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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2022‒06‒27
38 papers chosen by |
| By: | Macve, Richard |
| Abstract: | A history of corporate financial reporting in Britain, by John Richard Edwards, New York and Abingdon, Oxon, Routledge, 2019, xxv + 380 pp., illus., £84.84 (hardback), ISBN: 9781138553187; £36.44 (e-book), ISBN: 9781315148441 |
| JEL: | M40 |
| Date: | 2020–11–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:107472&r= |
| By: | Jesus Astigarraga (Universidad de Zaragoza, Departamento de Economia Aplicada); Juan Zabalza (Universidad de Alicante, Departamento de Analisis Economico Aplicado) |
| Abstract: | The Essai sur la nature du commerce en général (1755) by Richard Cantillon is a major treatise on the "science of commerce" that emerged in the 18th century in Europe. Despite not having been translated into Spanish during that century, the treatise was well known in Spain, particularly during the last third of the century. However, the recent finding of a manuscript containing an unabridged translation of Cantillon's emblematic book obliges us to turn our attention to Cantillon's Essai's fortune in Spain. This work provides a comprehensive interpretation of this manuscript and its possible date and authorship. The innovative nature of the translation is underlined by an exhaustive displaying, for the first time in Spain, of the theory of the entrepreneur, of which the Irish economist was a true pioneer. |
| Keywords: | Intellectual History, International Circulation of Economic Ideas, Spanish Enlightenment, Translations of Political Economy, Theory of Entrepreneur |
| JEL: | B10 B30 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:2203&r= |
| By: | Ralph Hippe (EU agency Cedefop, Thessaloniki, Greece); Damien Demailly (Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE), Paris, France.); Claude Diebolt (BETA/CNRS (UMR 7522), University of Strasbourg, 61 avenue de la Forêt Noire, France) |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:afc:wpaper:05-22&r= |
| By: | Price V. Fishback |
| Abstract: | Social welfare spending on health, welfare, and insurance against adverse outcomes expanded a great deal in all of the developed countries during the 20th century. The institutional structure of the spending varies with respect to the extent that governments or market institutions provide the services. Sweden and the United States are on opposite ends of this spectrum. After discussing the problems with adverse selection and moral hazard that bedevil private and public social welfare organizations, I compare the development of the social welfare institutions in the U.S. and Sweden in the 20th century. |
| JEL: | H55 N40 N42 N44 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30066&r= |
| By: | Price V. Fishback |
| Abstract: | The paper summarizes research on the heterogeneous experiences of actors in agriculture in Europe and the Americas between the First and Second World Wars. Following a period of increasing globalization of agricultural markets, the First World War sharply limited farming in the main combatant nations, which led to sharp increases in agricultural prices and farm incomes in countries outside the combat zones. During the 1920s the combatants experienced a return to normalcy, while farmers that experienced booms during the war went through hard times. During the Great Depression that followed, farm prices for most goods fell sharply and farm regions were flooded with unemployed workers. During both decades, most countries responded by raising tariffs and setting quotas on farm imports in an attempt to protect farmers, most often large farmers, against the drops in prices. After experimenting with aiding farmers through price guarantees in the 1920s, nearly every government in the 1930s regulated agriculture in some new way: by providing subsidies, setting minimum prices, purchasing surpluses, or limiting output. Often the regulations led to problems that led to new regulatory fixes while setting the precedents for the domestic farm programs that continue to protect farmers in the modern era. |
| JEL: | N50 Q17 Q18 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30069&r= |
| By: | Price V. Fishback |
| Abstract: | The safety nets in high-income countries before 1900 and in low-income countries today were based on savings and aid from extended family, friends, charities, churches, and small amounts from local governments. Mutual societies and eventually insurance companies offered insurance against lost earnings from sickness, injury, death, and old age. Germany led the way in mandating that employers provide benefits. Since 1900 higher income nations have sharply increased public and private social welfare expenditures to well over 20 percent relative to GDP. A large share of this rise has come in increases in aid to the elderly and health care expenses, often in the form of contributory social insurance financed by payroll taxes on workers and employers. Meanwhile, noncontributory transfer programs for the poor have risen relatively little. In most countries, the employer’s share of payroll taxes are higher than the worker’s share. There are some major countries who have followed a path of reliance on private programs, which are largely financed by employers. Probably the most striking feature of social welfare programs world-wide is the very large variation in expenditures relative to GDP, in the categories of spending, and in the mix of taxation, private programs, and government programs. |
| JEL: | H53 H55 I38 N40 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30067&r= |
| By: | Pablo Delgado (Universidad de Zaragoza, Departamento de Economía Aplicada e Historia Económica e Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón, IA2 (Universidad de Zaragoza-CITA), Facultad de Economía y Empresa, Gran Via 4, 50005 Zaragoza, España); Vicente Pinilla (Universidad de Zaragoza, Departamento de Economía Aplicada e Historia Económica e Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón, IA2 (Universidad de Zaragoza-CITA), Facultad de Economía y Empresa, Gran Via 4, 50005 Zaragoza, España) |
| Abstract: | From the second half of the twentieth century, two facts characterized western societies from a nutritional point of view. On the one hand, the culmination of the nutritional transition and a trend towards a global homogeny diet. On the other hand, in high-income societies emerged two different food consumption models. The raise in the intake of agri-industrial food products characterizes the first food consumption model. The second model is characterized by both the reduction of caloric intake and the increase in the consumption of elaborated, sophisticated and processed foodstuff. Using Spain as a study case, the aim of this work how was the inequality evolution by income and region during the culmination of the modern nutritional transition and in the raise of each food consumption model. Specifically, we display the evolution of the inequalities in the consumption of dairy products, meat and alcoholic beverages from 1964 to 2018. By exploiting direct sources of food consumption, we show that around 1960, not all social classes and regions had culminated the modern nutritional transition but around 1980/90 all types of disparities had disappeared. However, during the last decades, new types of inequalities are emerging in the access to some elaborated food products. |
| Keywords: | nutritional transition, inequality, dairy products, meat, wine, alcoholic beverages |
| JEL: | N34 N54 O13 R21 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:2202&r= |
| By: | John Michael Riveros Gavilanes |
| Abstract: | El presente artículo realiza una serie de aproximaciones empíricas sobre la formulación teórica de la función de bienestar social de Sen (1974), aplicadas al contexto latinoamericano entre 1995 y 2018, para establecer las tendencias de bienestar social en el periodo de análisis. Las estimaciones involucran la formulación original de Sen y su versión generalizada propuesta por Mukhopadhaya (2003a; 2003b). El artículo contribuye —igualmente— a la exploración de las relaciones de largo plazo entre el bienestar, la desigualdad y el ingreso a través del análisis de cointegración de datos de panel. Los resultados indican la existencia de relaciones de largo plazo entre estas variables, una elasticidad ligeramente mayor sobre el bienestar desde la distribución del ingreso que desde el crecimiento económico, mientras que en el corto plazo el bienestar solamente es explicado a través de este último. Finalmente, para los países latinoamericanos se establece su posicionamiento a partir de los niveles de bienestar. Las predicciones del modelo econométrico planteado coinciden —en términos de comportamiento y posición comparativa del bienestar social entre países en relación— con la estimación del planteamiento original de Sen aplicado a América Latina. |
| Keywords: | Bienestar, Desigualdad, Crecimiento, Ingreso, América Latina. |
| Date: | 2021–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000418:020137&r= |
| By: | James Kai-sing Kung (The University of Hong Kong); Ömer Özak (Southern Methodist University); Louis Putterman (Brown University); Shuang Shi (The University of Hong Kong) |
| Abstract: | We propose and test empirically a theory describing the endogenous formation and persistence of mega-states, using China as an example. We suggest that the relative timing of the emergence of agricultural societies, and their distance from each other, set off a race between their autochthonous state-building projects, which determines their extent and persistence. Using a novel dataset describing the historical presence of Chinese states, prehistoric development, the diffusion of agriculture, and migratory distance across 1-degree x 1-degree grid cells in eastern Asia, we find that cells that adopted agriculture earlier and were close to Erlitou -- the earliest political center in eastern Asia -- remained under Chinese control for longer and continue to be a part of China today. By contrast, cells that adopted agriculture early and were located further from Erlitou developed into independent states, as agriculture provided the fertile ground for state-formation, while isolation provided time for them to develop and confront the expanding Chinese empire. Our study sheds important light on why eastern Asia kept reproducing a mega-state in the area that became China and on the determinants of its borders with other states. |
| Keywords: | Comparative Development, State-Building, Emergence of States, Agricultural Adoption, Isolation, Neolithic Revolution, Social Complexity, East Asia, China, Erlitou |
| JEL: | F50 F59 H70 H79 N90 O10 R10 Z10 Z13 |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smu:ecowpa:2202&r= |
| By: | Howard Glennerster |
| Abstract: | It has been suggested that the COVID epidemic, and its profound economic and social consequences, may produce major changes in the dominant ideas that help set the boundaries to social action. This note reflects on significant shifts that have taken place in the way collective action has been thought about at various stages in British history since the Second World War and the part that economic and demographic trends have played in prompting such changes. The periods it distinguishes are four: 1945-1976 the Post War Settlement'; 1976-1997 Constraint and Change; 1997-2010 An Expanded Welfare Role; 2010 to 2019 Austerity. These are familiar, if sometimes contested periods, but the paper seeks to distinguish both the continuities to be found in each period and the forces that stimulated change. |
| Keywords: | welfare state, post war |
| Date: | 2020–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:spdorn:03&r= |
| By: | Mai, Nhat Chi |
| Abstract: | U.S. - Vietnam Trade Relations refer to the bilateral trade relationship between the United States of America (U.S.) and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnam) from the 1990s to 2012. After more than two decades of no economic relationship since the end of the Vietnam War, the two governments reestablished economic relationships during the 1990s. |
| Date: | 2022–04–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:2vre3&r= |
| By: | Avner Greif (Stanford University); Jared Rubin (Chapman University) |
| Abstract: | Political legitimacy has long been recognized in the social sciences as an integral component of governance. It encourages obedience without the threat of force, thus lowering governing costs and improving the efficacy of policies. This chapter begins by overviewing the extensive literature on political legitimacy, classifying studies by whether they are based on the beliefs (regarding the legitimacy of the authority) or effectiveness (good governance is legitimate governance). Among the studies focusing on beliefs, most take legitimacy as an exogenous element of political authority. We develop a conceptual framework to study how beliefs regarding political legitimacy form endogenously and impact political power, institutions, and policies. We conclude with numerous examples from historical political economy that reveal the usefulness of this framework. |
| Keywords: | political legitimacy; beliefs; endogenous legitimacy; legitimacy principle |
| JEL: | B15 H11 N30 N40 N43 Z1 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chu:wpaper:22-08&r= |
| By: | Burkhard Heer; Andreas Irmen; Bernd Süssmuth |
| Abstract: | This study provides evidence for the US that the secular decline in the labor share is not only explained by technical change or globalization, but also by the dynamics of factor taxation, automation capital (robots), and population growth. First, we empirically find indications of co-integration for the period from the last quarter of the 20th to the first decade of the 21st century. Permanent effects on factor shares emanate from relative factor taxation. The latter also have a lasting effect on the use of robots. Variance decompositions reveal that taxing contributes to changes in the two income shares and in automation capital. Second, we analyse and calibrate a neoclassical growth model extended to include factor taxation, automation capital, and capital adjustment costs. Labor and automation capital are perfect substitutes whereas labor and traditional capital are complements. The model replicates the dynamics of the observed functional income distribution in the US during the 1965-2015 period. Counterfactual experiments suggest that the fall in the labor share would have been significantly smaller if labor and capital income tax rates had remained at their respective level of the 1960s. |
| Keywords: | functional income distribution, labor income share, income taxes, automation capital, demography, growth |
| JEL: | D33 E62 O41 J11 J20 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9775&r= |
| By: | Samuel Garrido (Universitat Jaume I, Departamento de Economia, España) |
| Abstract: | Cooperative wineries are one of the cornerstones of the wine industry in Europe today. To explain how they reached this condition, I use the case of Spain and pay special attention to the period in which they took off in the country, the Franco dictatorship (1939-1975). Wine economists often believe that cooperatives produce mediocre wines because they cannot avoid the opportunistic behaviour of their members. I argue that they can prevent it and that the poor quality of their wine in some provinces was the result of the perverse stimuli provided by a badly designed market regulation policy. |
| Keywords: | wine, cooperative wineries, market regulation, buffer stocks, Franco's Spain, European Union |
| JEL: | D40 L66 N34 Q13 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:2204&r= |
| By: | Chenzi Xu; He Yang |
| Abstract: | We show that decentralized privately created money with unstable values can hinder the traded, more transaction-friction sensitive, sector of the economy. We do so in the context of the NationalBanking Act of 1864 in the United States that created a new federally-regulated, fully-backed currency as an alternative to the pre-existing money supply, which consisted of unsecured notes printed by thousands of local private banks. Using a discontinuous change across towns in the costs of accessing this new type of stable, federally-backed money as a natural experiment, we show that places gaining access to the new currency experienced a shift in the composition of agricultural production from non-traded to traded goods and increased employment in trade-related professions. In addition, counties gaining access to the new stable money increased their manufacturing output by sourcing more inputs, and they innovated more, all consistent with the stable currency improving their market access and allowing them to expand through trade. |
| JEL: | E42 E44 E51 F14 G21 N11 N21 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30060&r= |
| By: | Aistleitner, Matthias; Kapeller, Jakob; Kronberger, Dominik |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we present results from of a large-scale replication of Hodgson and Rothman's (1999) seminal analysis of the institutional and geographical concentration of authors publishing in top economic journals. We analyze bibliometric data of more than 49.000 articles published in a set of 30 highly influential economic journals between 1990 and 2018. Based on a random sample of 3.253 authors, we further analyze the PhD-granting institutions of the authors under study to better scrutinize the claim of an institutional oligopoly. The findings confirm the long-term persistence of strong oligopolistic structures in terms of both, author affiliations as well as PhD-granting institutions. |
| Keywords: | sociology of economics,bibliometrics,concentration in science,replication study |
| JEL: | A14 B20 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifsowp:20&r= |
| By: | Sabine Pitteloud (Harvard Business School, General Management Unit) |
| Abstract: | This working paper investigates unintended consequences of U.S. FDI in Switzerland in the 1950s-1960s: the increased competition that U.S. firms generated within the national labor market and the challenge their hiring practices constituted for the institutional settings in which labor relations were embedded. It therefore contributes to two bodies of literature: one that deals with the arrival of U.S. firms in Europe after 1945 and another that tackles the contribution of business history to the variety of capitalism (VOC) scholarship. |
| Keywords: | multinationals; capitalism; business ＆ government relations; foreign direct investment; immigration policy; history; Switzerland; Americanization; R＆D; labor history; labor market institutions; tax havens; USA; business interest association; lobbying; |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hbs:wpaper:22-075&r= |
| By: | Gastón Caligaris |
| Abstract: | En el artículo se reconstruye y se muestra el debate marxista sobre la naturaleza y fuente del plusvalor extra apropiado por los capitales que introducen una innovación tecnológica. Hasta el presente, esta controversia ha sido tratada siempre como subsidiaria de otros debates. Sin embargo, su recurrencia y la evolución de los argumentos esgrimidos —en particular en las últimas décadas— muestran que tiene la entidad de un debate en sí mismo. Tras rastrear la presencia de esta controversia en distintos debates marxistas en contextos históricos e intelectuales diversos, se reúnen y sistematizan los argumentos presentados. En esencia, se identifican dos posiciones contrapuestas: por un lado, la que argumenta que el plusvalor extra es la representación del trabajo de los trabajadores empleados por el capital innovador; por otro lado, la que argumenta que se trata de la representación del trabajo empleado por otros capitales. En la medida en que los argumentos se apoyan en diversas lecturas de la obra de Marx, se dedica una sección a reunir y discutir la evidencia textual disponible. Finalmente, se realiza un breve balance crítico del debate en el que se concluye que la posición que argumenta en favor de transferencias de valor no implica recaer en una concepción naturalizadora del valor ni es incompatible con los fundamentos de la crítica marxiana de la economía política. |
| Keywords: | Plusvalor extra, Plusganancia, Trabajo potenciado, Transferencias de valor, Debate marxista, Teoría del valor. |
| JEL: | B14 B24 B51 O33 D46 |
| Date: | 2021–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000418:020143&r= |
| By: | Abdul Jalil (Pakistan Institute of Development Economics) |
| Abstract: | Inflation has become a topic of serious discussion since the 1970s due to its well-documented cost (see Box 1), and the policy-makers always try to concentrate on inflation-averse policies. Therefore, the understanding of the drivers of inflation is essential for designing policies to control inflation. |
| Keywords: | Drivers, Inflation, Roots to Regressions |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pid:kbrief:2021:38&r= |
| By: | Luc Marco (CEPN - Centre d'Economie de l'Université Paris Nord - LABEX ICCA - UP13 - Université Paris 13 - Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3 - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UPC - Université Paris Cité - Université Sorbonne Paris Nord - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Université Sorbonne Paris Nord); Cédric Poivret |
| Date: | 2022–04–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03652315&r= |
| By: | German Puga (Centre for Global Food and Resources, Wine Economics Research Centre, School of Economics and Public Policy, University of Adelaide, Australia); Alfinura Sharafeyeva (Centre for Global Food and Resources, School of Economics and Public Policy, University of Adelaide, Australia); Kym Anderson (Wine Economics Research Centre, School of Economics and Public Policy, University of Adelaide, Australia, and Arndt-Corden Dept of Economics, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia) |
| Abstract: | This study uses gravity models to explain the bilateral pattern of global wine trade since 1962.This is, to our knowledge, the first study on global wine trade covering the second wave of globalisation as a whole. The results suggest that the impact of distance, common language, and common coloniser post-1945 on wine trade was lower in the 1991-2019 period than in the 1962-1990 period. We also use gravity models to explain the impact on that bilateral wine trade pattern of similarities across countries in the mix of winegrape varieties in their vineyards. The results suggest that countries trade more wine with each other the closer their mix of winegrape varieties, although our models do not allow us to identify causality. |
| Keywords: | wine trade, second wave of globalisation, gravity model, varietal similarity index |
| JEL: | Q17 F14 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:adl:winewp:2022-03&r= |
| By: | Vuving, Alexander |
| Abstract: | After the Vietnam War, unified Vietnam charted a twisty trajectory in search of its place in the world. This course went through five major turning points—in 1977, 1986, 1989, 2003, and 2014—as the ruling Communist Party responded to fundamental changes in Vietnam’s strategic environment. Reflecting competing worldviews in the elites, these responses resulted from the struggle between two long-term choices: to reject the Western-led world order and oppose Western influence or to accept the Western-led world order and adapt Western influence. At a deeper level and from a long historical perspective, this struggle was complicated primarily by Vietnam’s location vis-à-vis China and the major transoceanic routes. If the Vietnam War ended with the triumph of the anti-Western choice, the post-war period has seen Vietnam alternate between anti-Westernism and international integration. Decades of zig-zagging eventually turned Vietnam from an “outpost of socialism” and “spearhead of the world national liberation movement” to an “engaged and responsible member of the international community” and from a fierce opponent to a discreet ally of the United States, while not fundamentally shaking its commitment to denying Chinese regional dominance. |
| Date: | 2022–05–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:df8t3&r= |
| By: | Leites, Martín; Pérez, Tatiana; Ramos, Xavier; Santín, Sofía; Vilá, Joan |
| Abstract: | This paper provides novel evidence on trends in intergenerational earnings mobility in a developing country and explores some transmission mechanisms associated with the characteristics of the labor market. Using a novel social security records database for Uruguay, we study the intergenerational earning ranking association from cohorts between 1966-1983. To explore intergenerational transmission mechanisms, we exploit the arguably exogenous variation induced by the 2002 macroeconomic crisis to analyse the impact of parental displacement from jobs on their children’s labor trajectories. First, we focus on the effect of the crisis on parents’ labor market performance. In a second stage, we use this information as a shock to identify the effect on children outcomes of a parent’s employment shock. Results suggest (i) heterogeneity on the degree of intergenerational earning mobility across birth cohorts; (ii) weak evidence of downward trend in relative mobility, (iii) intergenerational transmission of the shock produced by the 2002 crisis. |
| Keywords: | Desarrollo, Desempleo, Economía, Estudiantes, Familia, Investigación socioeconómica, Políticas públicas, Prácticas laborales y pasantías, |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbl:dblwop:1896&r= |
| By: | Edward Nelson |
| Abstract: | The pickup in the U.S. inflation rate to its highest rates in forty years has led to renewed attention being given to the Great Inflation of the 1970s. This paper asks with regard to the Great Inflation: “How did it happen?” The answer offered is the fact that, in both the United Kingdom and the United States, monetary policy and other policy instruments were guided by a faulty doctrine—a nonmonetary view of inflation that perceived the concerted restraint of aggregate demand as both ineffective and unnecessary for inflation control. In the paper’s analysis, the difference in the economic policy doctrine in the 1970s from that prevailing in more recent decades is represented algebraically, with this representation backed up by documentation of policymakers’ views. A key conclusion implied by the analysis is that the fact that a nonmonetary perspective on inflation is no longer prevalent in policy circles provides grounds for believing that monetary policy in the modern era is well positioned to prevent the recurrence of *entrenched* high inflation rates of the kind seen in the 1970s. |
| Keywords: | Great Inflation; Phillips curve; Monetary policy doctrine; Monetary policy strategy |
| JEL: | E58 E52 |
| Date: | 2022–06–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2022-37&r= |
| By: | Obikili, Nonso |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the link between historical political fragmentation and surplus agricultural production, and the impact of natural endowments with regards to crop suitability. I show that in sub-Saharan Africa, groups that cultivated tubers, specifically yams, were more likely to have higher levels of local political fragmentation. I show that both tubers and most cereals were positively correlated with historic population density and that there was no historic discrimination in the capacity of crops to produce surpluses and support large populations. I however show that unlike cereal cultivators who were more likely to be centralized, tuber cultivators were likely to have more local political fragmentation. I use crop suitability and the proximity to the area of the domestication of yams to show that cultivating yams did lead to more local political fragmentation. I argue that this is likely due to the biological properties of yams which make them more difficult to expropriate and implies that surpluses stay local. I argue that the experience of keeping surpluses local is associated with contemporary social norms that are against autocracy and unitary accumulation of power. These social norms are an example of the mechanism through which these historical institutional structures transmit to contemporary times. |
| Keywords: | Political Fragmentation; Agriculture; Social Norms; Africa |
| JEL: | D72 N47 N57 O10 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:113201&r= |
| By: | Randall Morck; Bernard Yeung; Lu Y. Zhang |
| Abstract: | Disequilibrating macro shocks affect different firms' prospects differently, increasing idiosyncratic variation in forward-looking stock returns before affecting economic growth. Consistent with most such shocks from 1947 to 2020 enhancing productivity, increased idiosyncratic stock return variation forecasts next-quarter real GDP growth, industrial production growth, and consumption growth both in-sample and out-of-sample. These effects persist after controlling for other leading economic indicators. |
| JEL: | E32 E44 G01 G14 G41 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30071&r= |
| By: | Antonio Ciccone; Jan Nimczik |
| Abstract: | After the end of World War II in 1945, millions of refugees arrived in what in 1949 became the Federal Republic of Germany. We examine their effect on today’s productivity, wages, income, rents, education, and population density at the municipality level. Our identification strategy is based on a spatial discontinuity in refugee settlement at the border between the French and US occupation zones in the South-West of post-war Germany. These occupation zones were established in 1945 and dissolved in 1949. The spatial discontinuity arose because the US zone admitted refugees during the 1945-1949 occupation period whereas the French zone restricted access. By 1950, refugee settlement had raised population density on the former US side of the 1945-1949 border significantly above density on the former French side. Before the war, there never had been significant differences in population density. The higher density on the former US side persists entirely in 2020 and coincides with higher rents as well as higher productivity, wages, and education levels. We examine whether today’s economic differences across the former border are the result of the difference in refugee admission; the legacy of other policy differences between the 1945-1949 occupation zones; or the consequence of socio-economic differences predating WWII. Taken together, our results indicate that today’s economic differences are the result of agglomeration effects triggered by the arrival of refugees in the former US zone. We estimate that exposure to the arrival of refugees raised income per capita by around 13% and hourly wages by around 10%. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, productivity, wages, refugees, long-run effects |
| JEL: | O4 O11 R11 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp1165&r= |
| By: | Chatzinikolaou, Dimos (Democritus University of Thrace, Department of Economics); Vlados, Charis (Democritus University of Thrace, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | A growing number of policymakers and scholars refer to the current COVID-19 pandemic crisis as a turning point in the evolution of globalisation. Following these interpretations, a relative theoretical deficiency in analysing the contour of the newly emerging global development perspective is identified. We explore the post-war evolution of world capitalism (from World War II and beyond), focusing on the following pillars: the formation of international regimes, the generation of main types of innovation, and the successive articulation of world development and crisis phases. The current transition period of the post-COVID-19 era constitutes, in its essence, a mutational crisis of the global accumulation regime and mode of regulation, accelerating the transition towards a 'new globalisation'. The generation and application of functional, institutional, and organically perceived business innovation seems to constitute the main component for a sufficiently re-stabilised new global development trajectory |
| Keywords: | global development model; globalisation; new globalisation; capitalist crisis; socioeconomic transition; innovation; 2008 financial crisis; 2020 pandemic crisis; economic development |
| JEL: | F60 F63 F64 |
| Date: | 2022–05–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:duthrp:2022_002&r= |
| By: | Mai, Nhat Chi |
| Abstract: | In 2001 the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) approved a 10-year economic plan that enhanced the role of the private sector while reaffirming the primacy of the state sector in the economy. In 2003 the private sector accounted for more than one-quarter of all industrial output. |
| Date: | 2022–04–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:xrk52&r= |
| By: | Enrique Llopis (Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain); Gloria Quiroga (Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain); Felipa Sánchez Salazar (Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain); Ã ngel L. Velasco (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain); Ana de la Fuente (Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain); Rocío García Calvo (Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain); Laura Ramos (Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain); Víctor M. Sierra (Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain) |
| Abstract: | We deal with early-infancy mortality in Ciudad Real and Guadalajara between 1840 and 1899. Our aims are threefold: (1) To inquire whether female excess mortality took place among the neonatal, infant, and early childhood population subsets. (2) To examine the scope of under-registration in the burial and baptisms records over time. (3) To analyze the evolution of gross neonatal, infant, and early-youth mortality rates. We find that: (a) Neither baptisms sex-ratios nor death rates sex-ratios confirm the female over-mortality hypothesis in the early-infancy, although some point to a gender discrimination in terms of burial practices. (b) A meaningful under-registration of child deaths entails a downward bias in the calculation of infant and neonatal mortality rates. (c) The rise of infant mortality in inland Spain during the third quarter of the 19th century was lower than assumed by the literature. |
| Keywords: | gender discrimination, mortality, early infancy, Castile, 19th century |
| JEL: | J11 J16 N01 N33 |
| Date: | 2022–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:2201&r= |
| By: | Pal, Soumya |
| Abstract: | I examine the trends in inequality in length of life in India and 15 of its selected states during the last three decades. I also estimate the contribution of mortality change in different age groups to the overall change in inequality in length of life in India and selected states of India. I estimate Gini coefficient, life disparity, and threshold age to examine the inequality. Finally, I decompose the change in Gini coefficient into contributions of mortality change in different age groups. In Indian males, the life expectancy at birth increased by about 8 years between 1981 and 2011. The life disparity decreased by 3.6 years and the threshold age increased by 5.5 years during this period. In Indian females, the life expectancy increased by about 12 years, the life disparity reduced by 5.2 years, and the threshold age increased by 7.2 years. Mortality changes in 0-1 contributed most to the decline in Gini between 1981 and 2011 for males, females, and urban residents. Mortality change in 1-4 contributed most to the decline in Gini in rural residents. Changes in various measures of mortality pattern differ markedly between males and females, urban-rural residents, and states of India. |
| Date: | 2022–05–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:3kwtq&r= |
| By: | Ellora Derenoncourt; Chi Hyun Kim; Moritz Kuhn; Moritz Schularick |
| 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 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9774&r= |
| By: | Paul, Michael |
| Abstract: | An important anniversary is coming up in the Kingdom of Denmark: 12 May 2021 marks exactly three hundred years since the Protestant preacher Hans Egede set sail, with the blessing of the Danish monarch, to missionise the island of Greenland. For some Greenlanders that date symbolises the end of their autonomy: not a date to celebrate but an occasion to declare independence from Denmark, after becoming an autonomous territory in 2009. Just as controversial as Egede's statue in the capital Nuuk was US President Donald Trump's offer to purchase the island from Denmark. His arrogance angered Greenlanders, but also unsettled them by exposing the shaky foundations of their independence ambitions. In the absence of governmental and economic preconditions, leaving the Realm of the Danish Crown would appear to be a decidedly long-term option. But an ambitious new prime minister in Nuuk could boost the independence process in 2021. |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:swpcom:102021&r= |
| By: | D. Mark Anderson; Kerwin Kofi Charles; Michael McKelligott; Daniel I. Rees |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of enforcing minimum quality standards (MQSs) on consumer health. In the late 1800s, the urban milk supply was regularly skimmed and diluted with water, but consumers could not easily determine its quality because dyes, caramel, and salt were added. To protect consumers, milk inspectors were tasked with enforcing a well-defined MQS. Using city-level data for the period 1880-1910, we find that milk inspections reduced mortality from waterborne and foodborne diseases by 8-19 percent. Ours is the first study to provide evidence that MQSs can improve consumer health when directly applied to an experience or credence good. |
| JEL: | H75 I18 J18 L51 N31 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30063&r= |
| By: | Bofinger, Peter; Geißendörfer, Lisa; Haas, Thomas; Mayer, Fabian |
| Abstract: | Joseph A. Schumpeter is one of the most famous economists of the 20th century and the 'patron saint' of the finance and growth literature. We have discovered that the prevailing literature has, however, misinterpreted Schumpeter, which leads to puzzling empirical results and difficulties in explaining even fundamental relationships. We argue that this is due to a misrepresentation of the role of banks and liquidity creation and the role of household saving. After a critical discussion of the literature, we provide our own empirical analysis using a panel of 43 countries to explore the relationships between the important variables of the finance and growth literature. Our empirical analysis above all supports Schumpeter's view that credit growth supports GDP growth while saving is irrelevant for credit growth and GDP growth. In sum, a correct interpretation of Schumpeter helps to overcome the theoretical and empirical challenges which confront the prevailing literature. |
| Keywords: | Finance-growth nexus,Finance,Financial development,Economic growth,Economic development,Financial intermediation,Bank credit,Liquidity creation,Saving |
| JEL: | B20 B22 C10 E44 F30 F43 G21 O11 O16 O4 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wuewep:102&r= |
| By: | GANIO-MEGO, Joe |
| Abstract: | The Preston curve has been plotted using historical GDP PC data from the Angus Maddison historical databases. Those databases have values of the human world population and corresponding GDP at PPP going from the year 0 CE to 2020 CE. By plotting the Preston curves with historical data, the typical allometric quarter-power relation between lifespan and body mass came out, where body mass was substituted by GDP PC. Then the Preston curve was plotted classically, with yearly (instant) data, and in this case, the allometric 0.15 power relation came out. The power of 0.15 is typical relation between body mass and maximal lifespan potential of many living species. It is too early to find scientific reasons for these facts, but they are worthy of further investigation. |
| Date: | 2022–05–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:y8rbt&r= |
| By: | Otniel Murza (Timotheus Brethren Theological Institute of Bucharest, Romania) |
| Abstract: | The history of the Church and countries with a majority Christian population is dotted about with good or bad opinions on the role of the Church in relation to the government or the State. Sometimes the Church is accused of interfering with the government or local authorities over issues that should be only under the State jurisdiction. Some Christians would consider it a normality because they see God as a supreme King over the whole world, and therefore his will stated in the Bible should be made law and prevail in every country. On the other hand, secular people oppose such ideas and try to exclude any ties of the Church in politics, economics, and social life. From Constantine the Great to medieval Europe, there was a constant tension between the secular kings and the popes or the Church leaders. Some popes were able to make kings submit under the Church leadership. Should this be normality nowadays? Are there any models that can shine a light on that? During the Reformation, the tension between Church and State leaders and princes came to a new climax. This study focuses on comparing the Church-State relationship as seen by Catholics, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and the Anabaptists during the Reformation. Did the reformers touch only the spiritual side of the European society or also its social, economic, and political side? So, is it worth letting or encouraging the Church to get involved in the affairs of the State? If yes, are there any models that our contemporary society should copy? |
| Keywords: | State, Church, State, and Church relationship, Roman-Catholic, Lutheran, Zwinglian, Calvinist, Anabaptist, education, social welfare, labor |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:lpaper:0152&r= |
| By: | Dehez, Pierre (Université catholique de Louvain, LIDAM/CORE, Belgium); Ginsburgh, Victor (Université catholique de Louvain, LIDAM/CORE, Belgium) |
| Abstract: | In this article we invite you to meet three characters. The author of the tale we are discussing, a Mexican Indian and an American gringo. The author, B. Traven, had a very strange life: no one really knows where he was born, probably in Germany, but we know that he died in a small village in Chiapas (southern Mexico) where he defended the local poor. He didn't like gringos very much. The second character is a gringo, and the third is a poor Indian weaver. The last two characters met by chance and, of course, the gringo tried to fool the Indian, inducing him into producing more of these small but beautiful baskets at lower prices, baskets that he (the gringo, of course) could then sell at a good price in his homeland. Mucho dinero... The Indian could barely write but was able to do simple calculations. For additional quantities, he could offer lower prices but, faced with a demand for larger quantities, he eventually started asking for higher prices. The gringo didn't understand and, after a long discussion, gave up, saying "These Mexicans don't understand anything." And the Indian went back to weaving his 12 baskets a week. |
| Date: | 2022–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cor:louvco:2022014&r= |