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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2010‒01‒16
27 papers chosen by |
| By: | José Miguel Martínez Carrión (Universidad de Murcia); Javier Puche-Gil (Universidad de Murcia) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the standard of living from the New Anthropometric History perspective and compares human height evolution in France and Spain. Firstly, the importance of the height as an indicator to explore the evolution of the biological standard of living in the long‐term is emphasized. It also shows the early development anthropometric history in France and the recent boom in Spain. This study presents the secular trend with height data of 19‐ 21 year‐old conscripts, corresponding to the cohorts from 1837‐38 to 1980. Our results indicate an increasing trend only interrupted by the deterioration of the height in the mid‐19th century, during the First World War, and in the 1920s. The observed increase of the biological welfare between 1870 and 1915 will continue with the cohorts of 1950‐1970. Finally, this paper analyzes territorial inequalities, the process of regional converge and compares biological welfare with the evolution of French’s height. (full text in Spanish) |
| Keywords: | Anthropometric history, Spain, France, secular trend, height, living standard, biological welfare |
| JEL: | I31 N33 N34 O15 |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:0911&r=his |
| By: | Raimon Soler; Yolanda Blasco; Marc Badia-Miro; Sergi Lozano (Universitat de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | The extension of banking activities during the XIX century was mainly leaded by certain social groups related to commerce, which took profit from their experience and knowledge to spread their influence among the credit world. In the Spanish historiography, there are some works specifically focused on these people, but very few of them make a classification of the economic groups who led the financial modernization of Spain along the mid 19th century. The main objective of our work is the analysis of the social group which constituted the Banco de Barcelona between 1844 and 1854. This institution was as important for the financial and banking history of Spain as a pioneer in their credit an issue activity; moreover its experience served as a base for the constitution of the modern Spanish financial system. In a society like the Catalan in mid 19th century, the confidence is an important factor to explain the investment. The appearance of new companies and its investment requirements transformed the previous guidelines. How was the behaviour of the potential investments? Did a powerful investing group grow around the bank and ascended economically throughout the central years of the 19th century? The result shows how de members of the board administration of the Banco de Barcelona, were concentred in some of the groups of the whole of the Catalan economy. |
| Keywords: | barcelona, social networks, banking formation |
| JEL: | N23 G21 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bar:bedcje:2009234&r=his |
| By: | Nobuyuki Hanaki; Satomi Kurosu |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the formation of marriage relationships between two households in 19th century, Tama, Japan. Previous studies on marriage market or partner selection in the Japanese past tended to rely either on information from a single village in case of statistical analysis, or on collection of oral histories. By using the information from a household register that covers 35 villages, and applying the method of social network analysis, this paper goes beyond the limitation of previous studies. Our empirical results show that there was a tendency for socio-economic homogamy and endogamy (within kinship and within village) among peasants in the mid 19th century Tama, Japan. |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tsu:tewpjp:2010-001&r=his |
| By: | Durevall, Dick (School of Business, Economics and Law); Henrekson, Magnus (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | This paper carries out a critical reappraisal of the two contending theories purporting to explain long-run government spending: Wagner’s Law and different variants of the ratchet effect. We analyze data spanning from the early 19th century until the present day in Sweden and the United Kingdom. Hence, in contrast to previous studies, we evaluate the validity of Wagner’s Law and the ratchet effect hypothesis over a very long time period, starting at the beginning of industrialization. Cointegration analysis is used to investigate the long-run relationships between government expenditure and GDP, focusing on sub-periods and parameter stability. Moreover, we test the ratchet effect hypothesis by estimating models which allow for asymmetric adjustment. According to our main results, Wagner’s Law does not hold in the long run, although the data are consistent with Wagner’s Law between roughly 1860 and the late 1960s in Sweden, and the 1970s in the UK. This can be traced to the formation of the modern public sector, including the introduction of public education, health care, and so forth. Yet Wagner’s Law did not hold during the initial industrialization phase (before 1860), or during recent periods. Finally, we find some evidence of asymmetric adjustment, particularly in the post WWII period in the UK: Public expenditure grows more during bad times than it decreases during good times. However, the ratchet effect is only a short to medium-term phenomenon. |
| Keywords: | Government expenditure; Growth of government; Public sector; Ratchet effect; Wagner’s Law |
| JEL: | H55 I38 J22 |
| Date: | 2010–01–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0818&r=his |
| By: | Dixon, Bruce L.; Minden, Alicia |
| Keywords: | Department history, teaching, research, grants, personnel, publication outlets, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, Q10, A30, N90, |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:uarksp:55779&r=his |
| By: | Waldenström, Daniel (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Di Vaio, Gianfranco (University of Perugia); Weisdorf, Jacob (University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | This study analyses determinants of citation success among authors publishing in economic history journals. Bibliometric features, like article length and number of authors, are positively correlated with the citation rate up to a certain point. Remarkably, publishing in top-ranked journals hardly affects citations. In regard to author-specific characteristics, male authors, full professors and authors working economics or history departments, and authors employed in Anglo-Saxon countries, are more likely to get cited than others. As a ‘shortcut’ to citation success, we find that research diffusion, measured by number of presentations and people mentioned in acknowledgement, boosts the citation rate. |
| Keywords: | Bibliometrics; Citation Analysis; Citation Success; Economic History; Scientometrics; Poisson Regression |
| JEL: | A10 A11 A14 N10 |
| Date: | 2010–01–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0819&r=his |
| By: | Bormotov, Michael |
| Abstract: | Severe economic fluctuations which had recently hit the entire world economy after relatively prosperous decades despite numerous institutional efforts to control them have recalled an interest to the theory of economic cycles. Historical data on main economic indexes and academic evidence show that recurrent fluctuations in the pace of economic growth are consistent over time. Technological revolutions and worldwide implementation of basic inventions are necessarily accompanied by the processes of creative destruction or “sanitation” of the economy, which cause long term economic cycles which appear to be predictable but practically unavoidable. This paper explores the theoretical background and formulates the basics of the mechanism of economic cycles driven endogenously by modern knowledge based economy. It analyzes definitions of economic cycles, employs the concept of hierarchical economic cycles, studies the links between inventions, innovations and economic cycles, provides a concept of “economic organism” versus “economic mechanism”, gives a definition of “good cycles” versus “bad cycles” and proposes taxonomy of business cycles according to four attributes. This working paper is the first in a range of several papers summarizing the intermediate results of research undertaken by the author in order to reconsider and provide explanations on how modern economy creates cyclical movements. |
| Keywords: | economic cycles; creative distraction; basic technology; innovations; endogenous economic growth. |
| JEL: | O11 O47 O33 |
| Date: | 2009–12–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:19616&r=his |
| By: | Akira Kawai; Shigeru Hirota; Tomohiko Inui |
| Abstract: | For most of the post]war period, Japan's administration of statistics was governed by the framework provided by the Statistics Act from 1947. However, because the Act remained largely unchanged since it was originally introduced, it increasingly failed to reflect important changes in economic and social circumstances over time, resulting in various problems, including with regard to the secondary use of various kinds of microdata. To help resolve these problems, the New Statistics Act was enacted in 2007 and came fully into force in April 2009. Among other things, the New Statistics Act provides for a substantial revision of the system of secondary data use. An important element of this is a change in the basic philosophy underlying the legal framework from "statistics for the purpose of administration" to "statistics as an information resource for society." A central aim is ensuring the gusefulnessh of public statistics, and regulations concerning the use of statistics, such as provisions for secondary use, were incorporated in the Act. One important change is that the system of approval by the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications for secondary data use was abolished. Instead, secondary data use can now be directly approved by the survey implementer and procedures have been simplified, so in the new system secondary data use now is considerably easier. Moreover, the New Statistics Act now allows for the provision of anonymized data and for custom tabulations for the purpose of academic research and higher education. |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:ghsdps:gd09-105&r=his |
| By: | Rodrigo Cerda. (Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.) |
| Abstract: | We study the role of fiscal expenditure during episodes of economic crises using one century data from 20 Latin American countries. We use output drops as way of indicating the irruption of economic crises and we are able to document episodes of large output drops and large duration of economic crises, which are characteristics that vary considerably among countries. We study the duration of crises by means of count data and hazard models while we study the intensity of the crisis by means of growth regressions. Our main findings suggest that fiscal expenditure has low power to shorten economic crises but it might act as an effective instrument to smooth output-drops during crises. |
| Keywords: | Economic Crisis, Fiscal Expenditure, Latin America. |
| JEL: | E62 H50 N16 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ioe:doctra:365&r=his |
| By: | Bebchuk, Lucian A. (Harvard University); Weisbach, Michael S. (Ohio State University) |
| Abstract: | This paper, which introduces the special issue on corporate governance co-sponsored by the Review of Financial Studies and the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), reviews and comments on the state of corporate governance research. The special issue features seven papers on corporate governance that were presented in a meeting of the NBER's corporate governance project. Each of the papers represents state-of-the-art research in an important area of corporate governance research. For each of these areas, we discuss the importance of the area and the questions it focuses on, how the paper in the special issue makes a significant contribution to this area, and what we do and do not know about the area. We discuss in turn work on shareholders and shareholder activism, directors, executives and their compensation, controlling shareholders, comparative corporate governance, cross-border investments in global capital markets, and the political economy of corporate governance. |
| JEL: | G34 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:ohidic:2009-21&r=his |
| By: | Allen B Frankel |
| Abstract: | The quality of newly originated subprime mortgages had been visibly deteriorating for some time before the window for such loans was shut in 2007. Nevertheless, a bankruptcy court's directed ex post examination of New Century Financial, one of the largest originators of subprime mortgages, discovered no change, over time, in how that firm went about its business. This paper employs the court examiner's findings in a critical review of the procedures used by various agents involved in the origination and securitisation of subprime mortgages. A contribution of this paper is its elaboration of the choices and incentives faced by the various types of institutions involved in those linked processes of origination and securitisation. It highlights the limited roles played by the originators of subprime loans in screening borrowers and in bearing losses on defective loans that had been sold to securitisers of pooled loan packages (ie, mortgage-backed securities). It also illustrates the willingness of the management of those institutions that became key players in that market to put their reputations with fixed-income investor clients in jeopardy. What is perplexing is that such risk exposures were accepted by investing firms that had the wherewithal and knowledge to appreciate the overall paucity of due diligence in the loan origination processes. This observation, in turn, points to the conclusion that the subprime episode is a case in which reputational capital, a presumptively effective motivator of market discipline, was not an effective incentive device. |
| Keywords: | mortgage originators, reputational capital, securitisation |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bis:biswps:294&r=his |
| By: | Michael D. Bordo; David Hargreaves; Mizuho Kida (Reserve Bank of New Zealand) |
| Abstract: | We identify the timing of currency, banking crises and sudden stops in New Zealand from 1880 to 2008 using methodologies from the international literature and consider the extent to which the empirical models in that literature can explain New Zealand’s crisis history. We find that the cross country evidence on the determinants of crises fits New Zealand experience reasonably well. A number of the risk factors that correlate with crises internationally – such as domestic imbalances, external debt, and currency mismatches – were elevated for New Zealand when the country had more frequent crises and have improved in the recent more stable) period. However, a time-series analysis of New Zealand growth over 120 years shows that global factors – such as the US growth rate and terms of trade – explain New Zealand growth fairly well, and that crisis dummy variables do not have significant additional explanatory power. This suggests that having sound institutions and policies may help avoid severe domestic crises, but will not be sufficient to avoid the domestic economic impact of the global business cycle. |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nzb:nzbdps:2009/17&r=his |
| By: | McCloskey, Deirdre |
| Abstract: | Trade reshuffles. No wonder, then, that it doesn’t work as an engine of growth—not for explaining the scale of growth that overcame the West and then the Rest 1800 to the present. Yet many historians, such as Walt Rostow or Robert Allen or Joseph Inikori, have put foreign trade at the center of their accounts. Yet the Rest had been vigorously trading in the Indian Ocean long before the Europeans got there—indeed, that’s why the West wanted to get there. Trade certainly set the prices that British industrialists faced, such as the price of wheat or the interest rate. But new trade does not put people to work, unless they start unemployed. If they are, then any source of demand, such as the demand for domestic service, would be as important as the India trade. Foreign trade is not a net gain, but a way of producing importables at the sacrifice of exportables. The Harberger point implies that static gains from trade are small beside the 1500% of growth to be explained, or even the 100% in the first century in Britain. Trade is anyway too old and too widespread to explain a uniquely European—even British—event. One can appeal to “dynamic” effects, but these too can be shown to be small, even in the case of the gigantic British cotton textile industry. And if small causes lead to large consequences, the model is instable, and any old thing can cause it to tip. Ronald Findlay and Kevin O’Rourke favor foreign trade on the argument that power led to plenty. But domination is not the same thing as innovation. In short, the production possibility curve did not move out just a little, as could be explained by trade or investment or reshuffling. It exploded, and requires an economics of discovery, not an economics of routine exchanges of cotton textiles for tea. |
| Keywords: | foreign trade; engines of growth; industrial revolution; economic growth; Britain |
| JEL: | B10 N10 |
| Date: | 2009–07–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:19723&r=his |
| By: | Ramón María-Dolores (Universidad de Murcia); José Miguel Martínez Carrión (Universidad de Murcia) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between height and economic development in Spain in the modern period. The relation is investigated using recently constructed times series with recruitment data of conscripts. We observed changes in average height along the analyzed period. These variations could be explained by different indicators of economic development such as consumption of hygiene products, the deflator of private consumption, income per capìta, schooling rate, infant mortality and trade (degree of openness). We model human stature as a Vector Autoregressive Model (VAR) and we proceed to estimate a Vector Autoregressive Equilibrium Correction Model (VECqM) to quantify the height response to different changes in the different explanatory variables. The analysis shows that there is a long-°©‐run relationship between height, income, and other indicators of economic development in Spain as consumption of hygiene products, and the degree of openness |
| Keywords: | Height, health, income, education, economic development, cointegration, Spain. |
| JEL: | I1 I3 N3 N9 |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:0912&r=his |
| By: | Tim Leunig; Chris Minns; Patrick Wallis |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the importance of social and geographical networks in structuring entry intoskilled occupations in premodern London. Using newly digitised records of those beginning anapprenticeship in London between 1600 and 1749, we find little evidence that networks stronglyshaped apprentice recruitment. The typical London apprentice did not have an identifiable connectionto his master in the form of a kin link, shared name, or shared place or county of origin. The majorityof migrant apprentices' fathers came from outside of the craft sector. Our results suggest that themarket for apprenticeship was strikingly open: well-to-do families of all types were able to access awide range of craft and trade apprenticeships, and would-be apprentices had considerable scope tomatch their perceived ability and aptitude to opportunity. |
| Keywords: | Apprenticeship, human capital formation, training, migration, networks, UK, earlymodern |
| JEL: | N3 J2 J6 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp0956&r=his |
| By: | Carlos Escudé |
| Abstract: | This document is the paper-format version of the keynote address delivered by its author on August 2, 2009, to the opening session of the Latin American section (AMILAT) of the 15th World Congress of Jewish Studies, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It attempts to understand the long-term shift towards the worse of Israeli- Latin American relations, which started with an almost unqualified support for the establishment of the State of Israel on the side of both Latin American right-wing governments and left-wing parties and popular organizations, but have been deteriorating ever since. It suggests that this involution can be largely explained in terms of at least four intervening variables: Israel’s vulnerability, its special relationship with the United States after 1967, Latin American social structure, and the class identity of the leadership of the Latin American Jewry. It argues that overlooking the peripheral character of Israel in the interstate system has led to distortions in the understanding of Israeli-Latin American relations. |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cem:doctra:413&r=his |
| By: | Ronald Degen (International School of Management Paris) |
| Abstract: | The success of the US motor vehicle companies up to 1955 and their subsequent decline is directly related to the management-labor negotiations in the 1930s and the acceptance by both management and the mass union movement of the inherent nature of work in an assembly-line factory. Because the conditions of employment on the assembly line became less and less bearable over time, the negotiations became confrontational ones in which each side tried to get as much as possible from the other in a ?win-lose? setting. This ongoing confrontation let to the continuously escalating labor costs within the US motor vehicle companies that ultimately led to their decline. Unlike the case of Japanese or European companies, the US companies never had a ?win-win? proposal on the table. To understand how this happened, we will first describe how, on three occasions, the motor vehicle industry has changed the most fundamental ideas on how to manufacture things and, what is more important, how humans work together to create value. |
| Keywords: | US motor vehicle companies decline, mass production system, lean production system, reflective production system, confrontational management-labor negotiations |
| JEL: | M0 M1 |
| Date: | 2009–12–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pil:wpaper:51&r=his |
| By: | Simon Gelaschwili; Andreas Nastansky |
| Abstract: | The authors’ outline of the evolution of the banking sector development assesses governmental approaches to bank regulation and supervision and is a basic regulatory frame-work, needed to reduce bank failures; it characterises steps of the evolution of the banking sector and trends of its development. The discussion focuses on: 1. Initial forming and restructuring of the banks, changes in the commercial banking sector and the reorganising of the banking systems; 2. Change of the role of the national bank and the mode of its intervention; 3. Dynamics of the banking system development in Georgia and the risks of banking activities. The main findings suggest that 1. The Georgian banks overcame the crisis of the 90’s because of having portfolios of assets in foreign currencies and performing of the national banks function in the “lender of last resort”; 2. Regulatory and supervisory practices in Georgia develop from strict regulations to a deregulation that is most effective in promoting good performance and stability in the banking sector; 3. Alongside with the increase of banking concentration and openness the banking competition and financial risks boost too; that could be managed by further development of institutional reforms in the banking sector. There is an assess of the development and weakness of the banking sector. |
| Keywords: | banking sector, banking supervision, financial risks |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pot:statdp:36&r=his |
| By: | Guido Buenstorf; Steven Klepper |
| Abstract: | Beginning in 1922, the rate of exit of U.S. tire producers increased sharply and the industry began a severe and protracted shakeout. Just five years earlier, the tire industry experienced a surge in entry that led to a rise of over 80% in the number of producers. We propose an explanation for this episode based on the idea of industry submarkets, which we incorporate in a model of shakeouts. We test this theory and alternative explanations for the surge in entry and exit and the shakeout using a novel data set on patenting in tires and production in the early 1920s of the cord tire, a key innovation we feature in our theory. Our analysis suggests that the development of a new submarket can open up opportunities for entry but also stimulate innovation and in the process reinforce the advantages of the leading incumbents, accentuating the shakeout of producers. |
| Keywords: | Submarkets, Innovation, Shakeouts Length 31 pages |
| JEL: | L65 R12 R30 |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:evopap:2009-15&r=his |
| By: | Schlenkhoff, Georg |
| Abstract: | The recent recession has brought a sharp decrease in income, output, and world trade, as well as an increase in unemployment in developed and underdeveloped countries. Experts such as Paul Krugman, Christina Romer, or Barry Eichengreen, compare the current situation with the Great Depression of the 1930s. However, the current debate is whether that comparison is even applicable. Since policy makers have to understand the roots and the dimension of the crisis in order to seize the fiscal stimulus package, adjust the level of taxes, and change regulation of the financial sector, the debate is of course a reasonable one to have. The Great Depression is the archetype of a recession, so it provides policy makers with valuable insights into right and wrong reaction methods. However, if policy makers orientate at the Great Depression, they have to make sure that the roots of the crisis are similar. So this paper addresses the question: Is the current financial crisis similar to the Great Depression? For that purpose I will systematically compare the Great Recession with the Great Depression. First, by examining the theories that commonly explain the Great Depression. Subsequently I will apply these theories to the Great Recession and discuss if they are applicable. I will argue that some theories are still applicable. For example, which flaws in the monetary system contributed to the Great Recession as well as to the Great Depression? However, the economic environment has changed and applying the same policy reactions today as in the Great Depression will be a policy error. Finally I will briefly present policy recommendations that are based on the findings. |
| Keywords: | Great Depression; Great Recession; Crisis; Bretton Woods II; Fiscal Policy; Monetary Policy; Shocks |
| JEL: | B10 B0 A23 A1 B22 A2 A10 B15 A11 B25 B12 E5 B13 E4 E3 |
| Date: | 2009–11–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:19781&r=his |
| By: | Kozo Kiyota; Tetsuji Okazaki |
| Abstract: | A number of studies have revealed that the effect of industrial policy on productivity growth is negative. Is this because industrial policy fails to control the activities of firms, or because it can effectively control them? This paper attempts to answer these questions, using firm-level data from the cotton spinning industry in Japan for the period 1956-64. It has been determined that industrial policy cut two ways during this period. Industrial policy effectively controlled the output of cotton spinning firms, which contributed to the establishment of a stable market structure during the period. On the flip side, such policy constrained the reallocation of resources from less productive large firms to more productive small firms. Combined with the negative productivity growth in large firms during this period, industrial policy resulted in negative industry productivity growth. |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:ghsdps:gd09-101&r=his |
| By: | Matei, Ani; Popa, Florin |
| Abstract: | The late 1980’s have witnessed numerous changes in the political, economical and social structure of Eastern Europe. The fall of the Berlin Wall represented the beginning of national movements that targeted the collapse of all totalitarian political regimes in this part of the continent. The transformations that followed involved all areas of activity of the social life. In such a context of institutional remodeling, of redefining social values, the phenomenon of corruption was not only present, but had a great enough influence over the transition process. The influence of corruption manifested itself in most cases in an ambiguous legal framework, in a sum of normative acts (often contradictory ones), in a great legal instability, in a lack of reaction of the responsible institutions, etc. In the economy the effects of this phenomenon materialized in the drop of foreign investments, in the drop of the GDP per capita, in bad public investments, and so on. The comparative analysis of the present study targets mostly the way in which the administrative reform policies, the legal measures passed by the Parliament were put into action, the institutional reform, and all the measures that can determine the success or failure of an efficient anticorruption policy. Also, the process of accession is of great influence in the fight against corruption. Through the analysis of all elements taken into account and previously stated, the present study aims at distinguishing efficient methods in the fight against corruption, methods that are specific to a state in transition, but also to create a model of practices for the states in transition. The effectiveness of these measures is highlighted, among others, through the public perception of corruption, the level of economic development (GDP/capita, level of foreign investments, and so on). |
| Keywords: | corruption; administrative reform policies |
| JEL: | H70 D73 |
| Date: | 2009–05–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:19625&r=his |
| By: | Scherer, F. M. (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | This paper, written for a larger compendium edited by Dennis Mueller, examines key dynamic features of capitalistic economies and how prominent economists such as Schumpeter, Marx, Keynes, and von Mises perceived them. The emphasis is on the growth in real per capita income achieved by capitalistic economies during the past two centuries. A Gedankenexperiment exploring what might have happened if the growth experience began earlier, in the year 800, shows how astonishing the record has been. Technological innovation, in large part endogenous to the capitalist system, is a key explanation for the growth achieved. A briefer discursion deals with breaks in growth trajectories, notably, in the form of business downturns and business fluctuations more generally. They are shown to be small relative to the longer-term growth pattern. An equally important issue is how the gains from growth have been distributed. Contrary to Marx's "immiserization" prediction, the gains have for the most part been widely shared among capitalists and workers alike. However, stagnation of real income growth for American production workers since the 1970s introduces new and troubling questions, several of whose provisional explanations are investigated. |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp10-001&r=his |
| By: | Richard Fabling |
| Abstract: | Statistics New Zealandfs prototype Longitudinal Business Database is a rich resource for understanding the behaviour of New Zealand firms. In this paper we describe the elements of the database, access protocols for researchers, and potential future developments in the linking and availability of business data in New Zealand. |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:ghsdps:gd09-103&r=his |
| By: | Germa Bel (Universitat de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | Italys first Fascist government applied a large-scale privatization policy between 1922 and 1925. The government privatized the state monopoly of match sale, eliminated the State monopoly on life insurances, sold most of the State-owned telephone networks and services to private firms, reprivatized the largest metal machinery producer, and awarded concessions to private firms to build and operate motorways. While ideological considerations may have had a certain influence, privatization was used mainly as a political tool to build confidence among industrialists and to increase support for the government and the Partito Nazionale Fascista. Privatization also contributed to balancing the budget, which was the core objective of Fascist economic policy in its first phase. |
| Keywords: | fascist economy, privatization, government, italy, public enterprise |
| JEL: | G38 L32 L33 N44 H11 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bar:bedcje:2009235&r=his |
| By: | Gopalan, Sasidaran; Rajan, Ramkishen. S |
| Abstract: | Over the last decade many emerging Asian economies have been liberalizing their financial sectors, including opening up of their banking systems to foreign competition. This paper examines the extent of de jure and de facto policies in Asia with regard to the introduction of greater foreign competition. To preview the main conclusion, while there has clearly been greater international financial liberalization in the region, Asia lags behind emerging Europe and Latin America when it comes to the relative significance of foreign banks in their respective domestic economies. The paper goes on to discuss possible reasons behind Asia’s relatively cautious approach towards this policy. |
| Keywords: | Financial sector de-regulation; Foreign bank entry; Emerging Asia |
| JEL: | G34 F36 |
| Date: | 2009–07–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:19592&r=his |
| By: | Decker, Christopher; Flynn, David |
| Abstract: | We empirically investigate the relationship between agricultural development and proximity to military forts in Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado in 1880. Agricultural investments are substantially higher in counties where a military fort is present, suggesting that military forts stimulated agricultural development on the Great Plains. However, the reverse is not true; there is no statistical support for the notion that forts necessarily located in counties where substantial development was already occurring. Moreover, we found that while the presence of a military fort has the effect of increasing agricultural development, there is no evidence that such a presence sustained agricultural development. |
| Keywords: | Forts; Great Plains; Agriculture |
| JEL: | N51 R53 R11 N91 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:19556&r=his |