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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2011‒10‒15
27 papers chosen by |
| By: | Estrada, Fernando |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a brief history of coffee in Colombia identifying the processes of change in the geography and populations. From the eighteenth to the twentieth century, coffee cultivation represented the basis of household income. Changes in rural and urban culture of the nineteenth century were influenced by the coffee trade, likewise the fundamental transformations of the Colombian economy during the first half of the twentieth century. The Colombian economy and the idiosyncrasy of its people still depend on coffee, especially in rural areas and the Andean ranges. |
| Keywords: | Colombia; coffee; Latin America History; household income |
| JEL: | H8 N16 A1 Q01 Q1 Q13 N0 Q0 N86 H80 A14 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:33796&r=his |
| By: | Richard S. Grossman (Department of Economics, Wesleyan University) |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wes:weswpa:2011-004&r=his |
| By: | María Ángeles Sánchez Dominguez (Universidad de Granada. Department of Applied Economics); Fernando García Quero (Universidad de Granada. Department of Applied Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the economic crises in Spain, from the Great Depression to current recession. Institutional economics offers the theoretical framework for identifying and analyzing the institutions and the rules of the game that have triggered or aggravated the economic crises. This work identifies the institutional changes, caused by economic depressions, which have determined the path dependence of Spanish economy during the last century. In addition, this article analyzes in historical perspective three factors relevant for the institutional environment of the Spanish economy: the Stabilization Plan of 1959, the democratic Spanish transition and Spain joined the European Economic Community. They all have direct effects on policy-making of the country. |
| Keywords: | : crises, Spain, institutions. |
| JEL: | N24 P |
| Date: | 2011–08–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gra:fegper:02/11&r=his |
| By: | André Martínez |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the historical origins of the federalist institutions in Mexico and Brazil. Using a bargaining game model, I argue that the type of commodities each country produced by the end of the nineteenth Century determined the negotiation power of local governments. This led to the buildup of opposite federalist institutions in both countries, which have persisted until nowadays. The model shows that countries with regions with more autonomy to produce and trade their commodities increase the local power to collect more taxes. While in Brazil coffee was the most important commodity, Mexico relied on mining products. Coffee was produced by local landowners who became economically powerful and they were able that export taxes were collected locally with the proclamation of the 1891 Constitution. Empirical estimates show that, after 1891, exporter states increased significantly their own fiscal revenue. On the other hand, mining was capital and technology intensive, inputs that were domestically scarce in Mexico. To finance those activities foreign investment was promoted centrally, weakening the relative power of local elites. |
| Keywords: | Institutions, Fiscal Federalism, Public Finance and Endowments. |
| JEL: | H71 H77 N46 N96 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdm:wpaper:2011-06&r=his |
| By: | Josean Garrués Irurzun (Universidad de Granada. Department of Economic Theory and Economic History); Juan Antonio Rubio Mondéjar (Universidad de Granada. Department of Economic Theory and Economic History) |
| Abstract: | Trade flows, mobility of productive factors, development of the transport system and a common export base have been the criteria used when analyzing the processes of economic organization of the territory from a historical perspective. The purpose of this paper is to add a new explanatory variable, based on business relationships. To this end, social network tools have been applied to the promotors of corporations that were domiciled in Andalusia (a region in the south of Spain) between 1886 and 1959. The indicators obtained show that the Andalusian entrepreneurial space had advanced to regional economic integration |
| Keywords: | regional studies, entrepreneurship, social network, Business History |
| JEL: | R12 L14 D85 N94 |
| Date: | 2011–09–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gra:fegper:04/11&r=his |
| By: | Michael D. Bordo; Harold James |
| Abstract: | We discuss three well known plans that were offered in the twentieth century to provide an artificial replacement for gold and key currencies as international reserves: Keynes’ Bancor, the SDR and the Ecu( predecessor to the euro).The latter two of these reserve substitutes were institutionalized but neither replaced the dollar as the principal medium of international reserve. |
| JEL: | F02 F33 |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17492&r=his |
| By: | Pissarides, Christopher A. (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | I was born in Nicosia, Cyprus, on 20 February 1948. My father Antonios was born in the village of Agros, in the Troodos mountains, a village in a valley surrounded by mountains on three sides and with an opening to the south overlooking in the distance the bay of Limassol. He was one of seven children, and at the age of ten he was taken out of school and sent to Nicosia to work as a shop assistant for his uncle. He lived and worked with his uncle’s family until his twenties, when he was able to open his own shop, selling materials for making clothes and other items for the home. His business flourished when we were growing up but late in his life economic development and cheap imports made his trade obsolete. |
| Keywords: | Search frictions; |
| JEL: | E24 J64 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:nobelp:2010_006&r=his |
| By: | Mortensen, Dale T. (Northwestern University) |
| Abstract: | As the children of immigrants, my parents were raised in Scandinavian Minnesota. My mother, Verna Ecklund, was a university student for only one year but my father, Thomas Peter Mortensen, graduated from the School of Forestry at the University of Minnesota in 1936. They were married shortly after and moved to Enterprise, Oregon, where I was born in 1939. Enterprise, located in the far northeastern corner of the state, was in cattle ranching country surrounded by one of the most beautiful mountain ranges in the U.S. In these mountains, my father began his career as a lookout officer for the U.S. Forest Service. In the war years, they migrated further west to the Portland area where Dad help build Liberty ships in Mr. Kaiser’s ship yards and Mom provided day care for the children of Rosy the Riveter. After the war, the family, which now included my brother Arne born in 1942, moved to the Hood River Valley 60 miles east of Portland where again my father returned to the practice of forestry. There my brothers and I, who included Irving born in 1947, were raised. |
| Keywords: | Search frictions; |
| JEL: | E24 J64 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:nobelp:2010_005&r=his |
| By: | Bertocchi, Graziella; Dimico, Arcangelo |
| Abstract: | We investigate the long term determinants of political and economic outcomes over a new data set composed of Mississippi counties. We analyze the effect of disfranchisement on voting registration at the end of the nineteenth century (1896-9), as well as the impact of voting registration on education outcomes at different points in time, namely in 1917 and in the 1950s. Finally, we turn to the determinants of a broad array of development indicators for the year 1960 and for the 1960-2000 period. Our main conclusion is that race, rather than political institutions and education policies, is the main force driving the above outcomes. |
| Keywords: | development; education; inequality; institutions; race |
| JEL: | E25 H52 J15 N31 O11 P16 |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8589&r=his |
| By: | Siamond, Peter A. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | My grandparents immigrated to the U.S. around the turn of the last century. My mother’s parents and six older siblings came from Poland. My father’s parents met in New York, she having come from Russia and he from Romania. My parents, both born in 1908, grew up in New York and never lived outside the metropolitan area. Both finished high school and went to work, my father studying at Brooklyn Law School at night while selling shoes during the day. When they married in 1929, my mother was earning $15 a week as a bookkeeper and my father, $5 a week as a novice lawyer. |
| Keywords: | Search frictions; |
| JEL: | E24 J64 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:nobelp:2010_004&r=his |
| By: | James L. Butkiewicz (Department of Economics,University of Delaware) |
| Abstract: | While federal financial rescues have become a common response to crises, federal provision of finance was not one of the original powers of the federal government. One man, Eugene Meyer, is largely responsible for the origin of federal financial rescues, through both the War Finance Corporation and Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Meyer learned laissez faire economics from William Graham Sumner at Yale. However, German economist Adolph Wagner’s state-socialism philosophy heavily influenced Meyer’s thinking, and Meyer developed an interventionist philosophy. Serving in key government positions, Meyer put his beliefs into practice. These channels of influence and the resulting policies are examined. |
| Keywords: | Financial rescues; War Finance Corporation; Reconstruction Finance Corporation. |
| JEL: | B N |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dlw:wpaper:11-19.&r=his |
| By: | Ashima Goyal (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research) |
| Abstract: | An SIIO paradigm, based on structure and ideas that become engraved in institutions and affect outcomes, is developed to examine and assesses monetary policy in India after independence. Narrative history, data analysis, and reporting of research demonstrate the dialectic between ideas and structure. Exogenous supply shocks are used to identify policy shocks and isolate their effects. It turns out policy was sometimes exceedingly tight when the common understanding was of a large monetary overhang. Fiscal dominance made policy procyclical. But the three factors that cause a loss of monetary autonomy-governments, markets and openness-are moderating each other. Markets moderate fiscal profligacy and global crises moderate markets and openness. Greater current congruence between ideas and structure is improving institutions and contributing to India's better performance. |
| Keywords: | Monetary policy history, Structure, Ideas, Institutions, Outcomes, India |
| JEL: | E42 E5 E58 E63 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ind:igiwpp:2011-018&r=his |
| By: | Wolz, Axel |
| Abstract: | With the collapse of the socialist regime in East Germany in late 1989 and the rising political call for unification in early 1990, a deep change of the institutional structure became necessary. The (agricultural) administration had to be totally restructured. This referred not only to substance, functions and tasks which had to be adjusted â similar to all other transition economies - to the market-economic and pluralistic democratic system, but also the whole administrative set-up had to be re-established in line with the West German system. Hence, a new administrative system had to be built up from scratch in the East, while the socialist one had to be dismantled in a short period. Overall, this institutional change seems to have been accomplished successfully as billions of Deutsch Mark could be processed by the agricultural administration in 1990 in order to avoid an imminent collapse of the agricultural sector. This administrative transformation was characterised by few rules, but a âpioneer spiritâ among the staff involved which allowed a large degree of liberty in decision-making. The staff had to improvise and act pragmatically in order to get the tasks accomplished |
| Keywords: | transition, agricultural administration, unification, Germany, Agricultural and Food Policy, |
| Date: | 2011–09–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaae11:115769&r=his |
| By: | Ralph Hippe (University of Tuebingen and University of Strasbourg); Joerg Baten (University of Tuebingen and CESifo) |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:afc:wpaper:11-07&r=his |
| By: | Granér, Staffan (Department of Economic History, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Rönnbäck, Klas (Department of Economic History, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University) |
| Abstract: | Because of a growing population and industrialization, total pollution levels in many water-courses around the world have increased considerably for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. In the last few decades, however, the trend of increasing water pollution has been turned in many industrialized countries, delinking economic growth from environmental pollution. This is in essence one aspect of what many environmental economists call an ‘environmental Kuznets curve’. The research question of this project is why there is such a pattern to water quality in many countries? Much previous literature on the topic studies only the positive impact of environmental legislation. This study, focusing upon the case of the river Göta in Sweden, undertakes a more thorough analysis, including other crucial factors as well such as industrial transformation and decline, as well as stakeholder associations. The project utilizes a very long series of data on the water quality in the river Göta, covering more than 100 years of data for crucial indicators, in order to establish what factors were contributing to reducing levels of pollution. Analyzing the driving factors of this ‘Environmental Kuznets Curve’ can give us crucial insights into how a sustainable development might be achieved in the future.<p> |
| Keywords: | Economic History; Environmental history; Environmental pollution; Water quality; Environmental Kuznets curve; Sweden; Göta älv |
| JEL: | N53 N54 N73 N74 Q25 Q28 Q57 |
| Date: | 2011–10–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunhis:0015&r=his |
| By: | Claude Diebolt (BETA/CNRS et Association Française de Cliométrie); Antoine Parent (BETA/CNRS et Association Française de Cliométrie); Jamel Trabelsi (BETA/CNRS et Association Française de Cliométrie) |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:afc:wpaper:11-10&r=his |
| By: | Hans Landström (CIRCLE, Lund University, Sweden); Gouya Harirchi (Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark); Fredrik Åström (Lund University Libraries, Lund University, Sweden) |
| Abstract: | Entrepreneurship research has a long tradition and since the 1980s the field has grown significantly. In this study we identify the ‘knowledge producers’ who have shaped the field over time and their core entrepreneurship research works. A unique database consisting of all references in twelve entrepreneurship ‘handbooks’ (or stateof- the-art books) has been developed. The chapters in these handbooks were written by experts within the field, and it can be assumed that the most frequently cited references represent ‘core knowledge’ with relevance to entrepreneurship research. From our analysis, it appears that entrepreneurship is a rather changeable field of research, closely linked to disciplines such as ‘management studies’ and ‘economics’. Over time, the field has become more formalized with its own core knowledge, research specialities and an increasing number of ‘insider works’. However, it is still based on some fairly old theoretical frameworks imported from mainstream disciplines, although during the last decade we have seen the emergence of a number of new field-specific concepts and theories. We argue that to successfully develop entrepreneurship research in the future, we need to relate new research opportunities to earlier knowledge within the field, which calls for a stronger ‘knowledge-based’ focus. We would also like to see greater integration between the fields of entrepreneurship and innovation studies in the future. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, research field, handbooks, bibliometric analysis |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tik:inowpp:20111005&r=his |
| By: | Randy Becker; Cheryl Grim |
| Abstract: | Longitudinally-linked microdata on U.S. manufacturing plants are currently available to researchers for 1963, 1967, and 1972-2009. In this paper, we provide a first look at recently recovered manufacturing microdata files from the 1950s and 1960s. We describe their origins and background, discuss their contents, and begin to explore their sample coverage. We also begin to examine whether the available establishment identifier(s) allow record linking. Our preliminary analyses suggest that longitudinally-linked Annual Survey of Manufactures microdata from the mid-1950s through the present – containing 16 years of additional data – appears possible though challenging. While a great deal of work remains, we see tremendous value in extending the manufacturing microdata series back into time. With these data, new lines of research become possible and many others can be revisited. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:11-29&r=his |
| By: | Menkhoff, Thomas; Evers, Hans-Dieter |
| Abstract: | Based on two case studies of knowledge clusters (off shore marine/rig business and water hub) in Singapore, the paper illustrates the importance of good knowledge governance in creating robust and value-creating knowledge clusters. We begin by defining key terms used such as knowledge clusters, hubs and governance, followed by a short historical account of good knowledge governance for Singapore’s development. The two cases studies of knowledge clusters presented here include (i) the offshore oil rig business (Keppel) which we posit as an example of innovative value creation based on sophisticated fabrication methods and R&D as well as (ii) the island republic’s dynamic and rapidly emerging, global hydrohub called ‘WaterHub’. We examine the structural characteristics of both clusters, assess their progress based on the cluster lifecycle literature, highlight key governance enablers required to create and sustain such competitive hubs and draw conclusions for K4D latecomers. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge governance; knowledge clusters; science policy; maritime industry; Singapore |
| JEL: | D8 G3 A14 |
| Date: | 2011–09–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:33979&r=his |
| By: | Antoine Parent (Université Nancy 2, BETA CNRS UMR 7522 et Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC)) |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:afc:wpaper:11-09&r=his |
| By: | Katia Béguin (IDHE - Institutions et Dynamiques Historiques de l'Economie - CNRS : UMR8533 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I - Université Paris VIII Vincennes-Saint Denis - Université de Paris X - Nanterre - École normale supérieure de Cachan - ENS Cachan, modernité et révolution - EA127 - centre de recherche en histoire moderne - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I : EA127); Pierre-Charles Pradier (SAMM - Statistique, Analyse et Modélisation Multidisciplinaire (SAmos-Marin Mersenne) - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I) |
| Abstract: | La course à l'abime financier de la monarchie française d'Ancien Régime, qui s'est soldée par la convocation des États Généraux de 1789, en raison de la dérobade finale des prêteurs convaincus de l'imminence du défaut souverain, est un objet d'interrogations déjà ancien. La fin de cette histoire a puissamment influé sur la manière de l'interpréter, du fait de la propension des révolutionnaires à stigmatiser " l'imbécilité de [l'] ancien gouvernement ". Elle l'a été aussi à cause du parallèle qui s'est imposé d'emblée avec l'Angleterre rivale, opposée à la France dans toutes les guerres depuis le dernier quart du XVIIe siècle et qui l'a défaite sur les mers comme sur le terrain de la solidité financière. Un point central des controverses est la bifurcation qui a conduit la France à tourner le dos à l'instrument d'emprunt le moins coûteux, la rente perpétuelle, dont elle s'était dotée dès 1522 avec la création des rentes sur l'Hôtel de Ville, pour aller vers les rentes viagères qui ont entraîné les finances de la monarchie vers l'impasse au dix-huitième siècle. On montre comment, en amont de la faillite de Law qui fait écran à la compréhension du temps long, les problèmes financiers du siècle des Lumières étaient déterminés par l'expérience du Grand Siècle. |
| Keywords: | dette souveraine ; france ; louis xiv ; dix-septième siècle ; rentes sur l'hôtel de ville |
| Date: | 2011–09–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00623931&r=his |
| By: | Wagstaff, Adam; Culyer, Anthony J. |
| Abstract: | This paper takes a bibliometric tour of the past 40 years of health economics using bibliographic"metadata"from EconLit supplemented by citation data from Google Scholar and the authors'topical classifications. The authors report the growth of health economics (33,000 publications since 1969 -- 12,000 more than in the economics of education) and list the 300 most-cited publications broken down by topic. They report the changing topical and geographic focus of health economics (the topics'Determinants of health and ill-health'and'Health statistics and econometrics'both show an upward trend, and the field has expanded appreciably into the developing world). They also compare authors, countries, institutions, and journals in terms of the volume of publications and their influence as measured through various citation-based indices (Grossman, the US, Harvard and the JHE emerge close to or at the top on a variety of measures). |
| Keywords: | Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Health Systems Development&Reform,Health Economics&Finance,Rural Development Knowledge&Information Systems,Health Law |
| Date: | 2011–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5829&r=his |
| By: | P. Battilani; V. Zamagni |
| Abstract: | The Italian co-operative enterprises have prospered in the last thirty years in various sectors. In this essay we analyze the role played by managerilization in allowing Italian co-ops to compete nationally and internationally with capitalist enterprises. On the basis of a substantial set of company histories and managers interviews, we have built a three generations model of co-ops managers, which shows the changes that have allowed co-ops to become fully equipped with managerial skills. The strong leadership of umbrella organizations, the inner careers of most managers and legislation have been instrumental in avoiding demutualization, the killer of co-ops in many other countries. |
| JEL: | N80 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp789&r=his |
| By: | Raúl Novoa; Juan Antonio Ketterer; Gabriela Szarfer; Pablo Curat; Leonardo Gioja; Marisú Puerta; Carlos Colabello; Jorge Ramírez; Manuel Prieto; Pablo Sánchez Le Daca; Roxana Matías Gago; Jorge A. Lupano |
| Abstract: | El presente documento se basa en la experiencia obtenida a través de la ejecución del Programa de Crédito para el Desarrollo de la Producción y el Empleo en la Provincia de San Juan, Argentina, financiado parcialmente por el BID. Analiza los instrumentos de promoción utilizados para desarrollo de agrupamientos locales de PYMES dinámicas (clusters), verificando que --a diferencia de la experiencia de San Juan-- la asistencia para el acceso al crédito bancario y a otras fuentes de financiamiento no se encuentra entre los instrumentos utilizados, tanto en la experiencia internacional como a nivel regional. Aborda las posibles causas de este fenómeno, y analiza la situación de los clusters y cadenas productivas locales en cuantos sujetos de crédito, y el lugar que podría ocupar la integración de una PYME a un cluster entre los criterios habituales de evaluación de riesgos bancarios. También aborda el posible desarrollo de instrumentos de crédito específicamente orientados al financiamiento de agrupamientos de PYMES, y realiza recomendaciones específicas para la organización y actividades de una Agencia de Desarrollo local en esta materia. |
| Keywords: | Sector financiero :: Servicios financieros, Sector privado :: PYME, Economía :: Política industrial, Clusters, bancarización, aglomeraciones, agrupamientos |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:45178&r=his |
| By: | Michel-Pierre Chelini (Professeur d’histoire économique contemporaine à l’Université d’Arras); Georges Prat (Directeur de recherche au CNRS, EconomiX, Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense) |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:afc:wpaper:11-08&r=his |
| By: | Mario Cimoli (CEPAL e Universidad de Venecia); Gabriel Porcile (CEPAL e Universidade Federal do Paraná) |
| Abstract: | The Latin American Structuralism (LAS) is a significant part of the heterodox tradition in the theory of long run growth, with a focus on the problems of developing economies which started their industrialization process when other regions had already accumulated substantial technological capabilities. The emergence of a centre-periphery system posed specific problems to growth and distribution in laggard economies which LAS discusses in a systematic way. In this paper we presented a simple model which, firstly, captures key insights of the LAS school, such as the persistency of technological asymmetries and structural heterogeneity; secondly, it can be used to analyze the impacts of shocks and policies based on how they affect supply-side and demand side parameters of the model; thirdly, it links more closely (Post-) Keynesian macroeconomics based on the BOP constraint with the evolutionary microeconomics concerned with the dynamics of learning; lastly, it can be used as a toolbox and a teachable model in the analysis of the interactions between structural change, technological catching up and long run growth. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fup:wpaper:0120&r=his |
| By: | Eric Chancellier (Maître de conférences en sciences économiques, Université de Metz) |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:afc:wpaper:11-11&r=his |