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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
| By: | Annie L. Cot (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, REhPERE); Muriel Dal Pont Legrand (GREDEG, Université Côte d'Azur) |
| Abstract: | The first issue of L'Europe Nouvelle was published in 1918, as a weekly journal directed by Louise Weiss (1893-1983), a French journalist with a university degree in literature, who would later become a feminist activist and a member of the European Parliament. L'Europe Nouvelle carried the urgent need for a Peace projet after World War I and the vital necessity to set up and strengthen the new League of Nations shared in many intellectual, political, and economic circles. The contributors to l'Europe Nouvelle ranged from politicians to diplomate, writers, artists and of course economists. Louise Weiss's stated aim was to train the future elites to achieve a unified Europe as the only solution to a lasting peace. To this end, she commissioned a diverse array of authors from various disciplines and negotiated an exclusive publishing agreement with John Maynard Keynes for the French edition of seven articles, between 1927 and 1929. The paper examines these contributions |
| Keywords: | John M. Keynes; Louise Weiss; debts; reparations; l'Europe Nouvelle; World War I; the Economic consequences of the Peace |
| JEL: | B1 B22 B31 B41 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:24011 |
| By: | Richard N. Langlois (University of Connecticut) |
| Abstract: | Edith Penrose was far from underappreciated in management theory, where she was considered the inspiration for more than one research program. But she was virtually unknown in economics, the discipline in which she was trained and in which she considered herself to be working. This essay chronicles the life and work of Edith Penrose. It examines the streams of thought she influenced – and didn’t influence. As a special bonus, the essay also considers another underappreciated economist, George Richardson, who built on Penrose’s work and overcame some of its limitations. Following Brian Loasby, the essay ultimately argues for understanding Penrose and Richardson as industrial organization economists in the tradition of Adam Smith and Alfred Marshall. |
| JEL: | B25 B31 B52 B53 L2 L65 O32 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:uconnp:2024-05 |
| By: | Gustavo A. Del Angel (Department of Economics, CIDE); Manuel E. Prado Cedano (Department of Economics, CIDE) |
| Abstract: | El presente artículo estudia la evolución de la concentración industrial en el sistema bancario mexicano desde el Porfiriato a nuestros días. Si bien la concentración es persistente, se distinguen ciclos de expansión y ciclos de consolidación a lo largo de la historia. Algunos de los procesos de expansión, y de consolidación, han sido promovidos por las autoridades financieras, pero también episodios de choques exógenos como crisis determinan los ciclos consolidación. El artículo también explica que un factor importante para explicar la persistencia de la concentración, así como de la participación de mercado de los grandes bancos, es la inversión de los bancos en infraestructura de redes de distribución. Si bien a lo largo del tiempo ha habido una narrativa que vincula concentración con competencia, en este artículo no abordamos posibles problemas de competencia, sino que estudiamos la concentración como una característica estructural de la industria. El artículo hace énfasis en las últimas dos décadas, en las cuales, aunque la concentración en las mayores instituciones financieras persiste, la entrada de nuevos intermediarios ha conducido a una tendencia de desconcentración del mercado. |
| Keywords: | concentración, banca múltiple, bancos, México |
| JEL: | G20 L10 N20 N26 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emc:wpaper:dte644 |
| By: | Costas Cavounidis; Vittoria Dicandia; Kevin Lang; Raghav Malhotra |
| Abstract: | We present a unified technological explanation of both the movement of workers across jobs using different skills and the changes in skill use within jobs. An envelope-theorem approach allows us to estimate relative skill-productivity growth from worker mobility using OLS while making minimal assumptions on each occupation's production function. Using six decades of data, we conclude that routine-cognitive- and finger-dexterity-skill productivity grew rapidly and abstract- and social-skill productivity grew slowly - a form of "skill bias." These effects, along with our estimated relationships between skill inputs, also explain changes in skill use within occupations. |
| Keywords: | skills; technological change |
| JEL: | J24 O33 |
| Date: | 2024–11–26 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedcwq:99181 |
| By: | Eoin McLaughlin (Heriot-Watt University); Paul Sharp (University of Southern Denmark, CAGE, CEPR); Christian Volmar Skovsgaard (University of Southern Denmark); Christian Vedel (University of Southern Denmark) |
| Abstract: | Agricultural cooperation is seen as a way to solve collective action problems and has been associated with high social capital and other beneficial impacts in the countryside beyond productivity increases. But what if it comes into conflict with existing private concerns? The Irish dairy cooperatives from the 1890s entered a contested market for milk, and soon became associated with various degrees of conflict: legal disputes and physical violence. We hypothesize that this led to poor social capital, manifesting in conflict during the Irish War of Independence. We analyze novel data on cooperative and private creameries, as well as measures of conflict. Our findings indicate a significant positive correlation between the presence of cooperatives and local conflict intensities, persisting even after controlling for various confounders. An instrumental variable approach based on prior specialization in dairying validates this. Cooperation might thus both reflect social capital but also have pernicious impacts on it. |
| Keywords: | Ireland, Cooperatives, Social Capital, Market Contestation |
| JEL: | N53 N54 Q13 Z13 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0272 |
| By: | Jaison R. Abel; Richard Deitz |
| Abstract: | We develop a measure of chronic joblessness among prime-age men and women in the United States—termed the detachment rate— that identifies those who have been out of the labor force for more than a year. We show that the detachment rate more than doubled for men since the early 1980s and rose by a quarter for women since 2000, though it is consistently considerably higher for women than men. We then explore the economic geography of labor market detachment to help explain its rise. Results show that the detachment rate increased more in places with weak local economies, particularly those that experienced a loss of routine production and administrative support jobs due to globalization and technological change. The loss of production jobs affected both men and women and was particularly consequential in the 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s, while the loss of administrative support jobs mostly affected women and was particularly severe in the 1980s and 1990s. Moreover, we find the rise in detachment was concentrated among older prime-age individuals and those without a college degree, and occurred less in places with high human capital. |
| Keywords: | joblessness; labor force participation; local labor markets; job polarization; globalization; technological change; regional divergence |
| JEL: | E24 J21 J24 J61 O33 R12 |
| Date: | 2024–11–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednsr:99196 |
| By: | Korn, Tobias; Lacroix, Jean |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that amid aggregate gains, market integration generates within sector reallocation. To measure this effect, we collected new data on personal bankruptcies during the rail expansion in 19th century Britain. Our estimators leverage within geography-time and within sector-time variation to measure sector-specific effects of the rail on both employment and bankruptcies. A connection to railway increased bankruptcies only in the manufacturing sector, despite simultaneously increasing employment in that sector. Both a three-way fixed effects and a Least Cost Path approach validate the causality of our estimates. We further show that organizational changes that occurred in the manufacturing sector upon market integration explain our results: Firms expanded, self-employment decreased, occupations diversified; overall, the nature of labour changed. This biased growth of the manufacturing sector caused financial distress for some of its workers. |
| Keywords: | Bankruptcies, Economic Growth, Structural transformation |
| JEL: | N63 L16 O33 R40 K35 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:han:dpaper:dp-731 |
| By: | Patrik Vanek (Department of Economics, Faculty of Business and Economics, Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic); Ludek Kouba (Department of Economics, Faculty of Business and Economics, Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic); Eleanor Doyle (Global Competitiveness Institute, Cork University Business School, University College Cork, Ireland) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the dynamic evolution of world city hierarchy from 1996 to 2023, emphasising metropolitan areas as global command-and-control centres. The paper proposes a classification of the diverse literature on world/global cities and develops an analytical framework revisiting Godfrey and Zhou’s (1999) approach. Using the Fortune Global 500 list and Refinitiv Eikon database data, the paper explores trends in global command-and-control centres by analysing the locations of corporate and regional headquarters. The paper reveals a shift towards Pacific Rim cities, a strengthening position of US cities, Europe’s decline, and persistent command and control disparity. Beijing has surpassed traditional leaders such as New York, Tokyo, and London, emerging as a dominant economic command-and-control centre. |
| Keywords: | world city hierarchy, corporate geography, metropolitan areas, command-and-control, Fortune Global 500 |
| JEL: | F23 R30 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:men:wpaper:96_2024 |
| By: | Davis, John B. (Department of Economics Marquette University); (Department of Economics Marquette University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates philosophy’s engagement with one social science, economics, via the philosophy of economics. It first distinguishes mainstream philosophy of economics and heterodox/non-mainstream philosophy of economics, and then argues that the latter’s increasing recourse to analytical reasoning in philosophy to advance its critiques of mainstream economics points toward a new engagement between philosophy of economics and philosophy. To provide grounds for this argument, the paper discusses shared thinking of three key figures: philosophy’s Derek Parfit and from economics Herbert Simon and Amartya Sen. It argues their respective critiques of dominant ideas in their fields reflect a little discussed convergence in thinking between philosophy and economics through heterodox/non-mainstream philosophy of economics. This convergence is argued to reflect a shared commitment to one philosophical conception of temporal sequences, namely, the past-present-future as opposed to the before-after sequence. Philosophy’s future engagement with economics as a social science, the paper concludes, builds on the role this conception plays in both in the future. |
| Keywords: | philosophy of economics, mainstream, heterodox/non-mainstream, Parfit, Simon, Sen, temporal science |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrq:wpaper:2024-05 |
| By: | Branimir Jovanović (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Artem Kochnev; Manuel Neubauer; Monika Schwarzhappel (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw) |
| Abstract: | Special Issue on Formerly Socialist Economies Analysing socialist economies the first two decades of wiiw publications by Manuel Neubauer As part of its COMECON project, wiiw has digitised hundreds of its publications – more than 45, 000 pages in all. As these are now publicly accessible on https //comecon.wiiw.ac.at/, this article serves as a short introduction to wiiw’s early publications, in particular those examining the socialist economies up until 1991. Two of our oldest and most important publications have been providing wiiw’s members with up-to-date research ever since those early days Research Reports and Monthly Reports. Both may serve today as a fascinating survey of developing Western perceptions of the socialist system. A brand new wiiw dataset on the former socialist countries by Artem Kochnev and Monika Schwarzhappel wiiw has compiled an innovative dataset on the nine former socialist countries Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. The dataset includes a total of 8, 347 economic and social indicators, organised into 11 chapters and spanning the period from 1944 to 1993. Thanks to the significant effort put into data harmonisation, it contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of twentieth-century economic history. Why did socialism collapse? Insights from our new COMECON Dataset by Branimir Jovanović In this article, we explore why the socialist systems in Eastern Europe collapsed around 1990, drawing on our newly digitised wiiw COMECON Dataset. We revisit traditional explanations framed as the ‘jockey’ (policy decisions), the ‘horse’ (inherent systemic flaws) and the ‘racetrack’ (external environment), concluding that the collapse resulted from the interplay of all three factors. If any one of these factors had been different, socialism might well have survived. Monthly and quarterly statistics for Central, East and Southeast Europe |
| Keywords: | early years of wiiw, wiiw publication series, data digitisation, harmonisation and validation, external debt, convertible exports, investments, grain production |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:mpaper:mr:2024-12 |
| By: | Nils Herger (Study Center Gerzensee) |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:szg:worpap:2407 |
| By: | Annie L. Cot (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, REhPERE) |
| Abstract: | In France, Charles Gide had been the first economist to analyse Marx's theses in depth. Translated into French by Joseph Roy, proofread by Marx and published in the form of fascicles by the publisher Maurice Lachâtre between 1872 and 1875. Book I of Capital met with a somewhat unexpected reception. An initial review of the German version, by the philosopher Eugène de Roberty, appeared in the columns of Emilie Littré and Grégroire Wyrouboff's journal La Philosophie Positive. Two economists close to the Guillaumin publishing house, Maurice Block and Emilie de laveleye, then commented it. But beyond these early exchanges, Marx's theories were ignored in French academic debates until Charles Gide's close analytical presentation of them more than two decades later. In accordance with the reading grid he claimed in his Histoire des doctrines économiques, Gide proposed a dual reading of Capital: one in terms of "theories" and one in terms of "doctrines". Janus bifrons: on the one hand, the academic texts, which reproduce the logical rigour of Book I of Capital; on the other, the texts of a citizen involved in the ooperative movement and solidarism, close to the pre-Marxist French socialists. As Jean Starobinski puts it, this dual perspective requires us to "shift the point of application of historical attention", and to analyse these two postures as embodying what the Konstanz School calls two "horizons of expectation" articulated here not diachronically, as in Hans-Robert Jauss, but synchronically |
| Keywords: | Karl Marx; Charles Gide; Collège de France; French socialism; Horizon of expectation; Hans-Robert Jauss |
| JEL: | B10 B14 B31 A12 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:24012 |
| By: | Kunze, Astrid (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | On 9 October 2023, Claudia Goldin was announced as winner of the 2023 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. It can certainly be said that many had long awaited the recognition of her research on women and inequality in labour markets. Goldin is a labour economist and economic historian who has shed new light on economic questions related to gender equality, particularly through historical data. This article summarises some of her major contributions to our understanding of the labour market behaviour of women and gender inequality. |
| Keywords: | gender; labour market; wages; employment; discrimination; equal pay for equal work; gender segregation; labour demand and supply |
| JEL: | J10 J20 J23 |
| Date: | 2024–12–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2024_019 |
| By: | Orphanides, Athanasios |
| Abstract: | Throughout its history, the Fed has operated with a muddled mandate that has not explicitly recognized price stability as the primary goal of monetary policy. The Fed's success in maintaining price stability and fostering the good economic performance associated with it has depended on how it interpreted its mandate and implemented its policy strategy. In the 1970s and in the recent past, the Fed interpreted its mandate in an overambitious fashion, placing undue emphasis on the elusive goal of maximum employment. On both occasions, the Fed's strategy proved insufficiently resilient, and high inflation followed. To improve its policy strategy the Fed ought to revert to earlier interpretations of its mandate that acknowledge the primacy of price stability as a policy guide. |
| Keywords: | Federal Reserve, mandate, maximum employment, monetary policy strategy |
| JEL: | E32 E52 E58 E61 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:imfswp:306827 |
| By: | Grant Fleming; Zhangxin (Frank) Liu; David Merrett; Simon Ville |
| Abstract: | We build on an evolving international literature by investigating the relationship between ownership and control in a sample of 92 Australian companies in the 1930s. The interwar period was a formative one in Australia for the growth of corporations and share ownership, although investor protections and information lagged. We estimate the ownership share of the Board, separately the CEO/Chairman, and other significant blockholders. Our sources enable us to adopt a new approach that accounts for shares controlled indirectly through family ownership and related entities. This makes an important difference to our results. Board ownership was similar to the US and the UK in the early twentieth century; but taking account of shares controlled through related entities changes the story to one of an insider system where ownership and control had not separated. Dual CEOs also mattered along with blockholders beyond the Board in many companies. We also examine some of the drivers of this structure of ownership and control including company size, the role of family firms, and of preference shares. |
| Keywords: | Ownership and control; Board of Directors; CEO; Blockholder; Australia |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:hpaper:126 |
| By: | Juliana Jaramillo-Echeverri |
| Abstract: | Can radio campaigns affect fertility? This paper examines the impact of a national radio campaign promoting family planning clinics in late 1960s Colombia on the country’s rapid fertility decline. The campaign, initiated by Profamilia in 1969, provided information about the location of clinics without giving detailed contraceptive information. Using data from the full count 1973 census and information on clinic locations and radio programs, the study leverages exogenous variation in radio signal strength to estimate the campaign’s effect on fertility. I follow a difference-in-differences strategy to compare fertility before and after the start of the radio campaign at the individual level. The findings indicate that the radio campaign reduced between 4% to 16% the probability of having a child one year after the campaign. The effects are stronger for women living close to a Profamilia clinic. However, by 1973 motherhood was still almost universal. This research contributes to the understanding of the effects of family planning programs and media exposure on fertility decline, highlighting the role of media in overcoming geographical barriers and driving social change. **** RESUMEN: ¿Pueden las campañas de radio afectar la fecundidad? Este artículo examina el impacto de una campaña de radio que promovía clínicas de planificación familiar, en el descenso de la fecundidad en Colombia. La campaña, iniciada por Profamilia en 1969, proporcionó información sobre la ubicación de las clínicas sin ofrecer información detallada sobre anticonceptivos. Utilizando datos del censo completo de 1973 y la información sobre la ubicación de las clínicas y los programas de radio, este artículo usa la variación exógena en la intensidad de la señal de radio para estimar el efecto de la campaña en la fecundidad. Utilizando una estrategia de diferencia en diferencias se compara la fecundidad antes y después del inicio de la campaña de radio. Los resultado indican que la campaña de radio redujo entre un 4% y un 14% la probabilidad de tener un hijo un año después de la campaña. Los efectos son más fuertes para las mujeres que viven cerca de una clínica de Profamilia. Sin embargo, en 1973 la maternidad seguía siendo casi universal. Esta investigación contribuye a nuestro conocimiento sobre los efectos de los programas de planificación familiar y la exposición a los medios en la disminución de la fecundidad, destacando el papel de los medios en superar las barreras geográficas e impulsar el cambio social. |
| Keywords: | fertility transition, mass media, family planning, Colombia, transición de la fecundidad, medios de comunicación, planificación familiar |
| JEL: | O15 D63 I24 J15 J12 N36 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdr:cheedt:65 |
| By: | Joshua Ball; Günther G. Schulze; Nikita Zakharov (Department of International Economic Policy, University of Freiburg) |
| Abstract: | We revisit the effect of gun laws on suicide rates in the US states in the past 30 years by departing from the correlational analysis inherent in the previous literature and, instead, leveraging an instrumental variable (IV) approach based on policy convergences between contiguous states. The empirical analysis relies on the estimated gun law stringency constructed as the number of gun laws per state-year. Our causal results show that the gun control stringency significantly reduces firearm suicide rates (both in correlational and IV estimations), corroborating previous findings; yet this decline does not translate into fewer overall suicides â contrary to what was previously found in correlational studies. This novel finding suggests that gun laws are not effective in curbing overall suicide rates. |
| Keywords: | Gun laws, Suicides, Endogeneity, Instrumental variables, US states. |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fre:wpaper:51 |
| By: | Donato Masciandaro (Department of Economics, Bocconi University); Davide Romelli (Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin); Stefano Ugolini (Department of Economics, Universit' Toulouse Capitole) |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on an early unique experiment of freely floating State-issued money, implemented in Venice between 1619 and 1666. Building on a new hand-collected database from a previously unexplored archival source, we show that, despite the Venetian ducat's status as an international currency and the government's reputation for fiscal prudence, its external value was significantly, and increasingly, affected by episodes of automatic government deficit monetization through the Banco del Giro during the crises of 1630 (outbreak of the bubonic plague) and 1648-50 (escalation of the Cretan War). This suggests that the institutional context plays an important role in the transmission mechanism between government deficit monetization and exchange rates. |
| Keywords: | Fiscal Dominance, Monetary Policy, Early Modern Venice, Banco del Giro, Fiat Money, Deficit Monetization, Historical Exchange Rates |
| JEL: | F31 E63 N33 N43 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcd:tcduee:tep1124 |
| By: | Giovanni Scarano |
| Abstract: | This paper argues that the concern to determine the rate of profit, attributed by the modern surplus approach to the classics, was not the main focus in most classical authors before Ricardo and certainly did not have a central place in Marx’s analysis. According to Marx, a uniform rate of profit was only one way to determine the distribution of surplus value among the owners of capital, while the distribution of income among capitalists and workers was strictly determined by the rate of surplus value. Marx did not use his own version of the labour theory of value to determine the rate of profit and production prices, but to analyse the dynamics of economic aggregates and bring to light the inner social nature of production and distribution processes. In this context, Marx’s rate of profit was only an aggregate measure of the maximum potential growth rate. |
| Keywords: | surplus approach, classical economists, rate of profit, rate of interest, prices of production |
| JEL: | B14 B24 B51 C67 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtr:wpaper:0284 |
| By: | Pascal Langer |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between international sanctions and coups d’état in targeted countries. Employing a panel logit model and utilizing data from 1972 to 2013 drawn from the Global Sanctions Database and the Coup Leaders Dataset, we analyze the effects of UN and Western sanctions on both occurrence of coups and successful coups. Western sanctions are found to initially increase the likelihood of coups by more than 4.0 pp with a diminishing impact over time. In the post-Cold War era, Western sanctions raise the probability of coups by 1.7 pp and successful coups by even 2.1 pp. The effects are particularly pronounced in non-democratic regimes, especially in personalist authoritarian regimes. |
| Keywords: | International Sanctions, Coups d’État |
| JEL: | D74 F51 H56 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trr:wpaper:202414 |
| By: | Romain Espinosa (CIRED, CNRS, Nogent-sur-Marne, France); Fabien Moizeau (Univ Rennes, CNRS, CREM – UMR6211, F-35000 Rennes, France) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the long-run evolution of Catholics’ view on State secularism in France. We explore the roots of the opposition of Catholics to secularism that can be traced back as far as the 1789 French Revolution. We provide evidence that the divide between Catholics and supporters of secularism persisted throughout the 19th and early 20th Centuries, affecting votes on the major secularization Laws during the Third Republic. We argue that the dual French educational system, partitioned into Catholic and secular schools, may have contributed to this persistence. We then show that Catholics eventually became supporters of secularism in France, closing the political divide on the issue. However, this shift in opinion can be explained by Catholics viewing secularism as a way of limiting the influence of Islam. We argue that views about the involvement of Muslim/Catholic authorities in public debate are significant determinants of political supply in France. Last, we show that Catholics, who now support secularism, continue to exhibit different voting behavior and attitudes than Atheists (regarding women’s rights and same-sex legislation). |
| Keywords: | Secularism, cultural persistence, voting behavior, Catholicism |
| JEL: | Z12 K10 D72 O15 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tut:cremwp:2024-12 |
| By: | Jad Moawad; Daniel Oesch |
| Abstract: | The public debate portrays the middle class as the big losers in recent decades, while people above and below seemingly fared better in terms of employment and income growth. This narrative is both conceptually and empirically flawed. Based on the Luxembourg Income Study 1980–2020, we show for France, Germany, Poland, Spain, the UK, and the US that middle-class employment expanded, while the working class shrank. The middle class also experienced consistently larger income gains than the working class over the past four decades. The disposable real incomes of working-class households in France, Germany or the US grew by less than half a percent per year, compared to 1% or more for the middle class. Cohort analysis also shows that the promise of doing better than one’s parents held for the middle class, but vanished for the working class. |
| Keywords: | social class; income; labor market; occupations; economic growth |
| JEL: | D31 J31 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2024-11 |
| By: | Anait Mikaelyan (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The article presents an attempt to examine Goethe's poem "Reineke Fox" in connection with the discussion between Goethe and Schiller about the nature of epic poetry and the principles of its renewal within the poetics of "Weimar Classicism". Goethe's innovations in interpreting the medieval plot of the Fox, corresponding to the principles of construction of ancient epic poems due to the fame of the plot, the balance of retardations and predictions and the renewal of the German hexameter, etc., will be discussed in the correspondence between Goethe and Schiller. It substantiates the principles of constructing the German epic with the tasks of forming a new literature. |
| Keywords: | medieval epic, Weimar Classicism, Goethe and Schiller's theory of epic poetry, "Reineke Fox", hexameter. |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:28/ls/204 |
| By: | Guillaume Blanc |
| Abstract: | This paper draws on a novel dataset crowdsourced from publicly available online genealogies to study demographic change and development in Europe before modern censuses became available. Using millions of publicly available family trees, I reconstruct fertility from horizontal lineages and identify migration to and from urban centers. Then, I systematically compare the data to a range of representative sources in thirty countries and show that selection is limited after the mid-seventeenth century. Finally, I document novel stylized facts on the rural flight, the demographic transition, and the intergenerational persistence of migration, fertility, and longevity; providing suggestive evidence that substantial changes took hold in the eighteenth century, in the early stages of the transition from stagnation to growth. |
| Keywords: | fertility, demography, migration, development |
| JEL: | J10 N33 O10 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:man:allwps:0006 |
| By: | Alexandra Bykova (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Magdalena Frei; Artem Kochnev; Isilda Mara (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Renate Prasch; Hana Ruskova; Monika Schwarzhappel (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Banushi Xhesika |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces the historical dataset with economic time series of socialist Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia (CSSR), the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Hungary, Poland, Romania, the Soviet Union (USSR) and Yugoslavia from 1944 to 1993 as well as a new dataset on Albania created as part of this project. The paper explains the dataset’s structure and gaps as well as the harmonisation efforts and accounting methodologies adopted in the member countries of the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA or COMECON) during that period. The paper serves as a companion for the users of the wiiw COMECON Dataset. wiiw COMECON Dataset https //comecon.wiiw.ac.at/ |
| Keywords: | CMEA, COMECON, socialist countries, Albania, Bulgaria, CSSR, GDR, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, population, net material product, GDP, investment, labour market, prices, wages, production, consumption per capita, budget, trade by partners, trade by commodities and regions, conversion factors, external finance, economic history, comparative economic systems, historical dataset of economic time series. |
| JEL: | B22 B24 B27 B40 B41 N14 N34 N44 N54 N64 N74 P20 P30 P51 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:spaper:statr:13 |
| By: | C. Caporali; F. Crudu; C. Detotto |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the causal relationship between terrorist violence during the Years of Lead and the decline in voter turnout in Italian political elections. The analysis, which covers electoral participation at the NUTS-3 level from 1972 to 1992, relies on data from the Global Terrorism Dataset for information regarding domestic terrorist attacks. Using causal mediation analysis (CMA) and the front-door criterion (FDC), we identify how the magnitude of attacks – measured by casualties, injuries, and material damages – affects electoral participation. Our findings reveal a nuanced impact of terrorism. Specifically, the results are mainly driven by material damage and to a lesser extent by the number of casualties. |
| Keywords: | causal mediation analysis;front-door criterion;terrorism;turnout |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:202426 |
| By: | Andrew Greenland; John Lopresti |
| Abstract: | Using a newly digitized database encompassing the universe of tariff lines across five US trade policy regimes between 1900 and 1940, we show that price dynamics combine with industry reliance on specific tariffs to generate large swings in average tariff levels. Intra-policy variation in tariffs is strongly predictive of import growth throughout our sample. Using linked Census data, we quantify the effects of imports on structural change in this era. We find that import growth decreases labor force participation and inhibits the transition into the expanding manufacturing and service sectors, especially among the young. |
| JEL: | F13 F14 F66 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33127 |
| By: | Antonie, Luiza; Inwood, Kris; Minns, Chris; Summerfield, Fraser |
| Abstract: | This paper uses linked Census records from 1871 to 1901 to compute intergenerational mobility for Canadian regions and census districts. The results reveal sharp differences in mobility over space: Ontario featured high relative and absolute mobility, Quebec low relative and absolute mobility, and the Maritimes low absolute mobility. Local differences in human capital endowments and labour market inequality are correlated with district mobility patterns but do not account for regional differences, where migration and structural change toward industry and services appear important. Comparing spatial patterns of Canadian mobility in the 19th century to today shows substantial changes for Quebec districts. |
| JEL: | J62 N31 |
| Date: | 2024–11–25 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:wpaper:126165 |
| By: | Gareth Campbell (Queen’s University Belfast); Áine Gallagher (Queen’s University Belfast); Richard S.Grossman (Department of Economics, Wesleyan University) |
| Abstract: | Substantial amounts of British capital flowed to Latin America during the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Companies financed by this capital were typically headquartered in the UK, but operated thousands of miles away. This paper asks how this separation between governance and place of business affected the valuation of these firms. We find that the location of the headquarters played a more important role than the location of operations. Stock prices tended to fluctuate in line with other equities based in the UK, suggesting that they were still regarded as being, at least partially, British companies. |
| Keywords: | Latin America, equity markets, portfolio investing, emerging markets |
| JEL: | F21 F54 F65 G11 G12 G15 G51 N16 N26 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wes:weswpa:2024-013 |
| By: | Pablo Delgado (Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain); Ángel L. González-Esteban (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Spain); Elisa Botella-Rodríguez (Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain) |
| Abstract: | Since the mid-20th century, Spain’s meat sector has seen remarkable growth, evolving from a net importer to the world’s largest pork exporter by 2020. This work analyzes the drivers behind this transformation within the framework of food regime (FR) theories and the critical lens of food sovereignty movements. After outlining the FR and food sovereignty perspectives, we trace the development of Spain’s meat industry, examining the factors behind its domestic and international success. Additionally, we assess the impact on the feed grain sector within the broader context of global food system shifts, concluding with a summary of key insights. |
| Keywords: | meat sector, animal feed, food sovereignty, food regimes, agri-food trade |
| JEL: | Q13 Q17 Q18 N54 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:2407 |
| By: | Ivan Colangelo Salomao; Victor Cruz-e-Silva |
| Abstract: | The pathway covered by liberalism in Brazil is winding. As an ideology imported from the European bourgeoisie, it found in a colonized country the appropriate environment for its advancement, even if contiguous to its antinomy, that is, nationalism. Particularly, within the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, liberalism, obliquely absorbed by the Brazilian elite, oligarchies employed liberalism in an even more instrumental, and rather contradictory, way, if compared with the rest of the country. Liberalism, therefore, experienced a particular history within Rio Grande do Sul, where several conflicts were waged on its behalf. Accordingly, this paper aims at rescuing the history of liberalism in southern Brazil by reconstructing such conflicts—and the liberal element at its bottom: the Farroupilha Revolution (1835-1845), the Federalist Revolution (1893-1895), and the 1923 War. |
| Keywords: | Liberalism; Rio Grande do Sul; Farroupilha Revolution; Federalist Revolution; Liberal Alliance |
| JEL: | B19 N46 N96 |
| Date: | 2024–12–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spa:wpaper:2024wpecon30 |
| By: | Stefan Bach; Charlotte Bartels; Theresa Neef |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the distribution and composition of pre-tax national income in Germany since 1992, combining personal income tax returns, household survey data, and national accounts. Inequality rose from the 1990s to the late 2000s due to falling labor incomes among the bottom 50% and rising incomes in the top 10%. This trend reversed after 2007 as labor incomes across the bottom 90% increased. The top 1% income share, dominated by business income, remained relatively stable between 1992 and 2019. A large share of Germany’s top 1% earners are non-corporate business owners in laborintensive professions. At least half of the business owners in P99-99.9 and a quarter in the top 0.1% operate firms in professional services – a pattern mirroring the United States. From 1992 to 2019, Germany’s top 0.1% income concentration exceeded France’s and matched U.S. levels until the late 2000s. |
| Keywords: | Income distribution, labor income, capital income, top Incomes |
| JEL: | D31 E01 H2 H5 J3 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp2102 |
| By: | Beatriz Estulano Vieira (University of Brasilia and New School For Social Research); Jorge Thompson Araujo (University of Brasilia and World Bank) |
| Abstract: | This paper compares and contrasts Joan Robinson’s theoretical – and “mythical”, in her words – Golden Age with the real-world Golden Age of Capitalism documented in Marglin and Schor (1990). The former provided the analytical backdrop for Robinson’s (1956, 1962) economic growth model based on a two-sided relationship between profits and investment, while the latter was a post-war empirical phenomenon in developed countries characterized by high and stable growth as well as low unemployment. In the mythical Golden Age, full-employment steady-state growth results from a highly stringent set of conditions that are satisfied only accidentally: Namely, the equality over time between the natural, the warranted, and the actual rate of growth of national income. In turn, the real-world Golden Age of Capitalism was born in the context of the welfare state, a robust trade union movement, the commitment to demand management, and international leadership by the USA, within which the macroeconomic structure, the international order, the system of production, and the rules of coordination operated. The paper then argues that Joan Robinson’s economic growth model, with suitable adjustments that preserve the two-way investment-profits relationship, also offers a sound basis for the understanding of the real-world Golden Age. These adjustments are provided by Bhaduri and Marglin (1990) and Marglin and Bhaduri (1990), who allow for idle capacity in the long period and a more realistic investment function. The Bhaduri-Marglin approach provides a coherent and innovative account of real-world Golden Age, while preserving the theoretical core of the Robinsonian growth model. Therefore, this comparison exercise highlights the explanatory power of Joan Robinson’s growth model: While originally designed to show the theoretical limits of economic growth and capital accumulation in a stylized capitalist economy, it also supplied the conceptual basis for an understanding of post-war capitalism in developed countries. |
| Keywords: | Golden Age of capitalism, economic growth, capital accumulation, profit squeeze, conflict inflation |
| JEL: | B15 E62 O23 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:new:wpaper:2415 |
| By: | Ronan Lyons (Trinity College Dublin); Maximilian Guennewig-Moenert (University of Cologne) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of early 20th-century rent control laws in New York City (NYC), using a Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) to analyze the effects on market rents near municipal court district boundaries. We focus on rent regulations introduced in 1920, where judges had discretion to determine rent increases and did so influenced by their partisan affiliations. Using a dataset of over 12, 000 rental listings from the New York Times and records of 125 district judges, we find that market rents jumped by almost 10% crossing from Democrat- to Republican-controlled districts after the policy was implemented. A causal interpretation is supported not only by a rich set of controls but also by the lack of any discontinuity just before these controls were introduced or after. Our findings contribute new evidence on judicial discretion's role in shaping housing market outcomes and provide insights into early rent control policies, highlighting their distortionary effects on rental markets before World War II. |
| Keywords: | Rent control; New York City; 1920s |
| JEL: | O18 R21 R31 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcd:tcduee:tep0924 |
| By: | Rubio-Ramos, Melissa (UNIVERSITÄT ZU KÖLN); Isendahl, Christian (Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg); Olsson, Ola (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University) |
| Abstract: | In early states, government elites provided both productivity-enhancing infrastructure, such as irrigation systems, as well as seemingly non-productive monumental architecture like temples and pyramids. The nature of this ”bread-and-circuses”-tradeoff is not well understood. In this paper, we examine this phenomenon in the Classic Maya civilization (c. 250-950 CE) where city-state elites chose between investing in essential water management infrastructure (reservoirs, canals), and monumental architecture. We analyze information from 870 dated monuments from 110 cities. Correlating this dataset with a proxy record for variations in annual rainfall, we find–perhaps counter-intuitively–that monumental construction activity was more intense during drought years. A text analysis of 2.2 million words from deciphered hieroglyphic inscriptions on monuments, further shows higher frequencies of terms associated with war or violent conflict during periods of drought. We propose that in the Classic Maya setting, with numerous small city-states, monument construction functioned as a costly signaling device about state capacity, designed to attract labor for future control of revenue. |
| Keywords: | Bread and circuses; public goods; monumental architecture; drought; Maya |
| JEL: | N50 O43 |
| Date: | 2024–11–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0850 |
| By: | Josep Dols-Miro (Universitat de Valencia) |
| Abstract: | Este estudio presenta la Spanish Banker Database (SBDb), una base de datos original que documenta la composicion de los consejos de administracion de las entidades bancarias españolas desde 1974. Esta permite analizar como han evolucionado los organos de gobierno en el sistema financiero español durante y despues del proceso de desregulacion y liberalizacion economica. La base de datos clasifica a los consejeros en tres categorias principales –banqueros, empresarios y politicos– y se nutre de fuentes como los anuarios de la AEB, CECA y UNACC, la base de datos SABI y los portales de transparencia gubernamentales. Los resultados muestran que los bancos cuentan con consejos de administracion mas pequeños y experimentados, con una menor presencia de politicos, mientras que las cajas de ahorros y cooperativas presentan consejos mas grandes, menos experimentados y con mayor representacion publica. Asimismo, se identifican transformaciones significativas derivadas de reformas legales tras momentos clave, como la crisis bancaria de 1977, la promulgacion de la Ley 35/1985 –que incremento la presencia de políticos en las cajas de ahorros– y la crisis financiera de 2008, que reconfiguro la estructura de los consejos. Tambien se observa un aumento en la representacion femenina en los consejos a partir de la decada de 1990, impulsado por los cambios normativos. En definitiva, la evolucion de los organos de gobierno en las entidades financieras españolas esta profundamente vinculada a los cambios regulatorios, los cuales han moldeado su configuracion y dinamicas internas, con especial impacto en las cajas de ahorros. |
| Keywords: | España, Historia bancaria, Regulacion, Gobierno Corporativo |
| JEL: | N24 N20 G18 G34 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bci:wpaper:2405 |
| By: | Masazumi Wakatabe (Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University) |
| Abstract: | Capitalism is in trouble, or so have we been told. What could we learn from Adam Smith about the future of capitalism? I argue that Adam Smith has a lot to teach us about the future of capitalism. I first examine recent discussions about the current challenges and criticisms against capitalism such as the productivity slowdown, the waning competition, the role of globalization, the rising inequality and climate change. Through this exercise, I emphasize that there are indeed some global trends, but there are also important national and regional differences reflecting differences in institutions and policy; in this sense, not only natural scientific technology but also social scientific technology, i.e. governance, policy and institutions, matter. Then, I argue that what Smith could teach us on in five aspects. First, it should be noted that Adam Smith conceived a truly inclusive capitalism: he took income distribution into account when he argued for the desirability of economic development. Secondly, an inclusive capitalism requires broad knowledge formation and sharing among the people. Smith’s inclusive capitalism is based on the division of labor principle, markets or broad exchange basis to foster the division of labor, and policy measures to alleviate side effects of the division of labor. Thirdly, the expansion of exchange and trade has beneficial effects, but we should be aware of its distributional consequences. Fourthly, institutions matter. Markets are the most fundamental institutions, but it is imperative to preserve competition in markets, especially free entry. Fifthly, proper law and institutions are essential to the well-functioning market economy, the “system of natural liberty”. However, the “system of natural liberty” is not automatically achieved. Policy and institutions are history dependent, therefore history matters. Here “relatively cautious sense of progress” of the Scottish enlightenment thinkers including Smith should be reminded of. |
| Keywords: | : Adam Smith; inclusive capitalism; competition; economic development; institutions |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wap:wpaper:2407 |
| By: | María-Isabel Ayuda (Departamento de Análisis Económico, Facultad de Economía y Empresa, Universidad de Zaragoza e IEDIS, Gran Vía 4, 50005 Zaragoza); Ernesto Clar (Departamento de Economía Aplicada, Facultad de Economía y Empresa, Universidad de Zaragoza e Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón (IA2), Spain); Teresa Leach (Independent Researcher); Vicente Pinilla (Departamento de Economía Aplicada, Facultad de Economía y Empresa, Universidad de Zaragoza e Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón (IA2), Spain); Raúl Serrano (Departamento de Economía Aplicada, Facultad de Economía y Empresa, Universidad de Zaragoza e Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón (IA2), Spain) |
| Abstract: | This essay analyzes the evolution of Spanish agri-food exports over the past 175 years. It also reflects on the factors that have determined their performance, as well as their possible impact on the agricultural sector. Until the Civil War, these exports accounted for a significant portion of total exports and had a notable influence on final agricultural production. Although during the second half of the 20th century they lost relative weight in total trade significantly, their growth was very rapid, and consequently, their impact on production was even greater. Among their contributions to economic growth, their relevance in balancing foreign accounts throughout most of the studied period stands out. Agri-food exports have contributed to economic development by improving the purchasing capacity of the economy and generating significant backward, forward, and final demand linkages. In short, they increased real income by improving resource allocation, as the comparative advantages of agriculture and the agri-food industry were leveraged, and productive factors were utilized more efficiently. |
| Keywords: | Spanish Agricultural History, Agri-Food Exports, Spanish Foreign Trade |
| JEL: | F14 N53 N54 Q17 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:2408 |
| By: | Richard Grieveson (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Mario Holzner (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Branimir Jovanović (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw) |
| Abstract: | Why did the socialist system that dominated Eastern European countries for much of the 20th century collapse around 1990? Drawing on the newly released wiiw COMECON Dataset and reports that the wiiw was publishing at that time, we explore whether the collapse was due to unfixable systemic flaws of the socialist economies, an unfavourable global environment since the mid-1970s, or policy mistakes made by socialist leaders. Our analysis concludes that all three factors contributed to the collapse. Although the international context – with rising oil prices and interest rates – and the limited openness and competitiveness of socialist economies presented significant challenges, these economies might have survived without the sharp rise in borrowing during the 1970s, the Soviet Union’s squandering of the oil windfall between 1973 and 1985, the failure of Gorbachev’s reforms in the late 1980s, and exchange rate mismanagement in Hungary, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia. A particularly grave policy mistake was the Soviet Union’s 1975 decision to replace the fixed five-year oil pricing system with one based on annual adjustments using a five-year moving average tied to world market prices, which exposed the COMECON countries to the full force of the 1970s energy crisis, thereby triggering – or at least catalysing – the system’s collapse. Finally, we also find that extreme weather events played a significant role by causing crop failures, which led to a loss of hard currency export revenues and subsequent current account issues. wiiw COMECON Dataset https //comecon.wiiw.ac.at/ |
| Keywords: | socialism, communism, COMECON, Eastern Bloc, collapse, systemic deficiencies, international environment, policy mistakes, climate crisis, energy crisis |
| JEL: | N14 P20 P24 P27 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:rpaper:rr:477 |
| By: | Serge Agbodjo (LGTO - Laboratoire de Gestion et des Transitions Organisationnelles - UT3 - Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier - UT - Université de Toulouse); Konan Anderson Seny Kan (EESC-GEM Grenoble Ecole de Management) |
| Abstract: | Accounting research on the African continent is indeed present in the international accounting literature. It remains relatively invisible because it is part of the field of accounting research in emerging economies, which itself does not feature in the dominant streams of accounting research. This study aims to understand the state of accounting knowledge on the African continent through a systematic analysis of 326 research articles published in 38 international accounting journals over a period of 43 years (1980–2022). Our results show that accounting research on Africa represents only 1.2% of studies published in international academic accounting journals over the period 1980–2022. The results also detail the accounting domains and the methodological and theoretical approaches of the international accounting literature on African countries. Furthermore, our results provide an understanding of the forms of theorization that structure African accounting knowledge in the international literature, namely the theorization of the political and historical connection on the one hand, and the theorization of the epistemic connection, on the other. Additionally, this study proposes, in the light of consciencism, a discussion of positive, transformative accounting actions, in resistance to negative accounting actions of subjugation. Finally, a research program made up of eight (8) avenues for future research that address various gaps in the literature is proposed. |
| Abstract: | La recherche comptable sur le continent africain est bien présente dans la littérature comptable internationale. Elle reste encore peu visible car elle fait partie du champ de la recherche comptable dans les pays émergents qui lui-même ne figure pas dans les champs dominants de la recherche comptable. Cette étude vise à la compréhension de l'état de la connaissance comptable sur le continent africain par le biais d'une analyse systématique de 326 articles de recherche publiés dans 38 revues internationales comptables sur une période de 43 années (1980-2022). Nos résultats montrent que les recherches comptables sur l'Afrique ne représentent que 1, 2 % des travaux publiés dans les revues académiques comptables internationales sur la période 1980-2022. Les résultats détaillent également les domaines comptables et les approches méthodologiques et théoriques de la littérature comptable internationale dans les pays africains. Par ailleurs, nos résultats permettent de comprendre les formes de théorisation qui structurent la connaissance comptable africaine dans la littérature internationale, en l'occurrence, la théorisation du lien politique et historique d'une part, et la théorisation du lien épistémique , d'autre part. De plus, cette étude propose, à l'aune du consciencisme , une discussion des actions comptables positives, transformatrices, en résistance aux actions comptables négatives d'assujettissement. Enfin, un programme de recherche décliné en huit (8) voies de recherches futures qui pallient différents manquements de la littérature est proposé. |
| Keywords: | accounting, Africa, literature review, development, emerging economies, consciencism, pays émergents, consciencisme, revue de littérature, afrique, comptabilité, développement |
| Date: | 2024–10–24 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:gemptp:halshs-04830453 |
| By: | Harris, Nicholas |
| Abstract: | Literature attesting to the existence of a resource ‘curse’ implied that economic prospects for resource abundant nations were poor and out of their hands. Not only had resource abundance created difficult-tomanage structural conditions, but it had also corrupted institutions and, in turn, condemned nations to further negative management of resources in the future. A critical branch of literature rose in opposition, suggesting that the outcomes of resource abundant nations had not been predetermined by their resources, but had been contingent on active institutional management. Correct management could not only have mitigated the immediate structural and institutional impacts of the socalled ‘curse, ’ but it could also have prevented the degradation of these virtuous institutional behaviours themselves. This comment will add to the debate by demonstrating which theory applies better to the case of Chile during its nitrate era: which stated ‘curse’ effects struck Chile, and how culpable was institutional management in this process? I find that whilst there are definite ‘curse’ symptoms, institutional management played a larger role than ‘determinists’ would predict, supporting the ‘activist’ strand of argument. This is not to downplay, however, the pressures that resource abundance exerted, even in countries that had a claim to institutional exceptionality. |
| JEL: | O13 N56 |
| Date: | 2024–11–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:wpaper:126154 |