nep-his New Economics Papers
on Business, Economic and Financial History
Issue of 2014‒09‒25
sixteen papers chosen by
  1. Classical Competition and Freedom of Contract in American Laissez Faire Constitutionalism By Nicola Giocoli
  2. James Tobin, père fondateur de la finance moderne By Frederic Teulon
  3. Daniel Kahneman, un psychologue en territoire économique By Frederic Teulon
  4. George Stigler : combat pour la déréglementation By Frederic Teulon
  5. The Drivers of Long-run CO2 Emissions: A Global Perspective since 1800 By Sofia Teives HENRIQUES; Karol Jan BOROWIECKI
  6. The Papua Niugini Paradox. Land property archaism and Modernity of peasant resistance ? By Rémy Herrera; Poeura Tetoe
  7. Sicily and the development of Econophysics: the pioneering work of Ettore Majorana and the Econophysics Workshop in Palermo By Rosario N. Mantegna
  8. Asia's Little Divergence: State Capacity in China and Japan before 1850 By Sng, Tuan-Hwee; Moriguchi, Chiaki
  9. One Hundred Years Ago - Economic Theory in 1914 By K.Vela Velupillai
  10. Patterns of Structural Change in Developing Countries By Vries, Gaaitzen de; Timmer, Marcel; Vries, Klaas de
  11. Government deficit sustainability, and monetary versus fiscal dominance:the case of Spain, 1850-2000 By Oscar Bajo-Rubio; Carmen Díaz-Roldán; Vicente Esteve
  12. Mining and Indonesia’s Economy: Institutions and Value Adding, 1870-2010 By Eng, Pierre van der
  13. On the Cambridge, England, Critique of the Marginal Productivity Theory of Distribution By Geoff C. Harcourt
  14. What You Should Know About Megaprojects, and Why: An Overview By Bent Flyvbjerg
  15. The Life and Work Of Martin Stuart (“Marty”) Feldstein By Charles Yuji Horioka
  16. Economic Policy in South Africa: Past Present and Future By Haroon Bhorat; Alan Hirsch; Ravi Kanbur; Mthuli Ncube
  1. By: Nicola Giocoli
    Abstract: It is impossible to tell the history of American antitrust law and economics during the so-called formative era (1890- 1915) without a preliminary understanding of the economic rationale underlying that major phase of American constitutional law commonly called laissez faire constitutionalism, or Lochner era. The essay is a preliminary effort to locate such a rationale in the almost perfect overlap between classical political economy, especially the notion of competition as the supreme organizing principle of thriving societies, and classical liberalism, in particular the notion of liberty of contract. It is argued that the well-known Progressive interpretation of the Lochner era fails to recognize the true meaning and extent of this overlap. The protagonists of our story are economists Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill and Francis Wayland, and Supreme Court Justices James Wilson, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Rufus Peckham.
    Date: 2014–06–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:thk:rnotes:42&r=his
  2. By: Frederic Teulon
    Abstract: James Tobin est un éminent économiste américain membre du coutant de pensée keynésien. Il a reçu le prix Nobel en 1981 pour sa contribution à l'analyse des marchés financiers et de leurs incidences sur la dépense, l'emploi, la production et les prix. Sa carrière universitaire a été marquée par la publication de son article de 1958 qui a été le point de départ des développements relatifs à la théorie du choix de portefeuille (arbitrage entre rendement et risque).
    Keywords: Choix de portefeuille, James Tobin, Monnaie.
    Date: 2014–09–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipg:wpaper:2014-571&r=his
  3. By: Frederic Teulon
    Abstract: Daniel Kahneman est un psychologue et économiste américain, spécialiste de l’étude des comportements en situation d’incertitude. Il a conduit ses principaux travaux avec Amos Tversky. Il a reçu le prix Nobel d’économie 2002. Les deux articles fondateurs de Kahneman et Tversky (1974 et 1979) ont donné à la psychologie économique expérimentale ses lettres de noblesse.
    Keywords: Bien-être (évaluation du), Choix (théorie des), Daniel Kahneman, Economie expérimentale, Incertitude, Prospect theory, Psychologie économique, Rationalité limitée.
    Date: 2014–09–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipg:wpaper:2014-572&r=his
  4. By: Frederic Teulon
    Abstract: George Stigler est un économiste américain membre de l’école de Chicago, connu pour ses prises de position en faveur de la déréglementation et du libre fonctionnement des marchés. Il a reçu le prix Nobel en 1982 pour sa contribution à la théorie de l'économie de marché et de la prise de décision dans un contexte d'information imparfaite, et à l'étude de l'influence des économies d'échelle sur la dimension des firmes. Stigler a essayé de rapprocher la théorie économique de la gestion des firmes.
    Keywords: Chicago (école de), Concurrence, Déréglementation, George Stigler, Groupes de pression, Libéralisme, Public choice, Théorie de l’information.
    Date: 2014–09–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipg:wpaper:2014-570&r=his
  5. By: Sofia Teives HENRIQUES (Department of Business and Economics, University of Southern Denmark); Karol Jan BOROWIECKI (Department of Business and Economics, University of Southern Denmark; Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin)
    Abstract: Fossil-fuel-related carbon dioxide emissions have risen dramatically since 1800. We identify the long-run drivers of CO2 emissions for a sample of twelve developed economies using an extended Kaya decomposition. By considering biomass and carbon-free energy sources along with fossil fuels we are able to shed light on the effects of past and present energy transitions on CO2 emissions. We find that at low levels of income per capita, fuel switching from biomass to fossil fuels is the main contributing factor to emission growth. Scale effects, especially income effects, become the most important emission drivers at higher levels of income and also dominate the overall long-run change. Technological change is the main offsetting factor. Particularly in the last decades, technological change and fuel switching have become important contributors to the decrease in emissions in Europe. Our results also individualize the different CO2 historical paths across parts of Europe, North America and Japan.
    Keywords: CO2 emissions, Kaya decomposition, Energy transition
    JEL: N70 O44 Q40 Q54 Q5
    Date: 2014–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcd:tcduee:tep0314&r=his
  6. By: Rémy Herrera (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne); Poeura Tetoe (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne)
    Abstract: After Papua New Guinea's society has been presented in a first part of this paper, the second part focuses on traditional land institutions and relationships to land - often considered to be "archaic". The third part exposes the process of lanf registration during the colonial and since the independence, in order to examine finally the modernity of peasant resistance forms in this country (fourth part).
    Keywords: Development; state; access to land; peasant societies; social conflicts
    Date: 2013–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00786274&r=his
  7. By: Rosario N. Mantegna
    Abstract: Sicily has played an important role in the development of the new research area named "Econophysics". In fact some key ideas supporting this new hybrid discipline were originally formulated in a pioneering work of the Sicilian born physicist Ettore Majorana. The article he wrote was entitled "The value of statistical laws in physics and social sciences". I will discuss its origin and history that has been recently discovered in the study of Stefano Roncoroni. This recent study documents the true reasons and motivations that triggered the pioneering work of Majorana. It also shows that the description of this work provided by Edoardo Amaldi was shallow and misleading. In the second part of the talk I will recollect the first years of development of econophysics and in particular the role of the "International Workshop on Econophysics and Statistical Finance" held in Palermo on 28-30 September 1998 and the setting in 1999 of the "Observatory of Complex Systems" the research group on Econophysics of Palermo University and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica della Materia.
    Date: 2014–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1409.0789&r=his
  8. By: Sng, Tuan-Hwee; Moriguchi, Chiaki
    Abstract: This paper explores the role of state capacity in the comparative economic development of China and Japan. Before 1850, both nations were ruled by stable dictators who relied on bureaucrats to govern their domains. We hypothesize that agency problems increase with the geographical size of a domain. In a large domain, the ruler's inability to closely monitor bureaucrats creates opportunities for the bureaucrats to exploit taxpayers. To prevent overexploitation, the ruler has to keep taxes low and government small. Our dynamic model shows that while economic expansion improves the ruler's finances in a small domain, it could lead to lower tax revenues in a large domain as it exacerbates bureaucratic expropriation. To test these implications, we assemble comparable quantitative data from primary and secondary sources. We find that the state taxed less and provided fewer local public goods per capita in China than in Japan. Furthermore, while the Tokugawa shogunate's tax revenue grew in tandem with demographic trends, Qing China underwent fiscal contraction after 1750 despite demographic expansion. We conjecture that a greater state capacity might have prepared Japan better for the transition from stagnation to growth.
    Keywords: Comparative Institutional Analysis, Geography, Principal-Agent Problem, Institutions and Growth
    JEL: D73 N15 N40 O43 P52
    Date: 2014–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:primdp:58&r=his
  9. By: K.Vela Velupillai
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trn:utwpas:1408&r=his
  10. By: Vries, Gaaitzen de; Timmer, Marcel; Vries, Klaas de (Groningen University)
    Abstract: This paper introduces the updated and extended Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC) 10-Sector database. The database includes annual time series of value added and persons employed for ten broad sectors of the economy from 1950 onwards. It now includes eleven countries in Asia (China has been added compared to the previous release), nine in Latin America and eleven in Sub-Saharan Africa. We use the GGDC 10-Sector database to document patterns of structural change in developing countries. We find that the expansion of manufacturing activities during the early post World War II period was related to a growth-enhancing reallocation of resources in most countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. This process of structural change stalled in many African and Latin American countries during the mid-1970s and 1980s. When growth rebounded in the 1990s, workers mainly relocated to market services industries, such as retail trade and distribution. Though such services have higher productivity than much of agriculture, they are not technologically dynamic and have been falling behind the world frontier.
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:rugggd:gd-149&r=his
  11. By: Oscar Bajo-Rubio; Carmen Díaz-Roldán; Vicente Esteve
    Abstract: In this paper, we provide a test of the sustainability of the Spanish government deficit over the period 1850-2000, emphasizing the role played by monetary and fiscal dominance in order to get fiscal solvency. Since the condition of fiscal solvency was satisfied, government deficit would have been sustainable along the sample period. In addition, the whole period can be characterized as one of fiscal dominance.
    Keywords: Fiscal policy, Sustainability, Fiscal Theory of the Price Level, Monetary dominance, Fiscal dominance.
    Date: 2014–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uae:wpaper:0914&r=his
  12. By: Eng, Pierre van der
    Abstract: Indonesia has long been a major producer of minerals for international markets. Starting in 2014, it implemented legislation banning exports of unprocessed minerals and requiring producers to invest in processing facilities to add more value before export. This paper establishes what light past experiences in Indonesia with mining sheds on this recent development. It quantifies and discusses the growth of mining production in Indonesia since 1870. It analyses the institutional arrangements that past governments used to maximise resource rents and domestic value adding. The paper finds that production and exports of mining commodities were long dominated by oil, but increased and diversified over time, particularly since the 1960s. The development of the mining sector depended on changes in market prices, mining technologies and the cost of production, but particularly on the institutional arrangements that guided the decisions of foreign investors to commit to mining production and processing in Indonesia.
    Keywords: natural resources, mining sector, Indonesia, resource rents
    JEL: L71 L72 L78 N55 O13 Q32
    Date: 2014–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:primdp:57&r=his
  13. By: Geoff C. Harcourt (School of Economics, Australian School of Business, the University of New South Wales)
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:swe:wpaper:2014-37&r=his
  14. By: Bent Flyvbjerg
    Abstract: This paper takes stock of megaproject management, an emerging and hugely costly field of study. First, it answers the question of how large megaprojects are by measuring them in the units mega, giga, and tera, concluding we are presently entering a new "tera era" of trillion-dollar projects. Second, total global megaproject spending is assessed, at USD 6-9 trillion annually, or 8 percent of total global GDP, which denotes the biggest investment boom in human history. Third, four "sublimes" - political, technological, economic, and aesthetic - are identified to explain the increased size and frequency of megaprojects. Fourth, the "iron law of megaprojects" is laid out and documented: Over budget, over time, over and over again. Moreover, the "break-fix model" of megaproject management is introduced as an explanation of the iron law. Fifth, Albert O. Hirschman's theory of the Hiding Hand is revisited and critiqued as unfounded and corrupting for megaproject thinking in both the academy and policy. Sixth, it is shown how megaprojects are systematically subject to "survival of the unfittest," explaining why the worst projects get built instead of the best. Finally, it is argued that the conventional way of managing megaprojects has reached a "tension point," where tradition is challenged and reform is emerging.
    Date: 2014–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1409.0003&r=his
  15. By: Charles Yuji Horioka (School of Economics, University of the Philippines Diliman)
    Abstract: Martin Stuart (“Marty”) Feldstein, currently George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University and President Emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. (NBER), is a renowned American economist who has made important contributions to public finance, macroeconomics, social insurance, health economics, the economics of national security, and many other fields of economics.
    Keywords: Capital accumulation, capital flows, capital gains, capital mobility, charitable contributions, Council of Economic Advisers, depreciation, Feldstein-Horioka paradox, Feldstein-Horioka puzzle, Harvard University, health economics, health insurance
    JEL: B31 D14 D22 F21 F32 F52 H20 H55 I13 J65
    Date: 2014–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phs:dpaper:201410&r=his
  16. By: Haroon Bhorat; Alan Hirsch; Ravi Kanbur; Mthuli Ncube (Development Policy Research Unit; Director and Professor)
    Abstract: As the 20th anniversary of the transition to democracy approaches in 2014, the economic policy debates in South Africa are in full flow. The forthcoming Oxford Companion to the Economics of South Africa contributes to the policy and analytical debate by drawing together perspectives on a range of issues – micro, macro, sectoral, country wide and global – from leading economists working on South Africa.
    Keywords: South Africa, Economic Growth, Macroeconomic Policy, Structural Transformation, Poverty, Inequality, Unemployment, Public Services
    JEL: E60 F50 I30 J30 J40 J50 O10
    Date: 2014–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctw:wpaper:201401&r=his
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