Explorations in Economic History最新文献

Using surnames from the universe of death and wealth-at-death records in England and Wales, from 1858 to 2018, I document the emergence of a modern ethnic wealth gradient. Historically, Non-British ethnicities have average wealth 2–5 times that of the English. However, this premium has decreased over the 20th century. By 1980, non-British ethnicities have no advantage over the British. However, this masks considerable heterogeneity within the non-British ethnicity group. Europeans typically die significantly richer than the English whereas the Pakistani and Swedish die significantly poorer. Some groups always have lower wealth. The Irish, have wealth around 50% of the average English throughout. Surprisingly, the most egalitarian measure of wealth is representation within the top 1%. Most ethnicities have an equal, or greater, representation in the top 1% than the English, 1980–1992. Despite large differences in average wealth between ethnicities, the vast majority of variation, 97.5% is between individuals.

This article provides novel estimates of long-term income inequality in Bulgaria and Czech Lands/Czechoslovakia in the twentieth century. Relying on newly-constructed datasets and the social tables approach, we measure inequality between salient social strata. We find that Czechoslovakia was significantly more unequal than Bulgaria before 1945. Inequality converged to similarly low levels under socialism. Decomposition analysis by social classes reveals that different levels of inequality in the first half of the century were principally driven by higher within social-class inequality in Czechoslovakia, owing to a more stratified industrial society; whereas a low dispersion within the dominant agricultural sector held down the within social-class component in Bulgaria. A dramatic fall in total inequality after 1945 was a result of the social revolution that encompassed the virtual disappearance of between social-class inequality and a marked reduction in within social-class inequality. Our findings point to the critical role of institutional and political factors in driving inequality in Eastern Europe throughout the twentieth century.

During the Progressive Era (1900–29), economic growth was rapid but volatile. Boom and busts witnessed the formation and failure of tens of thousands of firms and thousands of banks. This essay uses new data and methods to identify causal links between failures of banks and bankruptcies of firms. Our analysis indicates that bank failures triggered bankruptcies of firms that depended upon banks for ongoing access to commercial credit. Firms that did not depend upon banks for credit did not fail in appreciably larger numbers after banks failed.

This article studies the short- and long-run economic consequences of the now-extinct Shanghai tramway. Tramway was the primary mode of transportation in Shanghai between 1908 and the 1930s, continuing to operate until 1975. With the geolocation of the tramway lines on both historical cadastral maps and current Google maps, the article finds that after the arrival of the tramway, land lots close to the tramway lines experienced a larger increase in land value relative to those far away from the tramway lines, and that the reduction in transportation costs led to a flattening land value gradient with respect to distance from the central business district (CBD). It also finds that the tramway still influences the current pattern of urban land value, even nearly fifty years after the removal of the last tramway track. Such persistent influence can be largely explained by the follow-on amenities near the tramway lines. The evidence found in this article suggests that the tramway in Shanghai promoted decentralization by enhancing accessibility to the CBD from distant locations in its heyday, and influences modern behaviors through the mutually reinforced private and public coordination of economic activities.

This paper analyzes the effects of kin availability and short-term economic stress on mortality among older adults in North Orkney, Scotland in the mid-19th through early 20th century. The mortality of those aged 60+ is associated with high oatmeal prices lagged by one year, a delayed effect that may suggest that buffering mechanisms are less effective in the longer term or that relative to younger groups, older adults are better able to cope with the immediate effects of stress. Associations between mortality risk and indicators of kin availability vary by individual sociodemographic characteristics, but they are limited to close kin in both the spatial and genealogical sense. Benefits of nearby, but not coresident kin accrue only to ever-married men during times of high food prices. Coresident and nearby kin are associated with complex patterns of mortality risk, suggesting that family relationships may represent a resource in some circumstances, but a liability in others. There is limited evidence for the effects of expansive kin support for aging adults and support flows do not always favor the older generation.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 marked a pivotal moment in U.S. immigration policy, effectively prohibiting Chinese immigration while institutionalizing discrimination against Asians within American society. This study investigates the repercussions of such institutional discrimination on the assimilation process of Asian immigrants, leveraging the timing of the enactment of the Act and the regional variation in the intensity of discrimination. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that discrimination posed significant obstacles to the labor market integration of Asian immigrants during the Exclusion Era (1882–1943), and Asian immigrants responded to discriminatory practices by investing in human capital, enhancing English proficiency, and adopting Americanized names. Furthermore, the triple-difference estimates reveal that these effects are more pronounced in regions characterized by heightened discrimination against Asians.