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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2016‒04‒16
38 papers chosen by |
| By: | Geoffrey T. F Brooke (School of Economics, Auckland University of Technology, NZ); Anthony M. Endres (School of Economics, Auckland University of Technology, NZ); Alan J. Rogers (Department of Economics, Faculty of Business and Law, Auckland University of Technology) |
| Abstract: | We examine the history of economic thought on trade policy in New Zealand from the 1920s to the early 1980s. The focus is upon the different doctrinal perspectives taken by academic economists in New Zealand. Throughout the period under review policymakers supported an inward-looking trade and development regime buttressed by extensive interventionist trade policy. Appeals to the employment argument for industrialization through import substitution lent their policies a veneer of economic respectability. Most economists were not persuaded; they railed against quantitative import controls, discriminatory tariffs and cumbersome export incentive schemes and they offered, in vain, some constructive alternatives relying on price signals rather than administrative rules. One of our main findings is that most of the early work exposited here anticipated the rent seeking explanation for the configuration of trade policy. |
| Keywords: | Trade Policy, Industrial Policy, Economic Thought, Rent Seeking |
| JEL: | B20 F13 N77 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aut:wpaper:201508&r=his |
| By: | Fishback, Price (University of Arizona) |
| Abstract: | The New Deal during the 1930s was arguably the largest peace-time expansion in federal government activity in American history. Until recently there had been very little quantitative testing of the microeconomic impact of the wide variety of New Deal programs. Over the past decade scholars have developed new panel databases for counties, cities, and states and then used panel data methods on them to examine the examine the impact of New Deal spending and lending policies for the major New Deal programs. In most cases the identification of the effect comes from changes across time within the same geographic location after controlling for national shocks to the economy. Many of the studies also use instrumental variable methods to control for endogeneity. The studies find that public works and relief spending had state income multipliers of around one, increased consumption activity, attracted internal migration, reduced crime rates, and lowered several types of mortality. The farm programs typically aided large farm owners but eliminated opportunities for share croppers, tenants, and farm workers. The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation’s purchases and refinancing of troubled mortgages staved off drops in housing prices and home ownership rates at relatively low ex post cost to taxpayers. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation’s loans to banks and railroads appear to have had little positive impact,although the banks were aided when the RFC took ownership stakes. |
| Keywords: | JEL Classification: |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:274&r=his |
| By: | Ernesto López Losa (Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Spain); Santiago Piquero Zarauz |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is twofold. First, to present a new estimation of real wages for Early Modern Spain with regard to a subsistence line -understood as a theoretical minimum of consumption necessary to meet basic human needs and to sustain an active life. Second, to contribute, with new evidence, to the debate on the economic divergence before the Industrial Revolution. In broad terms, our results describe a general picture of low real wages in Spain in the long run, although there are regional variations in levels and timings that challenge previous perceptions, particularly in the case of urban Castile. In terms of international comparisons, our data suggests different chronologies and magnitudes of the Spanish divergence. As we attempt to demonstrate, two issues conditioned the dimension of the gap on real wages between Spain and the European North-Western core, as displayed in the recent literature. The first is related to the available Spanish evidence; the second deals with some methodological choices in the composition of the subsistence baskets –namely, the “oatmeal effect’. The question we discuss here is whether the Spanish Little Divergence was as great and early as it has been suggested; or, turning it around, whether the European North-west was, in respect of real wages, so exceptional before 1800. Calculations will show that the divergence did not appear clearly until the early 18th century, and that North-western European real wages for labourers were not that far from the bare subsistence line as they appeared to be. Our paper provides some different responses to the issue of the timing of the Spanish divergence and questions the conventional wisdom on its magnitude. |
| Keywords: | Early Modern Europe, Little Divergence, real wages, subsistence ratios, history of wages and prices. |
| JEL: | N01 N30 N33 E32 J31 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1607&r=his |
| By: | Orsola Costantini (Institute for New Economic Thinking) |
| Abstract: | This paper traces the evolution of the concept of the cyclically adjusted budget from the 1930s to the present. The idea of balancing the budget over the cycle was first conceived in Sweden in the 1930s by the economists of the Stockholm School and was soon reinterpreted and incorporated into the fiscal program of the American political coalition supporting the New Deal, especially by the Committee for Economic Development during and after World War II. In the 1960s, Keynesian economists associated with the Kennedy and Johnson administrations reformulated the notion. Despite their claims at the time, their version differed only in degree from the earlier CED approach, the transformation being largely conditioned by changing political circumstances. In the 1980s, however, the concept changed substantially. Methods for calculating it transformed dramatically, as the notion became a device to limit and direct governments' fiscal policies in a wide sense, that is, including institutional (or “structural†) reforms. The final section of the paper considers the shifting uses of the notion in the European Growth and Stability Pact. |
| Keywords: | Macroeconomics, Fiscal policy, Cyclically Adjusted Budget, EU, Keynesian Economics, History of Economic Thought, Economic History |
| JEL: | B2 C1 E12 E13 E62 H62 H68 N1 N12 N14 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:thk:wpaper:24&r=his |
| By: | Edgardo Zablotsky |
| Abstract: | The philanthropic activity of Baron de Hirsch was clearly marked by one characteristic: not providing charity but attempting the economic rehabilitation of the beneficiaries. Hirsch systematically suggests that education and professional training were the only way to break the vicious circle of poverty. For instance, for more than a decade Baron de Hirch spent his time and money in the economic rehabilitation of his coreligionists, both in the Ottoman Empire and in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, through education and professional training. In 1891, after discarding the possibility of improving the quality of life of Jews in the Russian Empire through the establishment of an educational system, similar to what was done in other societies, Hirsch founded the Jewish Colonization Association (J.C.A.) through which he would manage the immigration of thousands of people to Argentina and their settlement in agricultural colonies. The original rules of the J.C.A. gave Hirsch full control over the activities of the Association; therefore, this paper hypothesized that the educational actions of the Jewish Colonization Association in the colonies should have been all consistent with Hirsch’s vision on education. The evidence presented clearly supports this hypothesis. |
| Keywords: | Barón Maurice de Hirsch, Jewish Colonization Association, education |
| JEL: | D64 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cem:doctra:585&r=his |
| By: | de la Croix, David (Université catholique de Louvain); Doepke, Matthias (Northwestern University); Mokyr, Joel (Northwestern University) |
| Abstract: | In the centuries leading up to the Industrial Revolution, Western Europe gradually pulled ahead of other world regions in terms of technological creativity, population growth, and income per capita. We argue that superior institutions for the creation and dissemination of productive knowledge help explain the European advantage. We build a model of technological progress in a pre-industrial economy that emphasizes the person-to-person transmission of tacit knowledge. The young learn as apprentices from the old. Institutions such as the family, the clan, the guild, and the market organize who learns from whom. We argue that medieval European institutions such as guilds, and specific features such as journeymanship, can explain the rise of Europe relative to regions that relied on the transmission of knowledge within extended families or clans. |
| Keywords: | dissemination of knowledge, guilds, clans, apprenticeship |
| JEL: | E02 J24 N10 N30 O33 O43 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9828&r=his |
| By: | Jun, Bogang; Gerybadze, Alexander; Kim, Tai-Yoo |
| Abstract: | This study revisits the theory of Friedrich List from a more comprehensive and modernized perspective and applies it to the Korean history of industrialization. Although List is well known as the scholar who insisted on the protection of infant industry, his argument on protectionism is a part of the broader picture depicted in his book The National System of Political Economy (1841). This study follows his theoretical legacy in various fields of study. Although we can find his theoretical influence in several fields of research such as the national innovation system, concept of national competitiveness, and theory of developmental state, these studies fail to embrace all the arguments of List. Additionally, theses models focus more heavily on the explanation of historical and regional development phenomena without providing general principles of economic development behind the phenomena. This study therefore aims to suggest the expansive reproduction system as a generalized and modernized version of List's theory and to show its example by using the Korean history of industrialization. Consequently, we argue that the economic development of Korea has been achieved by putting the theory of List into practice. |
| Keywords: | Friedrich List,Economic Development,Korean Economic History,Economic Policy |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hohdps:022016&r=his |
| By: | Michael D. Bordo; Christopher M. Meissner |
| Abstract: | Interconnections between banking crises and fiscal crises have a long history. We document the long-run evolution from classic banking panics towards modern banking crises where financial guarantees are associated with crisis resolution. Recent crises feature a feedback loop between bank guarantees and bank holdings of local sovereign debt thereby linking financial to fiscal crises. Earlier examples include the crises in Chile (early 1980s), Japan (1990), Sweden and Finland (1991), and the Asian crisis (1997). We discuss the evolution in economic theorizing on crises since the 1950s, and then provide an overview of the long-run evolution of connections between different types of crises. Next we explore the empirics of financial crises. We discuss the methodological issue of crisis measurement encompassing the definition, dating, and incidence of financial crises. Leading data sets differ markedly in terms of their historical frequency of crises leading to classification uncertainty. There is a range of estimates of output losses from financial crises in the literature, and these are also dependent upon definitions. We find economically significant output losses from various types of crises using a consistent methodology across time and data sets. Predicting crises also remains a challenge. We survey the Early Warnings Indicators literature finding that a broad range of variables are potential predictors. Credit booms have been emphasized recently, but other factors still matter. Finally, we identify a new policy trilemma. Countries can have two of the following three choices: a large financial sector, fiscal bailouts devoted to financial crises, and discretionary fiscal policy aimed at raising demand during the recessions induced by financial crises. |
| JEL: | E62 G01 N1 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22059&r=his |
| By: | Ehrl, Philipp; Monteiro Monasterio, Leonardo |
| Abstract: | We exploit differences in the spatial distribution of industrial and liberal occupations in the years 1872 and 1920 to instrument for today's concentration of interpersonal and analytical skills in Brazil. The data suggest that the local supply of knowledge and manufacturing provided by these historical trades favored a growth path that has shaped the occupational structure until the present day, whereby the existence of a large local consumer market was a necessary condition for this development. By means of these instruments, we present causal evidence that the regional concentration of interpersonal and analytical skills generates positive wage externalities. Particularly university graduates and workers without formal education benefit most from these agglomeration economies. |
| Keywords: | agglomeration economies, skills, long-run industrial development, Brazil |
| JEL: | C26 J31 N16 R12 |
| Date: | 2016–04–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:69829&r=his |
| By: | BASSINO, Jean-Pascal; BATEN, Joerg |
| Abstract: | Does the shift from subsistence agriculture to a specialization in cash-crop production affect human capital? We assess the influence of the rapid expansion of the cultivation of cash crops for export in the mid and late 19th century Philippines, with a focus on the increase or decline of basic numeracy. Based on the historiography, we expect the expansion of cash crops (in 19th century Philippines, mostly abacá, sugar, and tobacco) to have a negative effect on human capital of the majority of the population during the first phase. To test this hypothesis, we mobilize a new and large data set based on age statements from parish records, which includes 228,853 underlying observations. This is the first long term quantitative study on numeracy in a Southeast Asian country. We aggregate the individual observations by 41 provinces and the birth decades from the 1800s to the 1930s in order to obtain a large and informative panel (panel observations based on less than 50 underlying age statements are dropped). This allows us to compare regional levels of numeracy before, during, and after the introduction of the three main cash crops. |
| Keywords: | cash crops, human capital, numeracy, age heaping, Philippines, sugar, abaca |
| JEL: | I25 N3 N5 O13 O53 |
| Date: | 2016–03–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hiasdp:hias-e-22&r=his |
| By: | Carlo Maccheroni (Department of Economics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino, Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a comparative analysis of results provided by the “human actuarial senescence†and by those of the demographic approach in relation to mortality in old age. In particular we will examine a case which has previously been recorded, but not with regards to Italy. It deals in particular with the cohorts born between 1889 and 1900; the men involved therefore, took part directly in the first world war whilst the women experienced the harsh conditions of life during those years. |
| Keywords: | First World War, Mortality, Actuarial senescence, Birth-cohort life tables, Demography. |
| JEL: | N4 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tur:wpapnw:036&r=his |
| By: | Oriana Bandiera; Myra Mohnen; Imran Rasul; Martina Viarengo |
| Abstract: | By the mid-19th century, America was the best educated nation on Earth: significant financial investments in education were being undertaken and the majority of children voluntarily attended public schools. So why did US states start introducing compulsory schooling laws at this point in time? We provide qualitative and quantitative evidence that compulsory schooling laws were used as a nation-building tool to homogenize the civic values held by the tens of millions of culturally diverse migrants who moved to America during the 'Age of Mass Migration'. Our central finding is that the adoption of compulsory schooling by American-born median voters occurs significantly earlier in time in states that host many migrants who had lower exposure to civic values in their home countries and had lower demand for common schooling when in the US. By providing micro-foundations for such laws, our study highlights an important link between mass migration and institutional change, where changes are driven by the policy choices of native median-voters in the receiving country rather than migrant settlers themselves |
| JEL: | D02 F22 I28 O15 P16 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:stieop:057&r=his |
| By: | Yoshihara, Naoki (Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst) |
| Abstract: | This report explores the development of exploitation theory in mathematical Marxian economics by reviewing the main controversies surrounding the proper definition of exploitation since the contribution of Okishio(1963). The report first examines the debates on the Fundamental Marxian Theorem and Class-Exploitation Correspondence Principle, developed mainly in the 1970s and 1980s, followed by the property relation theory of exploitation by Roemer (1982). Then, the more recent exploitation theory proposed by Vrousalis (2013) and Wright (2000) is introduced. Finally, the report introduces and comments on recent axiomatic studies of exploitation by focusing on the work of Veneziani and Yoshihara (2015a). |
| Keywords: | Proper Definitions of UE Exploitation, Property Relations Definition of Exploitation, Profit-Exploitation Correspondence Principle. |
| JEL: | D63 D51 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ums:papers:2016-06&r=his |
| By: | Mark A Carlson; Jonathan Rose |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the run on Continental Illinois in 1984. We find that the run slowed but did not stop following an extraordinary government intervention, which included the guarantee of all liabilities of the bank and a commitment to provide ongoing liquidity support. Continental's outflows were driven by a broad set of US and foreign financial institutions. These were large, sophisticated creditors with holdings far in excess of the insurance limit. During the initial run, creditors with relatively liquid balance sheets nevertheless withdrew more than other creditors, likely reflecting low tolerance to hold illiquid assets. In addition, smaller and moredistant creditors were more likely to withdraw. In the second and more drawn out phase of the run, institutions with relative large exposures to Continental were more likely to withdraw, reflecting a general unwillingness to have an outsized exposure to a troubled institution even in the absence of credit risk. Finally, we show that the concentration of holdings of Continental's liabilities was a key dynamic in the run and was importantly linked to Continental's systemic importance. |
| Keywords: | bank runs, deposit insurance, deposit guarantee, financial crisis |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bis:biswps:554&r=his |
| By: | Timothy Besley; Marta Reynal-Querol |
| Abstract: | This article exploits variation between and within countries to examine the legacy of recorded conflicts in Africa in the precolonial period between 1400 and 1700. There are three main findings. First, we show that historical conflict is correlated with a greater prevalence of postcolonial conflict. Second, historical conflict is correlated with lower levels of trust, a stronger sense of ethnic identity, and a weaker sense of national identity across countries. Third, historical conflict is negatively correlated with subsequent patterns of development looking at the pattern across grid cells within countries. |
| Keywords: | conflict; trust; identity |
| JEL: | N47 O55 |
| Date: | 2014–05–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:57125&r=his |
| By: | Jason Long; Henry E. Siu |
| Abstract: | We construct longitudinal data from the U.S. Census records to study migration patterns of those affected by the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Our focus is on the famous "Okie" migration of the Southern Great Plains. We find that migration rates were much higher in the Dust Bowl than elsewhere in the U.S. This difference is due to the fact that individuals who were typically unlikely to move (e.g., those with young children, those living in their birth state) were equally likely to move in the Dust Bowl. While this result of elevated mobility conforms to long-standing perceptions of the Dust Bowl, our other principal findings contradict conventional wisdom. First, relative to other occupations, farmers in the Dust Bowl were the least likely to move; this relationship between mobility and occupation was unique to that region. Second, out-migration rates from the Dust Bowl region were only slightly higher than they were in the 1920s. Hence, the depopulation of the Dust Bowl was due largely to a sharp drop in migration inflows. Dust Bowl migrants were no more likely to move to California than migrants from other parts of the U.S., or those from the same region ten years prior. In this sense, the westward push from the Dust Bowl to California was unexceptional. Finally, migration from the Dust Bowl was not associated with long-lasting negative labor market effects, and for farmers, the effects were positive. |
| JEL: | J61 J62 N12 N32 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22108&r=his |
| By: | Kozo Kiyota; Tetsuji Okazaki |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a systematic analysis of the effects of the industrial policy change in the 1960s in Japan. We utilize a panel of 227 manufacturing industries between 1960 and 1969. We find that on the one hand, the removal of de facto import quotas had significantly negative effects on real output, real output per establishment, and employment. On the other hand, for those industries where import quotas were removed, tariff protection was effective in maintaining real output and employment. However, this does not necessarily mean the success of industrial policy change because neither tariff protection nor the removal of quotas contributed to productivity growth. In that sense, the industrial policy change had limited effects. |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cnn:wpaper:16-004e&r=his |
| By: | Pierre DELFAUD |
| Abstract: | Now that agricultural surpluses, after the removal of quantitative restrictions put into effect thirty years ago, are beginning to reappear, it is an opportune moment to revisit the history of the Common Agricultural Policy. This policy in effect constituted a unique experiment which can only be understood, as in any policy of intervention in market economies, through the combination of three concepts: economic rationality, social acceptability and institutional capability. This can be verified throughout the sixty years of the CAP’s existence, from its formulation (1955-1962) to its establishment with successive readjustments (1962-1992) through to the gradual dismantling (1992-2015). We are thus faced with two models: firstly the policy of price regulation, secondly competition policy compensation. |
| Keywords: | History of Europe, agricultural policy, interventionism, price regulation, competition policy |
| JEL: | N54 Q13 Q18 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2016-09&r=his |
| By: | Alessandro Nuvolari; Pier Angelo Toninelli; MIchelangelo Vasta |
| Abstract: | in this paper we employ a “quantitative” prosopographical approach to study the nature and the determinants of entrepreneurial success. Our main source is the “Biographical Dictionary of Italian Entrepreneurs” which contains very detailed information on 608 major Italian entrepreneurs active over more than two centuries. Our findings indicate the multidimensional nature of entrepreneurial success, comprising both a strictly economic and a “celebrity” dimension. Concerning the determinants of success, our findings point to the “political” nature of Italian capitalism. |
| JEL: | N73 N74 N83 N84 L26 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:727&r=his |
| By: | Tsoulfidis, Lefteris |
| Abstract: | On the methodological plain, this paper outlines the conditions that contribute to the development of economic theories and it continues with an examination of the concrete circumstances that gave rise to modern neoclassical macroeconomic theories. The paper further claims that the current impasse in macroeconomics is indicative of the need for new directions in economic theory which becomes imperative in the long economic downturn that started in 2007 and concludes by suggesting the need for a synthesis between the classical analysis and the theory of effective demand. |
| Keywords: | classical approach, neoclassical theory, theory of value, effective demand, paradigm change. |
| JEL: | B10 B12 B13 B22 B41 |
| Date: | 2010–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:70004&r=his |
| By: | Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira; Fernando Rugitsky |
| Abstract: | The aim of the present paper is to put in historical perspective the development thinking on the relationship between industrial and exchange rate policies. The first section focuses on the thought of the so-called pioneers of development economics, specifically their preference for protectionism and their belated recognition that an exchange-rate policy could act as a substitute to it. In the second one, we analyze the exchange rate skepticism that arises out of the theories that identify a foreign constraint to growth, in addition to the one revealed by the pioneers. The third section briefly complements the previous discussion with reference to macroeconomic formulations that allow for short-run contractionary effects of a devaluation, reinforcing the skepticism in question. In the fourth section, we discuss the revival of development thinking in the 1980s and its discussion about East Asian trajectories, a literature that placed great emphasis on industrial policy. Finally, in the fifth section we discuss the new historical facts and the new development macroeconomics’ models that are putting an end to exchange rate skepticism. |
| Keywords: | exchange rate; industrial policy; protectionism; East Asian countries. |
| JEL: | B20 O24 O25 |
| Date: | 2016–03–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spa:wpaper:2016wpecon8&r=his |
| By: | Elena Zemskova (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The article addresses a literary biography of Alexander Ilyich Romm (1893 – 1943), philologist, poet and translator, focusing on the last years of Romm’s life when he had been an active member of the Translators Section of the Union of Soviet Writers, involved in producing translations of politically committed poetry both from foreign languages and from national languages of the Soviet Union. Drawing upon Andre Lefevere’s idea of translation as rewriting and manipulation, the article takes a close look at the process of production and stylization of such translations. Surviving archival documents, including Romm’s diaries, offer a glimpse of how harrowing for him was an experience of depersonalization translators were subjected to in the Soviet literary system |
| Keywords: | literary translation, Soviet Literature, Soviet Writers Union, Alexander Romm |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:15/ls/2015&r=his |
| By: | Jon Danielsson; Marcela Valenzuela; Ilknur Zer |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of volatility on the probability of financial crises by constructing a cross-country database spanning 211 years. We find that volatility is not a significant predictor of crises whereas unexpected high and low volatilities are. Low volatility leads to banking crises and both high and low volatilities make stock market crises more likely, while volatility in any form has little impact on currency crises. The volatility-crisis relationship becomes stronger when financial markets are more prominent and less regulated. Finally, low-risk environments are conducive to greater buildup of risk-taking, providing empirical support for the Minsky hypothesis. |
| Keywords: | Stock market volatility; financial crises predictability; volatility paradox; minsky hypothesis; financial instability; risk taking |
| JEL: | J1 F3 G3 |
| Date: | 2016–02–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:66046&r=his |
| By: | Lee J. Alston; Marcus André Melo; Bernardo Mueller; Carlos Pereira |
| Abstract: | Critical transitions for a country are historical periods when the powerful organizations in a country shift from one set of beliefs about how institutions (the formal and informal rules of the game) will affect outcomes to a new set of beliefs. Critical transitions can lead a country toward more openness politically and economically or toward a more exclusionary society. Economic and political development is contextual; that is, there is no recipe. Periods of relative persistence are the norm with changes in institutions at the margin. We develop a framework consisting of several interconnected relatively unexplored concepts that we first define in a static context and then utilize to show how they produce a dynamic of institutional change or persistence. The key concepts include: windows of opportunity, beliefs, and leadership. Our major contribution is wedding the concepts of windows of opportunity, beliefs, and leadership to the dominant network, institutions, and economic and political outcomes to form a dynamic. We apply the framework illustratively to understand economic and political development in Argentina over the past 100 years. |
| JEL: | N4 O10 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22144&r=his |
| By: | Makino, Kumiko |
| Abstract: | International and transnational solidarity is being increasingly recognized as an indispensable part in the recent historiography on the liberation struggle in Southern Africa. Yet the literature has mostly focused on anti-apartheid movements in the West, and anti-apartheid movements in Asia have attracted little attention. Focusing on the Japanese citizens' movement (shimin undo) against apartheid, which loosely coalesced into the Japan Anti-Apartheid Committee (JAAC), this paper looks into how the issue of 'honorary white' was brought into the early period of the anti-apartheid movement in Japan, and how the framing discourses of the movement was developed around the issue. |
| Keywords: | South Africa, Japan, Apartheid, Foreign relations, People's movement, Anti-apartheid, Honorary white, International solidarity |
| JEL: | F50 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper575&r=his |
| By: | Jan Brzozowski (Università Politecnica delle Marche, MoFiR); Marco Cucculelli (Università Politecnica delle Marche, MoFiR) |
| Abstract: | The recent economic crisis has revived the interest on the reactions to the recession pursued by the entrepreneurs. Understanding how to act in troubled times becomes an asset which is vital for the firm survival, and to the future competitive advantage after the economic recovery. This papers reviews the state of the art on the firms. reaction to economic crisis and on the firms. ability to learn from previous events. The study aims at identifying the main trends and findings in this research field. Based on the Scopus and Web of Science indexes, the systematic review of the literature is carried out on the sample of 38 papers, by investigating the objectives, geographical coverage, methodologies and results. Consequently, most important gaps in knowledge on the learning from crisis research have been identified and most promising topics are described. |
| Keywords: | organizational learning; crisis; economic recession |
| JEL: | D83 L22 L25 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wmofir:123&r=his |
| By: | Gong, Huiwen (Dept. of Geography, Kiel University); Hassink, Robert (Dept. of Geography, Kiel University) |
| Abstract: | The objective of this review paper is twofold: First, to review and synthesize the literature on the geographies of creative industries embedded in modern paradigms of economic geography; secondly, to reflect upon and identify a promising research agenda on the drivers of the geographical patterns of creative industries. Several deficiencies of current research are identified in this paper, and based on these deficiencies, we suggest some promising avenues for future research. In particular, we develop a comprehensive framework that goes beyond the analysis of individual drivers of the geographies of creative industries. |
| Keywords: | creative industries; geographical patterns; agglomeration economies; routine replication; institutional environment |
| JEL: | B52 L82 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2016–03–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2016_009&r=his |
| By: | ,; Diewert, W. Erwin; Fox, Kevin J. |
| Abstract: | In this paper, Fox interviews Diewert on his academic career. His contributions to the development of flexible functional forms, superlative index numbers, the difference approach to index number theory, the measurement of waste, the user cost of capital, the measurement of Total Factor Productivity, the use of generalized concavity in economics, the measurement of financial sector outputs and inputs and the comparative statics of maximizing behavior are covered. His work on the development of international manuals on the Consumer Price Index, the Producer Price Index, on Property Prices and on the International Comparison of Prices is also noted. His pioneering work on the nonparametric of preferences and of technologies is also mentioned. |
| Keywords: | Flexible functional forms, superlative index numbers, measurement of waste, user cost of capital, Total Factor Productivity measurement, generalized c |
| JEL: | C23 C43 C51 C61 D12 D24 D90 E01 E31 E41 |
| Date: | 2016–04–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:pmicro:erwin_diewert-2016-6&r=his |
| By: | Cédric Poivret (IRG - Institut de Recherche en Gestion - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - UPEC UP12 - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12) |
| Abstract: | Il s'agit ici du cours que j'ai la chance d'assurer depuis le mois de septembre 2015 à l'Université de Marne La Vallée, pour les Licence 3. Cet enseignement m'a permis de jeter les bases de mon programme de recherche pour les prochaines années, programme qui consiste à montrer l'emergence progressive de la gestion comme domaine de savoir depuis l'invention de l'imprimerie, et ce en France. Ce cours se distingue grandement des traditionnels cours de théorie de organisation, entre autre raison car il se centre clairement sur un espace géographie précis, la France, et refuse l'hypothèse, implicite en théorie des organisations, de la naissance de la gestion avec Taylor et Fayol : les deux premiers cours sont ainsi consacrés à la pensée sous l'ancien régime et au XIXième siècle, montrant qu'il existait quelque chose avant Taylor et Fayol.... même si le troisième cours montrera le poids important de ces fondateurs, tout en charchant à les remettre dans le contexte qui les a vu naître, à savoir la second révolution industrielle. |
| Keywords: | Adolphe Guilbault , Frederick Taylor, jacques Savary,Histoire de la pensée managériale, Henri Fayol, Jean Gustave Courcelle-Seneuil |
| Date: | 2015–09–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:cel-01267486&r=his |
| By: | Taylor Jaworski; Carl T. Kitchens |
| Abstract: | How effective are policies aimed at integrating isolated regions? We answer this question using the construction of a highway system in one of the poorest regions in the United States. With construction starting in 1965, the Appalachian Development Highway System (ADHS) ultimately consisted of over 2,500 high-grade road miles. Motivated by a model of inter-regional trade we estimate the elasticity of total income with respect to market access, which we then use to evaluate the overall impact of the ADHS. We find that removing the ADHS would have reduced the total income by $45.9 billion or, roughly, 1 percent. Ultimately, the population response to improvements in transportation infrastructure reduced the gains in income per capita, which were equal to $515 (1.4 percent) in the poorest counties. Today, the region's performance relative to the national average is similar to its position in the 1960s. Thus, despite substantial investment in transportation and some gains in income per capita the region continues to lag behind the rest of the country. |
| JEL: | N12 O18 O2 R13 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22073&r=his |
| By: | George, Justine |
| Abstract: | Methodological understanding of the theory is as important as the theory itself, and must show the relationship between theoretical concepts used in the study and its expected conclusions. Measuring scientificity of each theory and then to categorie on the basis of its relative merit often difficult given available theories are concerned. However, theoretical contributions of Thomas Kuhn, Karl Popper and then Imre Lakatos are best to develop a framework to evaluate the progress of social science research. |
| Keywords: | Theory |
| JEL: | B40 B41 |
| Date: | 2016–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:70513&r=his |
| By: | Morone, Andrea; Nuzzo, Simone |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at providing both non-specialist and specialist readers with an overview of the several topics that have been addressed in the field of experimental asset markets. Rather than being exhaustive in any single topic, this review is meant to gather the several research strands and to provide a powerful picture of the main advances on the use of experimental techniques for the study of financial markets. |
| Keywords: | Experimental Asset Markets |
| JEL: | C9 G10 |
| Date: | 2016–04–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:70461&r=his |
| By: | Fernandez-Villaverde, Jesus |
| Abstract: | This paper surveys the legal tradition that links Magna Carta with the modern concepts of the rule of law and the limits on government. It documents that the original understanding of the rule of law included substantive commitments to individual freedom and limited government. Then, it attempts at explaining how and why such commitments were lost to a formalist interpretation of the rule of law from 1848 to 1939. The paper concludes by arguing how a revival of the substantive commitments of the rule of law is central in a project of reshaping modern states. |
| Keywords: | Rule of Law, Magna Carta, Legal Theory, Limited Government. |
| JEL: | D78 K10 N43 N73 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:69862&r=his |
| By: | Jöns, Torben; Kuckailyte, Justina; Regenhardt, Jutta; Richter, Nicole Franziska |
| Abstract: | Seit mehr als 50 Jahren entwickelt und vertreibt das Hamburger Familienunternehmen Holger Clasen hochwertige, industrielle Werkzeuglösungen in den Sparten Druckluft, Hydraulik und Elektrotechnik. Der funktionale Grundnutzen der qualitativ hochwertigen Produkte reicht im heutigen B2B-Umfeld nicht mehr aus, um sich in einem verschärften Wettbewerbsumfeld zu differenzieren und damit langfristig zu behaupten. Um sich am Markt erfolgreich zu positionieren, wächst im Unternehmen die Notwendigkeit, ein Markenmanagement zu integrieren. Dieses Arbeitspapier zeigt am Beispiel von Holger Clasen, wie kleine und mittelständische Unternehmen in ein - aus heutiger Sicht auch im B2B-Umfeld zunehmend wichtiger werdendes - Markenmanagement einsteigen können. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:nordwp:201607&r=his |
| By: | Ramez Badeed; Hooi Hooi Lean; Jeremy Clark (University of Canterbury) |
| Abstract: | This paper surveys the literature of the natural resource curse hypothesis. We review the theoretical mechanisms through which natural resource wealth might slow economic growth, and then the empirical studies that test for an effect overall, or an effect on factors typically associated with economic growth. We also review more recent studies suggesting that the findings supporting the resource curse may reflect only empirical mis-specification. The literature has produced conflicting evidence, with no consensus on the net effect of natural resources in an economy. Overall we argue that evidence for a negative effect of natural resource dependence on economic growth remains convincing, particularly for developing economies and particularly working through factors closely associated with growth. We take recent contrarian studies to demonstrate, however, both that a resource curse is not inevitable, and that future studies should better address issues of endogeneity of dependence measures, years of study, and potential non-monotonic relationships. |
| Keywords: | natural resource curse; natural resource dependence; natural resource abundance; economic growth; literature survey |
| JEL: | O13 O47 Q32 Q33 |
| Date: | 2016–04–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbt:econwp:16/05&r=his |
| By: | Richard L. Nolan (Harvard Business School) |
| Abstract: | Homo sapiens has mastered its environment so thoroughly that, for the first time in history, a small minority of the population is capable of creating enough food and fuels to support not only itself, but a growing majority of the 6 billion people now living on earth. This unparalleled abundance is allowing our species to develop, distribute, and profit from innovation in nearly every corner of civilization. Now key elements of the modern world such as the speed and connectedness of digital communication, the dynamic movement of capital, and changing nature of political boundaries are propelling capitalism into a new form that can be characterized as "virtual capitalism." And global corporations in their size and global influence are leading the embodiment of virtual capitalism into the modern world. |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hbs:wpaper:16-116&r=his |
| By: | Heshmati, Almas (Jönköping International Business School (JIBS), Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies (CESIS),& Department of Economics, Sogang University.) |
| Abstract: | Circular economy (CE) is a sustainable development strategy that is being proposed to tackle urgent problems of environmental degradation and resource scarcity. CE’s 3R principles are to reduce, reuse and recycle materials. The principles account for a circular system where all materials are recycled, all energy is derived from renewables; activities support and rebuild the ecosystem and support human health and a healthy society and resources are used to generate value. This study is a review of the rapidly growing literature on CE covering its concept and current practices and assessing its implementation. The review also serves as an assessment of the design, implementation and effectiveness of CE related policies. It first presents the concept of CE and compares it with the current linear economy of taking materials, producing goods and disposing waste. It explains why it is imperative to move away from a linear economy towards regenerative sustainable industrial development with a closed loop. The paper then introduces current practices that have been introduced and discusses standards for the assessment of CE’s development and performance. The main focus here is on providing a summary of the data analysis of key CE indicators to give a picture of CE practices. Third, based on an analysis of literature, the paper identifies the underlying problems and challenges to CE in an entrepreneurial perspective. Finally, the review provides a conclusion on CE’s current development and gives policy suggestions for its future development as part of an entrepreneurial and innovative national level development strategy. |
| Keywords: | Circular economy; environmental policy; national development strategy; sustainable development strategy; entrepreneurial strategy |
| JEL: | E01 F18 H23 O44 Q50 Q53 Q55 Q58 R11 |
| Date: | 2016–04–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0431&r=his |
| By: | Antoine Bozio (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA) - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics); Thomas Breda (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA) - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics); Malka Guillot (CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique - INSEE - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique) |
| Abstract: | This paper makes two simple points. First, labour demand depends on product wage or labour cost. Hence, demand-side explanations for the rise in inequalities such as skill-biased technical change and job polarization should be tested using data on labour cost and not net wage or posted wage. Contrary to previous studies, we find evidence of skill-biased technical change in France when we measure wage inequality in terms of labour cost. In that respect, France is no exception. Second, the French case provides a clear evidence that changes in taxation can have very significant effect in converting market inequalities into consumption or net wages inequalities. In France, net wage inequalities have decreased by about 10%, while labour cost inequalities have increased by 15% over the 1976-2010 period. This fact provides support both for the supporters of the skill-biased technical change explanations of the secular increase in wage inequalities, as well to those who believe that institutions could have significant impact on inequalities in disposable incomes. |
| Keywords: | Wage inequality,Labour cost,Social Security contributions,Tax incidence |
| Date: | 2016–03–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-01294599&r=his |