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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2023‒01‒09
73 papers chosen by |
| By: | Timothy W. Guinnane; Philip Hoffman; Timothy Guinnane |
| Abstract: | The persistence literature in economics and related disciplines connects recent outcomes to events long ago. This influential literature marks a promising development but has drawn criticism. We discuss two prominent examples that ground the rise of the Nazi Party in distant historical roots. Several econometric, analytical, and historical errors undermine the papers’ contention that deeply rooted culture and social capital fueled the Nazi rise. The broader lesson is that research of this type works best when it incorporates careful econometrics, serious consideration of underlying mechanisms (including formal theory), and, most important, scrupulous attention to history and to the limitations of historical data. |
| Keywords: | historical persistence, medieval pogroms, social capital, culture, networks, Nazism, voting behavior, anti-Semitism, political parties, religion, empirical economics, data based estimates, econometrics |
| JEL: | C18 D71 D72 D85 D91 L14 N01 N13 N14 Z10 Z12 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10095&r=his |
| By: | Yamina Tadjeddine |
| Abstract: | Ecole of Regulation emerged in France in the mid-1970s. The two founding figures of this school are Michel Aglietta and Robert Boyer. In this article, we propose to follow Aglietta's personal and professional career between 1959 and 1976 to understand the genesis of regulation theory. Aglietta's career is structured by three formative phases, each of which is successively presented: student at the Ecole Polytechnique (1959-1965), senior civil servant at the INSEE (1965-1970), doctoral student (1970-1974). The Ecole de la Régulation is based on an original epistemic composite: the time spent at the Ecole Polytechnique and the programme division of the INSEE provided the macro-economic foundation, the use of national accounting, the hypothetico-deductive methodology; the stay at Harvard the American institutionalism; the personal affinities with Marxism and the work of François Perroux. The methodology mixes formal modelling from macroeconomics, historical materialism from Marxism, the use of national accounting and finally historical data on organisations from institutionalist heritage. We also highlight three ethical presupposition - tolerant humanism, state benevolence and prescriptive positivism - that run through Aglietta's scientific work and have their origins in the period 1959-1968, marked by the reconstruction of France after the Second World War and the Algerian War. This work is based on numerous interviews, on the analysis of published works and on the consultation of archives. |
| Keywords: | Ecole de la Régulation, Michel Aglietta, French Planning, History of economic though. |
| JEL: | B5 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2022-34&r=his |
| By: | Naef, Alain |
| Abstract: | How did the Bank of England manage sterling crises? This book steps into the shoes of the Bank's foreign exchange dealers to show how foreign exchange intervention worked in practice. The author reviews the history of sterling over half a century, using new archives, data and unseen photographs. This book traces the sterling crises from the end of the War to Black Wednesday in 1992. The resulting analysis shows that a secondary reserve currency such as sterling plays an important role in the stability of the international system. The author goes on to explore the lessons the Bretton Woods system on managed exchange rates has for contemporary policy makers in the context of Brexit. This is a crucial reference for scholars in economics and history examining past and current prospects for the international financial system. |
| Date: | 2022–12–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:hd76p&r=his |
| By: | Ekaterina Zhuravskaya (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Sergei Guriev (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR); Andrei Markevich (New Economic School - New Economic School) |
| Abstract: | This survey discusses recent developments in the growing literature on the Russian economic history of the 19th and 20th centuries. Using novel data and modern empirical methods, this research generates new insights and provides important lessons for development economics and political economy. We organize the discussion around four strands of this literature. First, we summarize and put in comparative perspective research on the long-term trends in economic development and living standards, which shows that throughout history Russia significantly underperformed advanced economies. We also compile reliable quantifications of the human cost of Stalin's dictatorship. Second, we discuss new studies of imperial Russia that partially confirm Gerschenkron's classic conjecture on the institutional explanation for Russia's relatively low level of economic development and on the causes of the revolution. The third strand of the literature focuses on the Soviet period and explains its slowdown over time and the eventual collapse of the system by the command economy's inability to provide incentives to individual agents. The fourth strand documents the long-term economic, social, and political consequences of large-scale historical experiments that took place during both the imperial and the Soviet periods. We conclude by discussing the lessons from these four strands of the literature and highlight open questions for future research. |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:pseptp:hal-03874282&r=his |
| By: | Laura Valladao de Mattos |
| Abstract: | The outbreak of the American Civil War created important divisions on the other side of the Atlantic. The majority of the English public opinion supported the Confederates – a fact that J.S.Mill received with indignation. Since its beginning, Mill believed that slavery was the main reason for the conflict and understood that the outcome of this war would determine, for good or evil, the destiny of this (odious) institution in America. Thus, in the first years of the war, he strenuously tried to alter the opinion of his fellow citizens, which he believed dishonored the name of England. In the last years of the conflict - after the English abandoned their initial position and when the victory of the Union was a matter of time - Mill’s attention turned to what should be done after the conflict was over. His main concern was guaranteeing that slavery would be effectively extinguished, not only in the letter of the law. This paper intends to analyze Mill’s writings during the decade of 1860 concerning the American Civil War, the slave system, and the condition of the Black in America. This material consists of essays, newspaper articles, and a significant number of private letters he exchanged with English and American correspondents on these subjects. Although this material is fragmentary and heterogeneous, it sheds light on some interesting aspects of Mill’s thought. It reveals, for instance, not only the importance that the issue of slavery had for him but also the complex views he had of this phenomenon and how to eliminate it – that involved philosophical, economic, sociological, political, and above all, moral aspects Insert Abstract here] |
| Keywords: | J. S. Mill; American Civil War; slavery |
| JEL: | B12 B31 |
| Date: | 2022–12–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spa:wpaper:2022wpecon25&r=his |
| By: | Nuno Palma; Carolyn Sissoko |
| Abstract: | We present a detailed study of the Seven Years' War (1756–1763) using a new dataset based on the Bank of England minutes. We argue that the war and associated Bank of England actions led to a transformation of the financial system. Additionally, while there was short-term crowding out of private investment when interest rates rose due to the issue of war-related government debt, in the long-run there was crowding in: higher government spending led to an increase in private sector investment. |
| Keywords: | Bank of England; City of London; discount market; interest rates; crowding in; financial history |
| JEL: | N13 N23 N43 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:man:sespap:2211&r=his |
| By: | Hupfel, Simon |
| Abstract: | The repeal of the British Combination Laws in 1824 is generally considered by historians as the landmark of modern trade unionism, and has been attributed to the contributions of classical political economists. In the sole article that addressed this issue in the field of the history of economic thought, William Grampp reached the opposite conclusion, according to which the influence of the economists (Ricardo, McCulloch, Malthus, Torrens and Senior) on repeal was actually small. Resituating the debates over the Combination Laws in their political context, we try to show, despite the relatively reduced volume of the classical economists’ direct contributions, that the economists were clearly favorable to the measure, and how “political economy” played a significant role in the achievement of repeal. In doing so, we offer a reflection on the methodology used by Grampp to study the influence of economic ideas on political debates and public policy. |
| Date: | 2022–12–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:uvfqa&r=his |
| By: | Michael Fritsch (Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany); Maria Greve (Utrecht University, The Netherlands, and Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany); Michael Wyrwich (University of Groningen, The Netherlands, and Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany) |
| Abstract: | We describe and compare the development trajectories of two German regions, South Saxony and Mecklenburg, with a special focus on entrepreneurship and innovation. South Saxony has a long history of self-employment and knowledge generation that results in a persistent culture of innovative entrepreneurship. In Mecklenburg, such a culture did never emerge. Differences between the entrepreneurial ecosystems in the two regions especially pertain to the level of knowledge production and its link to new business formation in innovative and knowledge-intensive industries. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial ecosystems, economic history, culture, regional development |
| JEL: | L26 M13 O1 O3 R11 |
| Date: | 2022–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2022-012&r=his |
| By: | Diamond, Douglas (University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | Nobel Lecture lecture slides |
| Keywords: | Banking; Financial crises |
| JEL: | E53 G21 G28 |
| Date: | 2022–12–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:nobelp:2022_004&r=his |
| By: | Klein, Ursula |
| Abstract: | Elena Aronova. Scientific History: Experiments in History and Politics from the Bolshevik Revolution to the End of the Cold War. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press 2021 (ISBN-13: 978-0-226-76138-1 (cloth), 978-0-226-76141-1 (e-book). |
| Date: | 2022–12–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:2jf8p&r=his |
| By: | Miller, Marcus (University of Warwick, CAGE and CEPR) |
| Abstract: | Francis Fukuyama’s bold prediction that Western liberal democracy is ‘the final form of human government’ was promptly challenged by Samuel Huntington, who foresaw the future as a continuing clash of civilisations. This latter view has found support in the recent Beijing declaration by China and Russia of a ‘New World Order’ with distinct spheres of influence for different cultures. After discussing the contrast between such historical perspectives (of ‘immaculate convergence’ versus cultural diversity), we outline two accounts of how forms of governance emerge from competitive struggle ( either domestically or between nation states). However, to set the scene for applying these perspectives to current events, the paper begins with a summary of three eras of political economy post World War II - including the current ‘age of the strongman’, to use the terminology of Gideon Rachman. Subsequently, these various perspectives are employed to see what light they may throw on the disastrous turn of events following the Beijing declaration, with a focus on Russia, where the history of a powerful central state has played a crucial role. How enduring the Russian example may prove in the Darwinian struggle of cultural competition is, of course, a key issue for our time. |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1441&r=his |
| By: | Luca Bagnato |
| Abstract: | Do strong states affect the culture and actions of their citizens in a persistent way? And if so, can the capacity to tax, by itself, have a role in driving this effect? I study how the historical capacity of a state to collect taxes affects the decision of citizens to evade the mandatory military draft. I look at Italy during World War I and identify quasi-exogenous variation in tax collection induced by the administrative structure of Piedmont during the 1814-1870 period. Using newly collected and digitised individual data on nearly all the men of the 1899 cohort drafted in the province of Turin, I find that citizens born in towns with lower historical fiscal capacity are more likely to evade the military draft, and that the effect transmits through changes in culture. Results are consistent with fiscal capacity spurring norms of rule-following able to persist in the long run. Placebo estimates from other Italian territories confirm that the effect I estimate can be attributed to fiscal capacity, and it is not confounded by legal capacity. |
| Keywords: | Fiscal capacity, tax collection, culture, military draft, Italy, World War I |
| JEL: | D73 D74 D91 H20 N43 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:econwp:423&r=his |
| By: | Zhu, Ziming |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a linked sample of between 67,000 and 160,000 father-son pairs in 1851-1911 to provide revised estimates of intergenerational occupational mobility in England. After correcting for classical measurement errors using instrumental variables, I find that conventional estimates of intergenerational elasticities could severely underestimate the extent of father-son association in socioeconomic status. Instrumenting one measure of the father’s outcome with a second measure of the father’s outcome raises the intergenerational elasticities (β) of occupational status from 0.4 to 0.6-0.7. Victorian England was therefore a society of limited social mobility. The implications of my results for long-run evolution and international comparisons of social mobility in England are discussed. |
| Keywords: | social mobility; intergenerational mobility; nineteenth century; England |
| JEL: | J62 N33 |
| Date: | 2022–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:wpaper:117588&r=his |
| By: | Absell, Christopher David; Incerpi, Andrea |
| Abstract: | Historical studies of international trade have firmly established that distance was an important determinant of bilateral trade during the last two centuries. Despite the distance effect being one of the most robust results in trade history, we do not know much about how this effect changes over time, trade flows, across trading partners or traded goods. This paper examines the effect of distance on Italian bilateral trade comparing two periods: the first globalisation and the interwar years. Using a structural gravity model and data on Italian exports and imports by country and product and a new series of freights for the period 1862 to 1938, we find that the size and significance of the distance effect was highly contingent on the period and product composition of trade. While the trend in the effect of distance on trade during the first globalisation reflected the conventional story of the decline of transport costs during this period, the 1920s displays opposite trends for exports and imports. Further analysis of imports on the product-level reveals a similar heterogeneity of effect by product class. The distance elasticities of manufactured and industrial products reflected the overall trend, while those of raw materials and fuels did not seem to follow any clear pattern. We generate time series of trade to distance elasticities on the four-digit product category level and regress these on measures of trade costs and substitutability. We find that the distance effect at the product-level is explained by shifts in Italy's transport costs and the (gamma) elasticity of substitution across products. |
| Keywords: | Gravity; Distance; International Trade; Italy; Heterogeneity |
| Date: | 2022–12–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:whrepe:36226&r=his |
| By: | Luis Buluz (University of Bonn, WIL - World Inequality Lab); Filip Novokmet (University of Bonn); Moritz Schularick (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, University of Bonn, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a household-level perspective on the rise of global saving and wealth since the 1980s. We calculate asset-specific saving flows and capital gains across the wealth distribution for the G3 economies – the U.S., Europe, and China. In the past four decades, global saving inequality has risen sharply. The share of household saving flows coming from the richest 10% of household increased by 60% while saving of middle class households has fallen sharply. The most important source for the surge in top-10% saving was the secular rise of global corporate saving whose ultimate owners the rich households are. Housing capital gains have supported wealth growth for middle-class households despite falling saving and rising debt. Without meaningful capital gains in risky assets, the wealth share of the bottom half of the population declined substantially in most G3 economies. |
| Keywords: | Income and wealth inequality,Saving,Household portfolios,Historical micro data |
| Date: | 2022–04–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wilwps:hal-03881419&r=his |
| By: | Krzysztof Krakowski; Max Schaub |
| Abstract: | Does repression of opposition elites prevent resistance against foreign-imposed regimes? On the one hand, elimination of elites can undermine the opposition's capacity for anti-regime resistance. Yet killing opposition elites deprives the new regime of useful human capital. Co-optation of elites becomes a tempting alternative. We examine this trade-off by studying the effects of elimination vis-à-vis survival of Polish elites during World War II. Our focus is on the Polish nobility, intellectuals, and (reserve) army officers. |
| Keywords: | Elites, War, Poland |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2022-148&r=his |
| By: | Ellora Derenoncourt (Princeton University); Chi Hyun (University of Bonn); Moritz Kuhn (University of Bonn); Moritz Schularick (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, University of Bonn, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR) |
| Abstract: | The racial wealth gap is the largest of the economic disparities between Black and white Americans, with a white-to-Black per capita wealth ratio of 6 to 1. It is also among the most persistent. In this paper, we construct the first continuous series on white-to-Black per capita wealth ratios from 1860 to 2020, drawing on historical census data, early state tax records, and historical waves of the Survey of Consumer Finances, among other sources. Incorporating these data into a parsimonious model of wealth accumulation for each racial group, we document the role played by initial conditions, income growth, savings behavior, and capital returns in the evolution of the gap. Given vastly different starting conditions under slavery, racial wealth convergence would remain a distant scenario, even if wealth-accumulating conditions had been equal across the two groups since Emancipation. Relative to this equal-conditions benchmark, we find that observed convergence has followed an even slower path over the last 150 years, with convergence stalling after 1950. Since the 1980s, the wealth gap has widened again as capital gains have predominantly benefited white households, and income convergence has stopped. |
| Date: | 2022–05–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03880971&r=his |
| By: | Nützenadel, Alexander |
| Abstract: | What impact do past experiences have on the expectation formation of banks? This article analyses the risk management of Germany's largest bank during the 1970 and 1980s. In this period, financial deregulation and globalization increased the likelihood of credit defaults and forced banks to implement new strategies of risk assessment. The Herstatt failure of 1974 triggered a series of new regulations, partly based on initiatives of the banks themselves. After the sovereign debt crisis of the 1980s, banks introduced a comprehensive strategy of country-risk assessment. They systematically professionalized their information resources and integrated risk and liability management. Economic forecasting was often based on historical data used for the classification and diversification of risks. However, learning from past experiences had limitations, as recent events were often overrated. This had the effect that the banks' country risk assessment focused mainly on developing countries while the industrial world was not included in the schemes. This might explain why many banks have continually underestimated the financial risks present in developed countries since the 1990s. |
| Keywords: | Risk management,financial markets,banks,expectations,historical experience |
| JEL: | F65 G15 G17 G32 N2 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:pp1859:36&r=his |
| By: | Fernihough, Alan; Lyons, Ronan C. |
| Abstract: | Ireland developed one of the world's most intensive railroad networks in the second half of the 19th century. However, the emergence of railroads occurred in tandem with a failure to industrialize and mass depopulation suggesting limited, if any, impact on the island's economy. This paper examines this claim from a trade-based market-access perspective. Matching high-resolution geospatial data for nearly 3,400 districts to existing road and waterway networks as well as Ireland's nascent railroad network, we quantify the extent of market access improvements caused by rail. Additionally, we compute an external market access measure that accounts for improved access to international ports. Our findings reveal that this distinction is vital. Improvements in domestic market access brought about by railroads had a substantial positive influence on both population density and land values, while better access to ports had the opposite, negative, effect. Overall, these conflicting forces cancel out, hiding rail's importance. However, a supplementary analysis reveals that the introduction of rail fostered a significant reorientation within the economy across two key domains: emigration and the labour-intensiveness of agriculture. Areas with relatively more access to ports experienced greater levels of emigration and a faster switch from labor-intensive tillage to pastoral farming-with differential access explaining around two-fifths of the observed shift in both variables between the Great Famine and the Great War. |
| Keywords: | Ireland,Railways,Market Access,Emigration |
| JEL: | N14 N94 O18 R12 R4 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:qucehw:202211&r=his |
| By: | Alex Hollingsworth; Krzysztof Karbownik; Melissa A. Thomasson; Anthony Wray |
| Abstract: | The past century witnessed a dramatic improvement in public health, the rise of modern medicine, and the transformation of the hospital from a fringe institution to one essential to the practice of medicine. Despite the central role of medicine in contemporary society, little is known about how hospitals and modern medicine contributed to this health transition. In this paper, we explore how access to the hospital and modern medicine affects mortality. We do so by leveraging a combination of novel data and a unique quasi-experiment: a large-scale hospital modernization program introduced by The Duke Endowment in the early twentieth century. The Endowment helped communities build and expand hospitals, obtain state-of-the-art medical technology, attract qualified medical personnel, and refine management practices. We find that access to a Duke-supported hospital reduced infant mortality by 10%, saving one life for every $20,000 (2017 dollars) spent. Effects were larger for Black infants (16%) than for White infants (7%), implying a reduction in the Black-White infant mortality gap by one-third. We show that the effect of Duke support persisted into later life with a 9% reduction in mortality between the ages of 56 and 65. We further provide evidence on the mechanisms that enabled these effects, finding that Endowment-supported hospitals attracted higher-quality physicians and were better able to take advantage of new medical innovations. |
| Keywords: | modern medicine, hospitals, mortality, infant health, hospital funding, physician labor supply, medical innovation, health care complementarities, charitable giving |
| JEL: | J13 N32 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10097&r=his |
| By: | Laurent Garreau (UPD5 SHS - Université Paris Descartes - Faculté des Sciences humaines et sociales - Sorbonne - UPD5 - Université Paris Descartes - Paris 5); Jean-Claude Voisin |
| Date: | 2022–10–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03831382&r=his |
| By: | Luca Bagnato |
| Abstract: | In this paper I study whether citizens’ tax morale (and, more broadly, citizens’ attitudes towards the state) can be affected by past institutions, focusing on the role of historical fiscal capacity. Exploiting the features of the tax collection system of a pre-unification state in XIX Century Italy I identify differences in local historical fiscal capacity (as proxied by geographical proximity to a tax collector) and map them into contemporary tax morale, as measured by evasion of the TV Tax in 2014. Exploiting only variation in historical fiscal capacity that arises within matched pairs of neighbouring towns on the border of tax districts, I find imprecisely estimated and arguably small differences in tax morale today between towns where fiscal capacity was different. Investigating the mechanisms of transmission, I provide evidence that phenomena associated with structural transformation are likely to have halted the persistence of the historical fiscal capacity effect. |
| Keywords: | Fiscal capacity, tax collection, tax evasion, tax morale, TV tax, Italy |
| JEL: | D73 D91 N43 H26 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:econwp:424&r=his |
| By: | Rui Esteves; Kris James Mitchener; Peter Nencka; Melissa A. Thomasson |
| Abstract: | Using newly digitized U.S. city-level data on hospitals, we explore how pandemics alter preferences for healthcare. We find that cities with higher levels of mortality during the Great Influenza of 1918-1919 subsequently expanded hospital capacity by more than cities experiencing less influenza mortality: cities in the top half of the mortality distribution increased their count of hospitals by 8-10 percent in the years after the pandemic. This effect persisted to 1960 and was driven by increases in non-governmental hospitals. Growth responded most in richer cities, exacerbating existing inequalities in access to healthcare. We do not find evidence that government-run hospitals or other types of city-level spending related to healthcare responded to pandemic intensity, suggesting that large health shocks do not necessarily lead to increased public provision of health services. |
| Keywords: | hospitals, healthcare, influenza, pandemics, local public goods |
| JEL: | I11 I14 J10 N32 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10089&r=his |
| By: | Bespalov Sergey (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration) |
| Abstract: | The paper deals with the organization and activities of the Special Meeting on the needs of the agricultural industry, created in Russia in 1902 on the initiative and chaired by S.Yu. Witte. |
| Keywords: | economic history, Russian economy early 20 |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rnp:wpaper:s21030&r=his |
| By: | Tulun, Teoman Ertuğrul |
| Abstract: | In May 2021, the discovery of the remains of 215 Indigenous children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, which had been run by the Roman Catholic Church, in the province of British Columbia/Canada led to outrage and grief not only in the country but around the world. It should be noted that the history of these boarding schools for indigenous children, which was a tool used for the policy of assimilation of the indigenous population, is an important and painful page in the colonial history of Canada. Under the colonial vision of the British Empire, the indigenous peoples of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand became minorities in their respective countries in the nineteenth century. In this vision, these people were to be "civilized", and to be civilized, they had to be Christian and assimilated. Academic literature on residential schools in Canada takes the roots of this system back to the "Frenchification" (to make French) policy and practices of the French colonizers in the early 17th century. Academic sources assert that the French tried to force the natives to adopt Christianity, learn about French civilization and to get used to an "orderly life" based on French culture. Such schools taught indigenous children mainly the Christian religion and the French language, with the aim of raising them as French. This system of forced education failed during the French colonial rule. The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement and The Truth and Reconciliation Commission To investigate the indigenous peoples of Canada's relationship with the rest of the country, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) was established in 1991. In May 2006, the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) was formally approved by all parties involved. In June 2008, the federal government finally issued a formal apology for its role in the creation and operation of the residential school system. The Roman Catholic Church has yet to issue an apology in this regard. However, pressure has mounted on the Catholic Church to do so especially after the discovery of the unmarked graves near St. Eugene's Mission School. It should also be noted that, following the discovery of the unmarked graves and the subsequent public outrage, multiple Roman Catholic churches in Canada have been vandalized and subjected to arson attacks. Indigenous peoples had their own local political, economic, and cultural systems that met their needs and they did not need or request to be "civilized" or Christianized. Universalization of western European values that was extended to the other continents served as the prime justification and rationale for the imposition of a residential school system on the indigenous peoples. In this respect, the Canadian residential school system imposed on the indigenous peoples is part of the history of imperialism of the past centuries. In fact, education was both a target and tool of colonialism and was employed as a colonial structure that served as a vehicle for wider imperialist ideological objectives. In this context, all colonialist countries of the past centuries must face the sins of their past, as Canada did and still does on the issue of residential school practice. |
| Date: | 2021–07–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:zm8t6&r=his |
| By: | Bertrand Garbinti (CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique - ENSAI - Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse de l'Information [Bruz] - X - École polytechnique - ENSAE Paris - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Jonathan Goupille-Lebret (GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - ENS Lyon - École normale supérieure - Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet [Saint-Étienne] - Université de Lyon - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Thomas Piketty (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement) |
| Abstract: | Abstract Measuring and understanding the evolution of wealth inequality is a key challenge for researchers, policy makers, and the general public. This paper breaks new ground on this topic by presenting a new method to estimate and study wealth inequality. This method combines fiscal data with household surveys and national accounts in order to provide annual wealth distribution series, with detailed breakdowns by percentiles, age, and assets. Using the case of France as an illustration, we show that the resulting series can be used to better analyze the evolution and the determinants of wealth-inequality dynamics over the 1970–2014 period. We show that the decline in wealth inequality ends in the early 1980s, marking the beginning of a rise in the top 1% wealth share, though with significant fluctuations due largely to asset price movements. Rising inequality in savings rates coupled with highly stratified rates of returns has led to rising wealth concentration in spite of the opposing effect of house price increases. We develop a simple simulation model highlighting how changes in the combination of unequal savings rates, rates of return, and labor earnings that occurred in the early 1980s generated large multiplicative effects that led to radically different steady-state levels of wealth inequality. Taking advantage of the joint distribution of income and wealth, we show that top wealth holders are almost exclusively top capital earners, and increasingly fewer are made up of top labor earners; it has become increasingly difficult in recent decades to access top wealth groups with one's labor income only. |
| Date: | 2021–02–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03474044&r=his |
| By: | Hubert Bonin (BSE - Bordeaux Sciences Economiques - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | Whilst being enrooted in public "common goods", French utilities, either State-controlled or private, became more and more committed to strategies of developing abroad their portfolio of engineering and managing skills. They followed the past of economic imperialism along geopolitics in emerging countries (Russia, Ottoman Empire, Latin America), then also throughout the colonial empire; such offensives were embodied by the adventure of the Suez Canal. From the 1980s, the reconstruction of the worldwide connections opened doors to geoeconomics, that is the will to resist competition and to conquer market shares abroad thanks to the valuation of capital of competence and trust. Every public, privatised or already quoted companies took part to the run for concessions and the deliveries of engineering and managing services (waste, water, postal, railway, bus, energy utilities). This contributed to the competitiveness of French economy and economic patriotism. |
| Keywords: | Internationalised public services, Concessions abroad, Suez Canal, Globalised business models, Colonial equipment |
| Date: | 2022–12–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03891581&r=his |
| By: | César Ducruet; Hidekazu Itoh |
| Abstract: | Based on untapped shipping and urban data, this article compares the diffusion of steam and container shipping at the port city level and at the global scale between 1880 and 2008. A temporal and multi-layered network is constructed, including the pre-existing technologies of sailing and breakbulk. The goal is to check the differences a) between innovations and their predecessors and b) between innovations, from an urban network perspective. Main results show that despite certain differences, such as historical context, voyage length, speed of diffusion, and geographical spread, the two innovations share a large quantity of similarities. They both fostered port concentration, were boosted by city size and port connectivity, bypassed upstream port sites, and diverged gradually from older technologies. This research thus contributes to the literature on cities, networks, innovation, and maritime transport. |
| Keywords: | containerization; maritime transport; port cities; regional disparity; spatial networks; steam shipping; technological change |
| JEL: | L91 N70 O18 R40 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2022-27&r=his |
| By: | Dybvig, Philip (Washington University) |
| Abstract: | Nobel lecture presentation slides |
| Keywords: | Banking; financial crisis |
| JEL: | E53 G21 G28 |
| Date: | 2022–12–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:nobelp:2022_005&r=his |
| By: | Dora Costa; CoraLee Lewis; Noelle Yetter |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces four new intergenerational and multigenerational datasets which follow both sons and daughters and which can be used to study the persistence of longevity, socioeconomic status, family structure, and geographic mobility across generations. The data follow the children of Black and White Union Army veterans from birth to death, linking them to the available censuses. The White samples include an over-sample of children of ex-POWs. A separate collection links grandchildren of White Union Army veterans to their death records. The data were created with high quality manual linkage procedures utilizing a wide variety of records to establish links. |
| JEL: | I14 J01 J10 N01 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30747&r=his |
| By: | Pablo Nemina; Alejandro Gaggero |
| Abstract: | Resumen: La dolarización del mercado inmobiliario argentino se instaló a finales de la década de 1970 y —luego de una fugaz retracción— se consolidó en la década siguiente. Los pocos trabajos que analizan la problemática conciben a la dolarización como la adaptación racional ante la inflación o una condena cultural. Este artículo busca aportar a los estudios de sociología económica sobre la determinación cualitativa de los precios. Desde una perspectiva de sociología económica, se analiza cómo las transformaciones en el régimen institucional de política económica llevadas adelante por la última dictadura militar (1976-1983), y los cambios en las expectativas de los actores económicos, incidieron en la dolarización del mercado inmobiliario iniciada a finales de la década de 1970 y consolidada a comienzos de la década siguiente. Menos que una adaptación automática de la población, se plantea que la dolarización fue el resultado de tres procesos que confluyeron en esos anos: la liberalización cambiaria y financiera, que favoreció el acceso a la divisa norteamericana; la mercantilización de la vivienda; y la institucionalización de la inflación. Se trató de un proceso no exento de retrocesos y decididamente no buscado por el gobierno. Abstract: The Argentinean real estate market dollarization was installed in the late 1970s and, after a brief retraction, was consolidated in the following decade. The few studies that analyze the problem conceive dollarization as a rational adaptation to inflation or a cultural rout. This paper seeks to contribute to economic sociology studies on the qualitative determination of prices. From an economic sociology perspective, how the changes in the economic policy institutional framework carried out by the military dictatorship, and changes in economic actors’ expectations, influenced the dollarization of the housing market is examined. Beyond an automatic adaptation by the population, it is argued that the housing market dollarization was the result of three processes that came together in those years: the exchange rate and financial liberalization, which favoured access to the US currency; the commodification of housing; and institutionalization of inflation. Also, it was a process not without setbacks and decidedly not promoted by the government. |
| Keywords: | dolarización, mercado inmobiliario, Argentina, inflación, indexación, expectativas económicas, mercantilización de la vivienda, neoliberalismo; dollarization, real estate market, Argentina, inflation, indexation, economic expectations, housing commodification, Neoliberalism |
| JEL: | A14 D81 D84 R30 |
| Date: | 2022–03–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000418:020595&r=his |
| By: | Bogle, David A.; Campbell, Gareth; Coyle, Christopher; Turner, John D. |
| Abstract: | Why did shareholder liability disappear? We address this question by looking at its use by British insurance companies from 1830 until its complete disappearance by 1975. We explore three explanations for its demise: (1) regulation and government-provided policyholder protection meant that it was no longer required; (2) it had become de facto limited; and (3) shareholders saw an opportunity to expunge something they disliked when insurance companies grew in size. Using hand-collected archival data, our findings suggest investors attached a risk premium to shareholder liability, and it was phased out after a merger movement increased the size of insurance companies which meant that they were better able to pool risks. |
| Keywords: | Insurance,regulation,shareholder liability,United Kingdom |
| JEL: | G11 G22 N20 N40 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:qucehw:202212&r=his |
| By: | Hubert Bonin (BSE - Bordeaux Sciences Economiques - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | This essay mobilises the critical studies of two historians and a public company manager who have constructed systems for analysing the causes of France's deindustrialisation since the turn of the 1980s. A review of the ten or so themes around which issues concerning the responsibilities of the state's economic apparatus, company managers or experts are articulated allows for discussions about a recent history, admittedly, but which benefits from two dozen testimonies. |
| Keywords: | Third industrial revolution, Delocalisation, Competitiveness, Industrial decline, Economic lucidity. |
| Date: | 2022–12–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03891444&r=his |
| By: | Gazeley, Ian; Holmes, Rose; Newell, Andrew; Reynolds, Kevin; Gutierrez Rufrancos, Hector |
| Abstract: | Using the US Commissioner of Labor household survey, we estimate calories available to workers’ households in USA, Belgium, Britain, France and Germany in 1888/90. We make raw comparisons of the data and utilise propensity score matching techniques to attempt to overcome differences between the nature of the country samples included in the original survey. We find that US households had on average 500 daily calories per capita more than French and Germans households, with the Belgians and British households closer to the USA. We ask if US workers had more energy for work, once likely differences in stature between national sub-samples are taken into account, and conclude it was a minor advantage. Finally, we ask if economic migration leads to taller children. We find that US-based British households were able to provide more calories than those in Britain in response to an additional child, so that, other things being equal, their children would grow taller. |
| Keywords: | living standards; nutrition; international comparisons; migration; ES/L002523/1; Springer deal |
| JEL: | J11 J61 N31 |
| Date: | 2022–11–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:117257&r=his |
| By: | Araujo, María Caridad; Macours, Karen |
| Abstract: | In 1997, the Mexican government designed the conditional cash transfer program Progresa, which became the worldwide model of a new approach to social programs, simultaneously targeting human capital accumulation and poverty reduction. A large literature has documented the short and medium-term impacts of the Mexican program and its successors in other countries. Using Progresas experimental evaluation design originally rolled out in 1997-2000, and a tracking survey conducted 20 years later, this paper studies the differential long-term impacts of exposure to Progresa. We focus on two cohorts of children: i) those that during the period of differential exposure were in-utero or in the first years of life, and ii) those who during the period of differential exposure were transitioning from primary to secondary school. Results for the early childhood cohort, 18-20-year-old at endline, shows that differential exposure to Progresa during the early years led to positive impacts on educational attainment and labor income expectations. This constitutes unique long-term evidence on the returns of an at-scale intervention on investments in human capital during the first 1000 days of life. Results for the school cohort - in their early 30s at endline - show that the short-term impacts of differential exposure to Progresa on schooling were sustained in the long-run and manifested themselves in larger labor incomes, more geographical mobility including through international migration, and later family formation. |
| Keywords: | Conditional cash transfers;Long term impacts;Schooling;Mexico |
| JEL: | O15 N76 I2 J18 |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:11787&r=his |
| By: | Fiorito, Luca; Erasmo, Valentina |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to document Carver’s influence as a teacher and to shed further light on Harvard’s role as the “brain trust” of American eugenics (Fiorito 2019). On the same time, in more general terms, what follow adds to our general understanding of the extent to which biological considerations continued to permeate American social science well after the first two decades of the last century, the period which marked the "golden age" of eugenics (Leonard 2016). |
| Date: | 2022–12–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:7t59c&r=his |
| By: | KWAK, Sungil (KOREA INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY (KIEP)); BEAK , Yong-Hun (DANKOOK UNIVERSITY); LEE, Han-Woo (Sogang University); Lê , Quốc Phương (Vietnam Industry and Trade Information Center); Vũ, Mạnh Lợi (Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS)); Nguyễn , Thị Thanh Huyền (Hanoi National University) |
| Abstract: | Korea and Vietnam have achieved remarkable outcomes of cooperation over the past 30 years since establishing diplomatic relations in December 1992. The rapid expansion of cooperation between the two countries is due to their geographical, historical, and cultural similarities and commonalities. Vietnam and Korea are both traditionally agricultural countries that have grown rice since ancient times, and have been influenced by Confucianism. In addition, Korea and Vietnam, which have inherited abundant cultural heritages thanks to their long history, have strong national pride. In particular, many Vietnamese scholars often take Korea as an example when discussing improving national industrial strategies and infrastructure, given that Korea has overcome the ruins of the Korean War and Vietnam is growing over the scars of the Vietnam War. However, since Vietnam joined the WTO in 2007, cooperation between the two countries has been mainly led by the economic sector. As economic cooperation strengthened, the two countries fell into the illusion that they knew each other well. Delusions often lead to unnecessary misunderstandings. A representative example is the dissatisfaction of Koreans with Vietnam’s quarantine response in the early stages of the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak. Vietnam regarded quarantine as a war situation and controlled it with strong discipline, but foreigners, including Koreans, did not understand this social trend. It was a misunderstanding that could have been avoided if Koreans were a bit more aware about Vietnam’s quarantine situation and culture, and conversely, Vietnamese knew better about Korean society and culture. This study analyzes the performance of cooperation in the economic, social, and cultural sectors over the past 30 years and seeks ways to enhance cooperation in the social and cultural sectors, which are relatively less successful than the economic sector. This is because the sustainable development of their bilateral relations requires not only economic cooperation but also “softpower” cooperation in social and cultural sectors. (the rest omitted) |
| Keywords: | 경제협력; 경제관계; economic cooperation; economic relations |
| Date: | 2021–12–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:kieppa:2021_023&r=his |
| By: | Hans-Joachim Voth; Bruno Caprettini; Alex Trew |
| Abstract: | We collect new data and present new evidence on the effects of labor scarcity on the adoption of labor-saving technology in industrializing England. Where the British armed forces recruited heavily, more machines that economized on labor were adopted. For purposes of identification, we focus on naval recruitment. Using warships’ ease of access to coastal locations as an instrument, we show that exogenous shocks to labor scarcity led to technology adoption. The same shocks are only weakly associated with the adoption of non-labor saving technologies. Importantly, there is also a synergy between skill abundance and labor scarcity boosting technology adoption. Where labor shortages led to the adoption of labor-saving machines, technology afterwards improved more rapidly. |
| Keywords: | Technology adoption, learning-by-doing, Industrial Revolution |
| JEL: | N13 N43 O14 O31 O47 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gla:glaewp:2022_15&r=his |
| By: | Gabriel Jiménez; Dmitry Kuvshinov; José-Luis Peydró; Björn Richter |
| Abstract: | We show that U-shaped monetary policy rate dynamics are strongly associated with financial crisis risk. This finding holds both in long-run cross-country macro data covering many crises and monetary policy cycles, and in detailed micro, administrative data covering the post-1995 period in Spain. In the macro data, we find that pre-crisis monetary policy follows a U shape, with policy rates first cut and then increased over the 7 years before the onset of the crisis. This U shape holds across a wide variety of crisis definitions, short-term rate measures, and becomes stronger after World War 2. Differently, even though inflation and real rates show some of these dynamics before a crisis, these results are much less robust. The patterns are also much weaker when it comes to long-term rates and non-crisis recessions. We show that monetary policy rate hikes (both raw, and instrumented using the trilemma IV of Jordà et al, 2020) increase crisis risk, but, different to previous studies, we show that this effect is driven by rate hikes which were preceded by a series of cuts. To understand why U-shaped monetary policy is linked to crises, we show that the initial loosening of policy is followed by high growth in credit and asset prices, putting the economy into a vulnerable financial "red zone''. After the subsequent monetary tightening these vulnerabilities materialize, leading to larger-than-usual declines in credit, asset prices, and real activity. To dig into the underlying mechanisms, we use administrative data on the universe of bank loans and defaults during the 1990s and 2000s boom-bust cycles in Spain. Consistently, we find that U-shaped monetary policy increases the probability of ex-post loan defaults, but effects are much stronger for ex-ante riskier firms and for banks with weaker balance sheets. Overall, our paper shows that monetary policy dynamics have important implications for financial stability. |
| Keywords: | monetary policy, financial stability, financial crises, credit, asset prices, banks, macro-finance |
| JEL: | E51 E52 E44 G01 G21 G12 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1378&r=his |
| By: | Michael D. Bordo; William Roberds |
| Abstract: | We consider the debut of a new monetary instrument, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Drawing on examples from monetary history, we argue that a successful monetary transformation must combine microeconomic efficiency with macroeconomic credibility. A paradoxical feature of these transformations is that success in the micro dimension can encourage macro failure. Overcoming this paradox may require politically uncomfortable compromises. We propose that such compromises will be necessary for the success of CBDCs. |
| JEL: | E42 E58 N10 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30709&r=his |
| By: | Gabriel Jiménez; Dmitry Kuvshinov; José-Luis Peydró; Bjoern Richter |
| Abstract: | We show that U-shaped monetary policy rate dynamics are strongly associated with financial crisis risk. This finding holds both in long-run cross-country macro data covering many crises and monetary policy cycles, and in detailed micro, administrative data covering the post-1995 period in Spain. In the macro data, we find that pre-crisis monetary policy follows a U shape, with policy rates first cut and then increased over the 7 years before the onset of the crisis. This U shape holds across a wide variety of crisis definitions, short-term rate measures, and becomes stronger after World War 2. Differently, even though inflation and real rates show some of these dynamics before a crisis, these results are much less robust. The patterns are also much weaker when it comes to long-term rates and non-crisis recessions. We show that monetary policy rate hikes (both raw, and instrumented using the trilemma IV of Jorda et al., 2020) increase crisis risk, but, different to previous studies, we show that this effect is driven by rate hikes which were preceded by a series of cuts. To understand why U-shaped monetary policy is linked to crises, we show that the initial loosening of policy is followed by high growth in credit and asset prices, putting the economy into a vulnerable financial "red zone". After the subsequent monetary tightening these vulnerabilities materialize, leading to larger-than-usual declines in credit, asset prices, and real activity. To dig into the underlying mechanisms, we use administrative data on the universe of bank loans and defaults during the 1990s and 2000s boom-bust cycles in Spain. Consistently, we find that U-shaped monetary policy increases the probability of ex-post loan defaults, but effects are much stronger for ex-ante riskier firms and for banks with weaker balance sheets. Overall, our paper shows that monetary policy dynamics have important implications for financial stability. |
| Keywords: | monetary policy; financial stability; financial crises; credit; asset prices; banks; macro-finance |
| JEL: | E51 E52 E44 G01 G21 G12 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1854&r=his |
| By: | Travieso Barrios, Emiliano |
| Abstract: | The workings of the transitions from slavery to freedom shaped development paths in the Americas. I rely on a new dataset based on manuscript population listings to offer the first quantitative analysis of selective slave emancipation in postcolonial Uruguay, where by 1836 a third of people of African descent were free. Freedom came primarily through their own labour—both in the sense of working and giving birth—in an institutional context which was at best indifferent to their destiny, as fewer than 3% of them directly benefited from the 'free wombs' reform. Ref lecting racial status hierarchies, people born in Africa and those of darker complexion were more likely to remain enslaved. Using a probit model to control for the effects of age, origin, gender, and other covariates, I show that Black people were more likely to be free in smallholder rural areas, especially less fertile ones. The results suggest that the lack of any policy towards freedpeople resulted in an embedding of racial inequality onto de facto resource allocation before the de jure abolition of slavery in 1852. |
| JEL: | N36 J15 N56 |
| Date: | 2022–12–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:whrepe:36228&r=his |
| By: | Simpson, James |
| Abstract: | Why are some land reforms more successful than others? Interwar Europe provides an opportunity to answer this question as many countries, often at different levels of economic development, carried out major reforms. In agrarian societies in Eastern Europe, the pro-poor redistributive land reforms transferred a fifth of agricultural land and were expected to transform not just farming, but political life. Although farmers struggled because of insufficient land and weak markets, land reform allowed families to maintain food consumption in the 1930s by increasing selfsufficiency. By contrast, policy makers in transforming economies such as Czechoslovakia or Spain were divided between meeting the economic and political needs of those farmers living in acute poverty and responding to the struggling familyoperated commercial farmers. Land reform strengthened agrarian political parties, but these were generally too divided along nationalist cleavages to influence policy in the new successor states, and by regional differences created by uneven economic development in transforming economies. |
| Keywords: | Land Reform; Interwar Europe; Agrarianism; Family Farms; Land Inequality & Economic Growth |
| JEL: | N54 O13 P14 Q12 Q13 |
| Date: | 2022–12–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:whrepe:36227&r=his |
| By: | Ronan Lyons (Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin); Elisa Maria Tirindelli (Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | While city size and growth are the subject of a substantial literature, consensus is lacking on the extent to which Zipf's Law or Gibrat's Law holds across space and time. We examine city size, rank and growth in Britain 1801-2011 and show conclusions depend on city definition, sample cutoff and regression methods. We find Zipf's Law cannot be rejected under the strongest combination of data and methods, unlike if other data or methods are used. Across Zipf, Gibrat and Gini analyses, we find that urban concentration in Britain peaked in the mid-19th century but fell 1861-1911 and 1951-1991. |
| Keywords: | Great Britain; Zipf's Law; urban growth; Gibrat's Law |
| JEL: | N9 O18 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2022–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcd:tcduee:tep0522&r=his |
| By: | Tulun, Teoman Ertuğrul (Center For Eurasian Studies (AVİM)) |
| Abstract: | On March 25, 2021, all major western international media outlets reported, with comprehensive analysis, that Greece is celebrating its 200th anniversary since the beginning of the struggle for independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1821. Certain of these media outlets referred to the Ottoman Empire as "the former Turkish Ottoman Empire." It is reported in this regard that "Prince Charles, heir to the British throne whose father Prince Philip was born in Corfu as part of the Greek royal family," Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and the French Defense Minister Florence Parly attended the parade in Athens.Concerning the 1821 Celebrations, the basic question is: Was the uprising against the Ottoman Empire in 1821 just the beginning of the war for independence for the Greeks, or was it the beginning of brutal massacres committed by gangs who later were presented to be fighting for the independence of Greece? One of the first targets of the uprising was the city of Tripolitsa which is situated in the middle of Peloponnese and administrative center for Ottoman rule in the Peloponnese. In the Tripolitsa massacre by Greek gangs, upwards of ten thousand Turks were brutally killed. Especially diaspora sources praise the Tripolitsa massacre by claiming that Turks deserved it. Turkey is a victim of misinformation and dis information published by the US, German, French and British media. These media outlets have contributed to the creation of Fake News against Turkey. Last example of this published in the BBC/Turkish news regarding the 1821 celebrations. |
| Date: | 2021–03–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:z73dw&r=his |
| By: | Thomas Blanchet (PSE) |
| Abstract: | I introduce a new way of decomposing the evolution of the wealth distribution using a simple continuous time stochastic model, which separates the effects of mobility, savings, labor income, rates of return, demography, inheritance, and assortative mating. Based on two results from stochastic calculus, I show that this decomposition is nonparametrically identified and can be estimated based solely on repeated cross-sections of the data. I estimate it in the United States since 1962 using historical data on income, wealth, and demography. I find that the main drivers of the rise of the top 1% wealth share since the 1980s have been, in decreasing level of importance, higher savings at the top, higher rates of return on wealth (essentially in the form of capital gains), and higher labor income inequality. I then use the model to study the effects of wealth taxation. I derive simple formulas for how the tax base reacts to the net-of-tax rate in the long run, which nest insights from several existing models, and can be calibrated using estimable elasticities. In the benchmark calibration, the revenue-maximizing wealth tax rate at the top is high (around 12%), but the revenue collected from the tax is much lower than in the static case. |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2211.15509&r=his |
| By: | Diana Ricciulli-Marín; Jaime Bonet-Morón; Gerson Javier Pérez-Valbuena |
| Abstract: | Usando series históricas de ingresos y gastos ejecutados por los distintos niveles de gobierno para el periodo 1923-2020, este documento describe la evolución de los desequilibrios fiscales verticales y horizontales entre el gobierno nacional, los departamentos y los municipios en Colombia. El análisis permite identificar cuatro grandes momentos de las finanzas públicas territoriales en Colombia. Las décadas de 1910 y 1920 constituyen un primer momento marcado por el fortalecimiento de la autonomía fiscal de los gobiernos subnacionales. Posteriormente, con la República Liberal en los treinta, inició un segundo periodo caracterizado por reformas centralizadoras que buscaron robustecer los ingresos del gobierno nacional central, y en menor medida los de municipios y departamentos. En el lapso de 1960-1990, los cambios se enfocaron en corregir los desbalances fiscales existentes a través del aumento de las transferencias a las regiones, la creación de institutos descentralizados y fondos territoriales, y la introducción de un nuevo estatuto tributario territorial en 1983. Finalmente, un último momento inicia con la Constitución Política de 1991, la cual dio un impulso final a la descentralización y abrió el camino hacia las reformas que construyeron el actual marco normativo de las finanzas públicas territoriales en Colombia. **** ABSTRACT: Using a novel database of historical series of revenues and expenses of different levels of government between 1923 and 2020, in this paper we describe the evolution of the vertical and horizontal imbalances between central government, states, and municipalities in Colombia. The analysis highlights four big moments of subnational public finances in Colombia. The decades of 1910 and 1920 represent an initial moment that was characterized by the strengthening of local fiscal autonomy. Subsequently, a second period started with the Liberal Republic in 1930 and was driven by centralized reforms that aimed at increasing the revenues of the central government, and to a lower extent of subnational governments. In the lapse 1960-1990, changes focused on correcting the existing fiscal imbalances through the increase in transfers, the creation of decentralized institutes and territorial funds, and the introduction of changes to the territorial tax system. Finally, the last period began with the Political Constitution of 1991, which gave a final boost to decentralization and opened the way to the reforms that built the actual regulatory framework of territorial public finances in Colombia. |
| Keywords: | Colombia, decentralization, centralization, public finance, Colombia, descentralización, centralización, finanzas públicas |
| JEL: | H77 N96 R51 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdr:cheedt:56&r=his |
| By: | Calamunci, Francesca (Sapienza University of Rome); Lonsky, Jakub (University of Liverpool) |
| Abstract: | The United States witnessed an unprecedented crime wave in the second half of the twentieth century, with the total index crime rate more than tripling between 1960-1980. Little is known about the causes of this surge in criminal activity across the country. This paper investigates the role played by the Interstate Highway System (IHS), an ambitious federal government project that led to the construction of over 40,000 miles of highways between 1956-1992. Using a staggered difference-in-differences design and a county-by-year panel dataset spanning all US counties between 1960-1993, we find that a highway opening in a county led to a 5% rise in the local index crime. This effect is driven by property crime (namely larceny and motor vehicle theft), while violent crime remained unaffected. Exploring potential mechanisms, we show that the increase in crime could be explained by the positive effect of IHS on local economic development. At the same time, we find that increases in the local law enforcement size and presence in the affected communities mitigated any substantial crime surge induced by the highway construction. |
| Keywords: | Interstate Highway System, local crime, economic development, local law enforcement |
| JEL: | H54 K42 O18 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15800&r=his |
| By: | Diana Ricciulli-Marín; Jaime Bonet-Morón; Gerson Javier Pérez-Valbuena |
| Abstract: | Usando series históricas de ingresos y gastos ejecutados por los distintos niveles de gobierno para el periodo 1923-2020, este documento describe la evolución de los desequilibrios fiscales verticales y horizontales entre el gobierno nacional, los departamentos y los municipios en Colombia. El análisis permite identificar cuatro grandes momentos de las finanzas públicas territoriales en Colombia. Las décadas de 1910 y 1920 constituyen un primer momento marcado por el fortalecimiento de la autonomía fiscal de los gobiernos subnacionales. Posteriormente, con la República Liberal en los treinta, inició un segundo periodo caracterizado por reformas centralizadoras que buscaron robustecer los ingresos del gobierno nacional central, y en menor medida los de municipios y departamentos. En el lapso de 1960-1990, los cambios se enfocaron en corregir los desbalances fiscales existentes a través del aumento de las transferencias a las regiones, la creación de institutos descentralizados y fondos territoriales, y la introducción de un nuevo estatuto tributario territorial en 1983. Finalmente, un último momento inicia con la Constitución Política de 1991, la cual dio un impulso final a la descentralización y abrió el camino hacia las reformas que construyeron el actual marco normativo de las finanzas públicas territoriales en Colombia. **** ABSTRACT: Using a novel database of historical series of revenues and expenses of different levels of government between 1923 and 2020, in this paper we describe the evolution of the vertical and horizontal imbalances between central government, states, and municipalities in Colombia. The analysis highlights four big moments of subnational public finances in Colombia. The decades of 1910 and 1920 represent an initial moment that was characterized by the strengthening of local fiscal autonomy. Subsequently, a second period started with the Liberal Republic in 1930 and was driven by centralized reforms that aimed at increasing the revenues of the central government, and to a lower extent of subnational governments. In the lapse 1960-1990, changes focused on correcting the existing fiscal imbalances through the increase in transfers, the creation of decentralized institutes and territorial funds, and the introduction of changes to the territorial tax system. Finally, the last period began with the Political Constitution of 1991, which gave a final boost to decentralization and opened the way to the reforms that built the actual regulatory framework of territorial public finances in Colombia. |
| Keywords: | Colombia, decentralization, centralization, public finance, Colombia, descentralización, centralización, finanzas públicas |
| JEL: | H77 N96 R51 |
| Date: | 2022–12–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000101:020602&r=his |
| By: | Peter Grajzl; Peter Murrell |
| Abstract: | We generate and analyze data pertinent to the role of caselaw in England's economic development during the Industrial Revolution. Applying topic modeling to a corpus of 67,455 reports on English court cases, we construct annual time series of caselaw developments between 1765 and 1865. We then add a real per-capita GDP series to our caselaw series and estimate a structural VAR. Caselaw shocks account for more of the variability in per-capita GDP than do shocks directly to per-capita GDP. The response of per-capita GDP to caselaw innovations critically depends on the legal domain. Developments in caselaw on intellectual property, organizations, debt and finance, and inheritance exerted positive effects while developments in property and ecclesiastical caselaw reduced per-capita GDP. Our analysis uncovers a 'bleak law era' when the legal system misallocated attention between development-promoting and development-hindering areas of law. |
| Keywords: | caselaw, England, economic development, Industrial Revolution, topic modelling, time series |
| JEL: | N13 N43 K10 K30 P48 O17 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10088&r=his |
| By: | Miriam Fritzsche (Humboldt-University Berlin); Nikolaus Wolf (Humboldt-University Berlin, CEPR, CESifo) |
| Keywords: | Coal, Oil invasion, Education, Reinvention, Economic Growth |
| JEL: | O13 Q32 N13 R10 I25 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anj:wpaper:029&r=his |
| By: | Giulia Barletta; Maimuna Ibraimo; Vincenzo Salvucci; Enilde Francisco Sarmento; Finn Tarp |
| Abstract: | After decades of war, ending in 1992, Mozambique embarked on a path of sustained economic growth and substantial poverty reduction. However, these positive dynamics started to revert from 2015, with per capita growth rates getting close to zero and household real consumption reducing in all areas of the country. Meanwhile, inequality stagnated in the period 1996/97-2008/09, before markedly increasing afterwards. In this study, we analyse some of the most relevant indicators of inequality for Mozambique and their trends over the last 25 years. |
| Keywords: | Inequality, Consumption, Spatial inequality, Mozambique |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2022-151&r=his |
| By: | Bähr, Johannes |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ibfpps:0422&r=his |
| By: | Gonzalez, Felipe (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile); Miquel-Florensa, Josepa; Prem, Mounu; Straub, Stéphane |
| Abstract: | Transportation infrastructure is associated with economic development, but it can also be used for social control and to benefit the governing elite. We explore the connection between the construction of road networks, state-led repression, and land allocations in the longest dictatorship in South America: Alfredo Stroessner military regime in Paraguay. Using novel panel data from the truth and reconciliation commission, we show that proximity to roads facilitated state-led repression and the illegal allocation of agricultural plots to dictatorship allies. These results suggest that infrastructure projects can also hinder economic development. |
| Date: | 2022–12–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:zetmq&r=his |
| By: | Michael Fritsch (Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany); Maria Greve (Utrecht University, The Netherlands, and Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany); Michael Wyrwich (University of Groningen, The Netherlands, and Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany) |
| Abstract: | The unification of the East and West German states in 1990 initiated the integration of two distinct innovation systems. In this process, the poorly functioning socialist system of East Germany adopted the formal institutions and organization of West Germany, a western-style market economy. We investigate the effect of this integration on patenting activity by applying a difference-in-difference approach. While patenting activity increased in both parts of the country until recently, the gap between East and West Germany widened considerably over time. This divergence in innovation activity suggests that current East-West differences may be indirectly rooted in this socialist legacy and the sudden shock transformation that occurred upon reunification. We also find that the similarity of the technology profile of the East and West German innovation systems is crucial to understand the divergence. So, East German innovation activity fell behind especially in technologies where both East and West Germany were specialized in before re-unification. The same applies to technologies where only West Germany was specialized in. Our findings indicate that integrating the two innovation systems mainly benefitted the West. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Socialism, Transformation, Germany |
| JEL: | O31 O52 P27 |
| Date: | 2022–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2023-001&r=his |
| By: | Manuel Funke (Kiel Institute for the World Economy - Kiel Institute for the World Economy); Moritz Schularick (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, University of Bonn, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR); Christoph Trebesch (Kiel Institute for the World Economy - Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Kiel University, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR) |
| Abstract: | Populism at the country level is at an all-time high, with more than 25% of nations currently governed by populists. How do economies perform under populist leaders? We build a new longrun cross-country database to study the macroeconomic history of populism. We identify 51 populist presidents and prime ministers from 1900 to 2020 and show that the economic cost of populism is high. After 15 years, GDP per capita is 10% lower compared to a plausible nonpopulist counterfactual. Economic disintegration, decreasing macroeconomic stability, and the erosion of institutions typically go hand in hand with populist rule. |
| Keywords: | Populism, Protectionism, Institutions |
| Date: | 2022–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03881225&r=his |
| By: | Emilian Libman; Leonardo Stanley |
| Abstract: | Abstract: This article describes the Argentinean experience during the first two decades of the 21st century. After a successful recovery phase from the 2001 debt crisis, during 2011 Argentina adopted incorrect macroeconomic policies to avoid the contractionary and inflationary effects from a large depreciation of the currency, by implementing a strict system of restrictions on foreign exchange purchase and sale. The restrictions were lifted 4 years after their implementation, and during 2016-2017 Argentina drew heavily from international capital markets until the country suffered a sudden stop of capital flows. Resumen: Este artículo describe la experiencia argentina durante las dos primeras décadas del siglo XXI. Luego de una recuperación exitosa de la crisis de 2001, a partir del ano 2011 Argentina adoptó una política macroeconómica incorrecta, implementando un esquema de restricciones a la compra - venta de divisas. Cuatro anos luego de introducidas, las restricciones fueron levantadas, y durante 2016-2017 Argentina retornó a los mercados financieros internacionales, hasta que el país sufrió de un freno a los ingresos de capitales. |
| Keywords: | Capital Controls, Inflation Targeting, Foreign Exchange Restrictions, Currency Crises, IMF programs, capital flow bonanzasontroles de capitales, metas de inflación, restricciones en el mercado de cambios, crisis cambiarias, programas del FMI, auge de flujo de capitales |
| JEL: | F21 F32 F53 |
| Date: | 2022–01–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000418:020584&r=his |
| By: | Alexis Stenfors (University of Portsmouth); Lilian Muchimba (University of Portsmouth) |
| Abstract: | Until the Great Recession, the largely unregulated over-the-counter (OTC) markets had received little attention from compliance officers, regulators, and lawmakers. Perhaps more important than the lack of regulatory framework as such, the markets were widely perceived to be sufficiently large, liquid, efficient and competitive to withstand manipulative and collusive attempts by traders and banks. However, the status quo was radically altered in 2012, when it was revealed that major international banks had systematically manipulated the world’s most widely used interest rate benchmark. The ‘LIBOR scandal’ was quickly followed by a ‘Forex scandal’ and the discovery of grave misconduct in a range of other OTC benchmarks and markets. At the time of writing, government bonds traded on electronic trading platforms are under particular scrutiny. This paper draws on the concepts of conspiracies (Smith 1776), beauty contests (Keynes 1936) and sabotage (Veblen 1921) to reflect on why it took so long for the scandals to be discovered. |
| Keywords: | banks, beauty contest, conspiracies, financial regulation, LIBOR, manipulation, OTC markets, sabotage |
| JEL: | E43 F31 G14 G15 G18 |
| Date: | 2022–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pbs:ecofin:2022-08&r=his |
| By: | Saka, Orkun; Ji, Yuemei; De Grauwe, Paul |
| Abstract: | We first present a simple model of post-crisis policymaking driven by both public and private interests. Using a novel dataset covering 94 countries between 1973 and 2015, we then establish that financial crises can lead to government interventions in financial markets. Consistent with a public interest channel, we find post-crisis interventions occur only in democratic countries. However, by using a plausibly exogenous setting -i.e., term limits- muting political accountability, we show that democratic leaders who do not have re-election concerns are substantially more likely to intervene in financial markets after crises, in ways that may promote (obstruct) private (public) interests. |
| Keywords: | Financial crises,reform reversals,democracies,term-limits,special-interest groups |
| JEL: | G01 G28 P11 P16 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:bofitp:bdp2021_010&r=his |
| By: | Tancredi Buscemi (University of Siena); Giulia Romani |
| Abstract: | Institutional design can influence the efficacy of public investment programmes. Specifically, devolution of authority may trigger tactical redistribution between different tiers of government and facilitate patronage dynamics at local level. We test this hypothesis in the context of the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno (Cas-Mez): a massive investment programme for the development of Southern Italy (1950-1984). By 1971, a radical institutional reform modified the CasMez’s governance: the authority over funds allocation was transferred from a centralised and technical committee to the newborn Regional governments. This paper investigates how the reform affected the CasMez’s distributive politics. We focus on the period 1960-1984 and study whether municipalities aligned with the Regional government (i.e controlled by the same party) received more funds compared to unaligned ones. We combine unique historical data on local administrators with detailed information on projects approval and financing, and implement a Two-Way-Fixed-Effects strategy. Our results suggest that aligned municipalities were assigned a higher number of projects and received larger per-capita amounts, without producing any positive impact on long-run economic outcomes. The effect is driven by subsidies to local firms. This evidence supports our claim that the institutional reform of 1971 distorted funds allocation, and possibly paved the way for rent-seeking pressures by local lobbies and patronage dynamics. |
| Keywords: | institutional design, distributive politics, devolution, Cassa per il Mezzogiorno |
| JEL: | H11 H77 N94 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2022:18&r=his |
| By: | Stephan Heblich; Marlon Seror; Hao Xu; Yanos Zylberberg |
| Abstract: | We identify negative spillovers exerted by large, successful manufacturing plants on other local production facilities in China. A short-lived alliance between the U.S.S.R. and China led to the construction of 150 "Million-Rouble plants" in the 1950s. Our identification strategy exploits the ephemeral geopolitical context and the relative position of allied and enemy airbases to isolate exogenous variation in plant location decisions. We find a boom-and-bust pattern in hosting counties: treated counties are twice as productive as control counties in 1982, but 30% less productive in 2010. The average other establishment in treated counties is unproductive, does not innovate, and charges high markups. We find that (over)specialization limits technological spillovers. This prevents the emergence of new industrial clusters and leads to a flight of entrepreneurs. |
| JEL: | J24 N95 R11 R50 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30744&r=his |
| By: | Ignacio Andrés Rossi |
| Abstract: | Resumen: En este artículo, se propone abordar las discusiones actuales en torno al capitalismo nacional y la economía argentina a partir de un conjunto de ideas canónicas de la obra de Karl Polanyi. Argentina —que hace varias décadas se encuentra atravesando recurrentes crisis en su modelo económico— despierta una pluralidad de voces de cientistas sociales y periodistas especializados que debaten sobre los problemas, limitaciones y proyecciones de la economía y el capitalismo nacional. Para ello, se relevaron estas discusiones, en su mayor medida, a partir de la prensa especializada y la bibliografía de reciente publicación, prestando atención a las propuestas teóricas, interpretativas e ideológicas que permitieron generar relaciones con la teoría de Polanyi. Se concluye en que las ideas de este último en torno al funcionamiento del capitalismo, los mercados, el Estado y la dinámica social contemporánea aportan un bagaje conceptual significativo para enmarcar las discusiones actuales entre cientistas sociales sobre la economía argentina. Abstract: The article proposes to address the current discussions about national capitalism and the Argentine economy from a set of canonical ideas of the work of Karl Polanyi. Argentina, which for several decades has been going through recurring crises in its economic model, awakens a plurality of voices from social scientists and specialized journalists who debate the problems, limitations and projections of national capitalism. For this, we have surveyed these discussions, to a greater extent, from the specialized press and the recently published bibliography, paying attention to the theoretical, interpretative and ideological proposals that allow us to generate relationships with Polanyi's theory. It was concluded that the latter's ideas about the functioning of capitalism, markets, the State and contemporary social dynamics provide significant conceptual background to frame the current discussions among social scientists about the Argentine economy. |
| Keywords: | Polanyi, capitalismo, Argentina, Estado, estabilidad, desarrollo; capitalism, State, Argentina, stability, development |
| JEL: | A10 A11 B15 B22 |
| Date: | 2022–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000418:020593&r=his |
| By: | Stephen J Terry (BU - Boston University [Boston], NBER - National Bureau of Economic Research [New York] - NBER - The National Bureau of Economic Research); Thomas Chaney (USC - University of Southern California, ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR); Konrad B Burchardi (Stockholm University); Lisa Tarquinio (UWO - University of Western Ontario); Tarek A Hassan (BU - Boston University [Boston], NBER - National Bureau of Economic Research [New York] - NBER - The National Bureau of Economic Research, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR) |
| Abstract: | We show a causal impact of immigration on innovation and growth in US counties. To identify the causal impact of immigration, we use 130 years of detailed data on migrations from foreign countries to US counties to isolate quasi-random variation in the ancestry composition of US counties; interacting this plausibly exogenous variation in ancestry composition with the recent inflows of migrants from different origins, we predict the total number of migrants flowing into each US county in recent decades. We show immigration has a positive causal impact on innovation, measured as patenting of local firms, and on economic growth, measured as real income growth for native workers. We interpret those results through the lens of a quantitative model of endogenous growth and migrations. A structural estimation of this model targeting the well identified causal impact of migration on innovation suggests the large inflow of foreign migrants into the US since 1965 may have contributed to an additional 8% growth in innovation and 5% growth in wages. |
| Keywords: | Migrations, Innovation, Patents, Endogenous growth, Dynamism |
| Date: | 2022–11–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03869993&r=his |
| By: | Hernandez, Carlos Eduardo; Tovar, Jorge; Caballero/Argáez, Carlos |
| Abstract: | The resilience of firms to industry-wide shocks has positive externalities in industries with systemic risk, such as banking. We study the resilience of banks to macroeconomic slowdowns in a context of lax microprudential regulations: Colombia during the 1980s. Multiple banks performed poorly during the crisis due to practices that tunneled resources from depositors to shareholders and board members. Such practices —related lending for company acquisitions, loan concentration, and accounting fraud— were enabled by power concentration and links with political power among local banks. In contrast, foreign-owned banks performed relatively well during the crisis due to three factors: (i) foreign-owned banks imported governance institutions and lending procedures from their headquarters, (ii) foreign-owned banks were not part of local business groups with concentrated ownership, and (iii) foreign-owned banks were ex-ante less likely to receive a bailout from the government. These factors continued to be relevant into the 1980s, even though the Colombian government had forced foreign banks to become minority stakeholders of their subsidiaries in 1975. |
| Keywords: | Banking, Tunneling, Related Lending, Financial Crises, Foreign Banks |
| JEL: | G21 G28 G30 G33 N26 |
| Date: | 2022–12–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:115662&r=his |
| By: | Parrinello, Sergio (Sapienza University of Rome) |
| Abstract: | Different theories of international trade have originated from Chapter VII “On Foreign Trade” of Ricardo’s Principles and particularly from the interpretation of his numerical example of the gains from trade. In this paper a relatively new interpretation of such example and the resulting implications will be assessed in the light of Sraffa’s writings (1930, 1951) and of the so-called Neo-Ricardian approach applied to the theory of foreign trade. In particular, it will be reconsidered: i) the analogy between the choice of interna-tional specialization and the choice of techniques; ii) the conditions under which absolute cost advantages may prevail over comparative advantages and affect the pattern of inter-national trade and the delocalization of the national industries. |
| Keywords: | David Ricardo; Comparative advantage; Gains from trade |
| JEL: | B12 B17 F10 |
| Date: | 2022–12–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:sraffa:0060&r=his |
| By: | Stanislas Kihm (Université Paris-Saclay) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to understand, from a study of the strategy and behaviour of Saint-Gobain's managers from 1980 to 1991, the specific folds imposed by financial dynamics on the strategy and structure of the group. |
| Abstract: | Cette communication vise à comprendre, à partir d'une étude de la stratégie et des comportements des dirigeants de Saint-Gobain de 1980 à 1991, les plis spécifiques qu'imposent les dynamiques financières sur la stratégie et la structure du groupe. |
| Date: | 2022–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03876844&r=his |
| By: | Takuma Matsuda; Suguru Otani |
| Abstract: | We constructed a new unified panel dataset of route-year-level freight rates and shipping quantities for the six major routes and industry-year-level newbuilding, secondhand, and scrap prices from 1966 (beginning of the industry) to 2009. We provide detailed guidance on how to merge multiple datasets and verify the consistency of the data with the historical knowledge and experience of industry experts and former executives. Using this data, we provide a descriptive analysis of quantitatively unknown industry dynamics known as the container crisis. Finally, we detect structural breaks for each variable to illustrate the effect of the breakdown of shipping cartels. |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2211.16292&r=his |
| By: | Bayoumi, Tamim; Barkema, Jelle |
| Abstract: | The IT revolution, underway since around 1980, has featured mediocre growth and rising geographic, educational, and generational inequality. This stands in stark contrast to the broad prosperity and convergence experienced in the 1950s and 1960s. We attribute this change to a swivel in the leading edge of productivity growth away from manufacturing largely present in towns to information technology mainly housed in “superstar” cities. Using a spatial model, we show how this can explain: rising prosperity and rapid housing inflation in “superstar” cities; falling relative wages in towns and the countryside; mediocre aggregate productivity due to increasing misallocation of labor; the loss of manufacturing jobs, especially in cities; and falling migration. |
| Date: | 2022–12–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:8u6an&r=his |
| By: | Carolina Donnelly (editor); Jorge M. Streb (editor); Franco D. Albino; Gianella Bernardoni Moretti; Juan C. Conforto; Tobías Hermo; Luciana Marzaroli; Tadeo Zapata |
| Abstract: | Esta colección de ensayos se enfoca en diferentes aspectos de la Teoría de Sentimientos Morales (TSM) de Smith. A partir del espectador imparcial, Albino relaciona a TSM con la moderna economía del comportamiento. Bernardoni Moretti toma a Aristóteles como un antecedente de Smith respecto a que nuestros sentimientos y empatía están influidos por nuestra interpretación y nuestras creencias sobre la realidad. Conforto contrasta las visiones sobre el rol de la moral en Maquiavelo, que la deja de lado, y Smith, donde es un elemento central. Hermo relaciona la simpatía en Smith con la empatía cognitiva y afectiva en Baron-Cohen y su análisis de qué pasa si uno de los componentes está ausente. Marzaroli usa la simpatía en TSM para explicar la actual polarización en redes sociales. Zapata relaciona la beneficencia en Smith con las categorías de acción humana en Mises y ética objetivista en Rand. |
| Keywords: | Adam Smith, creencias, simpatía, empatía, interés propio, moral, justicia, espectador imparcial |
| JEL: | B12 D01 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cem:doctra:844&r=his |
| By: | Yulianti, Andivira |
| Abstract: | Mazhab klasik muncul kisaran tahun 1780-1850. Pemikiran klasik ini bisa dianggap sebagai dasar munculnya ekonomi kapitalis, dimana campur tangan pemerintah hanya sebagian kecil kepada kepentingan negara atau pemerintah, dimana salah satu tokoh ekonomi kapitalis yang terkenal yaitu Adam Smith. Pada dasarnya pemikiran ekonomi aliran klasik menganjurkan kebebasan alamiah, kepentingan diri, dan persaingan. Beberapa tokoh lain yang mendukung pemikiran Adam Smith adalah David Ricardo, Thomas Robert Malthus, dan Jean Baptiste Say |
| Date: | 2022–11–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:a9vuz&r=his |
| By: | Virginie Gouverneur |
| Abstract: | Some commentators state that Marshall conceptualizes the well-being primarily in terms of the consumer’s surpluses, whose interdependence with the moral character rests on the ability of markets to produce their effects on character spontaneously. The purpose of the article is to show that evolutionary faith is not really enough to remove the tension between the economic and moral dimensions of Marshall’s definition of the well-being. Marshall understands that progress would not happen without assigning a peculiar role to families and women in cultivating family affections as an essential means to secure the link between these two dimensions. To prove this point, the article examines several economic texts written before Marshall’s major economic book, Principles of Economics, the first edition of which appeared in 1890. These writings have received little consideration in the existing literature about Marshall’s treatment of the role of women in a capitalist economy. Yet, they prefigure and allow to better understanding the theory expounded in Principles. |
| Keywords: | Alfred Marshall, family environment, women’s role, well-being, progress. |
| JEL: | B13 I31 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2022-35&r=his |
| By: | Cavallo, Eduardo A.; Becerra, Oscar; Acevedo, Laura |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the impact of catastrophic natural disasters on economic growth using an event study methodology on a country panel dataset from 1970 to 2019. The severity of the events is determined by the associated mortality. We find that affected economies which, given the way natural disasters are ranked, comprise mainly developing countries, suffer an average loss between 2.1 and 3.7 percentage points (p.p.). The estimated loss is not offset by above-average growth rates in the disasters aftermath. In contrast, when the severity of the events is determined by physical intensity rather than by mortality, which implies a more balanced estimating sample of developed and developing economies, the estimated effects on growth are negligible. Thus, the negative impacts of natural disasters on economic growth are larger for poorer countries, suggesting that the impact of natural disasters on growth is an economic development issue. |
| Keywords: | Event study |
| JEL: | Q54 O47 |
| Date: | 2021–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:11662&r=his |
| By: | Knake, Sebastian |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ibfpps:0522&r=his |