds systematically to economic opportunities. These findings suggest that new work serves as a countervailing force to automation-driven job displacement not merely by creating additional employment, but also by generating new domains of human expertise that command market premiums. This expertise-based mechanism helps explain both the expanding variety of work activities across decades and the historical resilience of the labor share. |
| JEL: | E24 J11 J23 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34986 |
| By: | Gerhard Toews; Elena Paltseva; Marta Troya-Martínez |
| Abstract: | Historically, contract enforcement between multinationals and host governments relied on military power. In the late 1960s, Western Great Powers (WGP) – U.S., U.K., France – sharply reduced military interventions, increasing expropriation risk in weak-institution countries. We study the effect of this unanticipated global shift using microdata from the petroleum industry. Firms headquartered in WGP responded by delaying ("backloading") production by 2-4 years, converging to the delays already exhibited by other multinationals. Backloading resulted in annual revenue losses of one quarter billion US$ per country, largely offset by higher government rent-shares. These patterns are consistent with the formation of self-enforcing agreements. |
| Keywords: | dynamic incentives, institutions, oil, political economy |
| JEL: | D86 L14 O13 H20 P48 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1569 |
| By: | Leonardo Becchetti; Franceso Salustri; Nazaria Solferino |
| Abstract: | Historical episodes such as the World War I "live-and-let-live" system and the Christmas Truce of 1914 demonstrate that opposing military units can establish spontaneous, local cooperation even in extreme conflict environments. Such cooperative behavior is typically fragile and temporary, while large-scale wars persist. We develop a hierarchical decision problem in which local units adopt contingent strategies that depend on interactions, accumulated payoffs, and signals from a central command. The command authority can impose enforcement that penalizes non-aggression to prolong hostilities. Our model features a continuous space of parametric strategies and formalizes replicator dynamics over the population. We analytically characterize the conditions under which local cooperation emerges as a stable evolutionary equilibrium and identify critical thresholds of central enforcement that destroy cooperative equilibria. We show that stable peace requires either alignment of command incentives with frontline welfare, external constraints on enforcement, or diminishing political returns to conflict. The framework provides a micro-founded explanation for the persistence of war despite locally beneficial cooperation. |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2603.18609 |
| By: | Owen Thompson; Jason Fletcher; Karin Wu |
| Abstract: | The U.S. hospital sector expanded rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, largely due to construction subsidies provided under federal legislation known as the Hill-Burton Act. This paper examines the impact of Hill-Burton grants on maternity care access and infant health. We find that grants for public hospitals significantly reduced out-of-hospital births and infant mortality, particularly among non-white populations. In contrast, grants for private non-profit hospitals had no measurable effects on out-of-hospital births or infant mortality. |
| JEL: | H40 I39 J18 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34976 |
| By: | Faulconbridge, James; Iammarino, Simona; De la Roca, Jorge; Gibbons, Steve; Ross, Amanda |
| JEL: | J1 |
| Date: | 2026–02–27 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:137617 |
| By: | Aapo Hiilamo (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Michaela Sedovic; Sanna Kailaheimo-Björkqvist; Aase Villadsen; George B. Ploubidis; Mikko Myrskylä (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2026-008 |
| By: | Vittoria Dicandia |
| Abstract: | The wage gap between Black and white Americans narrowed in the 1960s-1970s but stagnated after 1980. This study argues that routine-biased technological change (RBTC) contributed to this stagnation by affecting Black and white male workers differently across the wage distribution. Using new empirical evidence on occupational patterns and wage determinants for these workers, I rationalize these patterns with a novel RBTC theoretical framework. Contrary to expectations, Black workers' employment in routine-intensive occupations increased, while white workers experienced a significant decline. Applying the Oaxaca-RIF decomposition, I show that occupational sorting amplifies wage gaps, particularly at the lower end of the wage distribution. These findings, interpreted through the novel theoretical framework, offer new insights into the mechanisms driving racial wage gaps at the close of the twentieth century. |
| Keywords: | technological change; wage differentials |
| JEL: | O33 J31 |
| Date: | 2026–03–25 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedcwq:102932 |
| By: | Castellucci, Daniela I. |
| Abstract: | La presente tesis tiene como propósito estudiar, desde una perspectiva de la historia social de la política y de la historia del turismo, el papel del Estado municipal en torno al desarrollo del turismo en Mar del Plata entre 1966 y 1983. Se trata de un momento en el que la ciudad, mientras transita su apogeo, comienza a presentar síntomas de agotamiento en su modelo de turismo masivo. El estudio forma parte de una línea de investigación más amplia de la Facultad de Humanidades, llevada a cabo por el Grupo de Investigación Historia y Memoria del Centro de Estudios Históricos de la Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Su objetivo principal es contribuir a la construcción de la historia del turismo a partir del estudio de los espacios de ocio en la segunda mitad del siglo XX en Argentina. La investigación se centra en la ciudad de Mar del Plata por ser históricamente el principal centro turístico nacional y por detentar una importante capacidad simbólica y material que permiten comprender procesos sociales más amplios del país. Como bien señalan Mónica Bartolucci y Elisa Pastoriza, estudiar la historia de Mar del Plata es trascenderla, dado que sirve para entender los paradigmas culturales, sociales y políticos vigentes en Argentina. En esta línea, estudiar el papel del Estado municipal durante las dos últimas dictaduras militares y una primera etapa democrática, y su relación con los actores estatales y no estatales, puede aportar a debates más amplios en torno a los vínculos y tensiones dentro del Estado (entre agencias estatales, entre funcionarios políticos y burocracias, entre administraciones nacionales, provinciales y municipales) y entre éste y la sociedad. |
| Keywords: | Políticas Públicas; Política Turística; Desarrollo Turístico; Gobierno Local; Estado; Rol; Historia Social; Mar del Plata; 1966-1983; |
| Date: | 2026–03–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nmp:nuland:4469 |
| By: | Diego Ocampo-Corrales (AQR-IREA, Department of Econometrics, Statistics and Applied Economics, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.); Rosina Moreno (AQR-IREA, Department of Econometrics, Statistics and Applied Economics, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the role of regions’ recombinatorial technological capacity in shaping the technological space. To do so, we identify novel combinations of technologies and track their evolution by tracing all subsequent inventions that incorporate the same combination. Building on the concepts of relatedness and geographical proximity, we focus on the relevance of the technological antecedents of a pair of technologies combined for the first time in determining their success. This is due through the estimation of the likelihood of a new technological combination eventually becoming embedded within the broader knowledge space. Using patent data from 1976 to 2022 in the case of the European regions, we find strong evidence that a higher degree of relatedness between the technological antecedents of the two combined technologies significantly increases the likelihood that the combination will be reused in future inventions. Additionally, we find that the success of a new combination also benefits from the presence of dissimilar knowledge—not directly involved in the combination’s antecedents but accessible within the surrounding technological environment. In these cases, the greater the relatedness between the new invention’s antecedents and the broader regional knowledge base, the more likely it is to generate a high number of follow-on inventions and contribute meaningfully to the formation of the technological space. |
| Keywords: | New Combination of Technologies; Regional Innovation; European Regions; Recombination Capacity; Knowledge Space; Technological Antecedents. JEL classification: O18; O31; O33; R11. |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ira:wpaper:202526 |
| By: | Batabyal, Amitrajeet; Khachatryan, Karlen; Kourtit, Karima; Nijkamp, Peter |
| Abstract: | This introductory chapter outlines the analytical foundations of transformative economies, emphasizing how economic change emerges from the interaction of human capital, cultural values, institutional quality, spatial dynamics, and policy innovation. It situates the book’s five-part structure within a broader framework that views transformation as a multidimensional and context-dependent process. By highlighting both successful pathways and cautionary failures, this chapter establishes a conceptual roadmap for understanding how societies pursue resilience, sustainability, and inclusive development in an era of profound global and regional challenges. |
| Keywords: | Culture, Fragility, Institutions, Resilience, Values |
| JEL: | E20 O30 P00 |
| Date: | 2025–12–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:127948 |
| By: | Edward Nelson |
| Abstract: | Central bank independence is a major area of study, but the economic literature has been characterized by numerous misstatements regarding how U.S. monetary policy independence has operated over time. Against this backdrop, this paper lays out major elements of the practice of central bank independence in the United States in the period from 1951 to 2006—a time span that encompasses the William McChesney Martin, Jr., through Alan Greenspan tenures as the head of the Federal Reserve. Many documentary materials and policymaker quotations not considered in previous research on U.S. monetary policy are highlighted. The analysis covers both institutional aspects (statutory objectives, formalities of Federal Reserve structure, and conventions followed in regularizing the central bank’s interactions with the legislative and executive branches) and the conceptual basis for independence, as expressed by leading Federal Reserve officials, particularly Chairs. It is shown—with heavy reliance on their own words—how Federal Reserve Chairs have characterized the position of the central bank within the governmental structure of the United States and how they have set out the case for monetary policy independence. What emerges is that successive Chairs over the decades made essentially the same, three-part, economic case for independence. This case does not rely on the arguments associated with economic research on time inconsistency. |
| Keywords: | Federal Reserve System; Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.); monetary policy rules; central banks |
| JEL: | E52 E58 |
| Date: | 2026–03–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:102903 |
| By: | Pol Cosentino |
| Abstract: | Cities are places where people commute to work and where goods are traded across space. While a large literature examines how lower commuting costs reshape cities, much less is known about within-city trade costs as a distinct force. This paper studies both channels using the construction of the Petite Ceinture railroad in nineteenth-century Paris, the world's first circular transit system, designed for both freight and passengers. Using newly digitized data on firms, population, rents, and transport networks spanning 1801 to 1906, I provide causal evidence that improved access to the railroad reshaped the spatial distribution of economic activities during this period. To quantify general equilibrium effects, I develop and calibrate a quantitative urban model in which within-city freight costs generate spatial variation in tradable goods prices, creating consumption-driven forces at the residence absent from canonical models. Counterfactuals show that removing the railroad would substantially reduce total population, consumption of tradables, and spatial specialization. Ignoring within-city freight costs leads to a 17.1% underestimation of the effects of transport infrastructure on urban structure and welfare. |
| Keywords: | commuting, trade, transport infrastructure, quantitative urban model |
| JEL: | R40 R12 R13 F12 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12557 |
| By: | Jakub Ryłow (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences) |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the logical theory of probability formulated by John Maynard Keynes in A Treatise on Probability (1921) as an axiomatic project competing with the measure-theoretic approach to probability codified by Andrei Kolmogorov in Grundbegriffe der Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung (1933). We present the structure of both approaches, identify the key divergences — the epistemological interpretation of the probabilistic relation, Keynes’s rejection of full numerability, the status of conditional probability, and the concept of the weight of evidence — and analyse the reasons for Kolmogorov’s triumph. We survey four contemporary interpretive traditions: subjective Bayesianism, frequentism, logical probability, and imprecise probabilities. Particular attention is paid to current applications — from Bayesian inference in machine learning and decision theory under uncertainty, to catastrophe risk pricing and uncertainty management in climate models. We argue that Keynes’s intuitions, long neglected, are gaining new significance in the face of the epistemic challenges of the twenty-first century. |
| Keywords: | logical probability, measure theory, weight of evidence, imprecise probabilities, Bayesianism |
| JEL: | B41 C10 C11 D81 G32 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2026-8 |