We investigate the link between the 1918 Great Influenza and regional economic growth in Italy, a country in which the measures implemented by public authorities to contain the contagion were limited or ineffective. The pandemic caused 600,000 deaths in Italy: 1.2% of the population. Going from regions with the lowest mortality to those with the highest mortality is associated to a decline in per capita GDP growth of 6.5%, which dissipated within 3 years. Our estimates provide an upper bound of the adverse effect of pandemics on regional economic growth in the absence of non-pharmaceutical public-health interventions.
{"title":"Pandemics and regional economic growth: evidence from the Great Influenza in Italy","authors":"Mario F. Carillo, T. Jappelli","doi":"10.1093/EREHJ/HEAB009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/EREHJ/HEAB009","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 We investigate the link between the 1918 Great Influenza and regional economic growth in Italy, a country in which the measures implemented by public authorities to contain the contagion were limited or ineffective. The pandemic caused 600,000 deaths in Italy: 1.2% of the population. Going from regions with the lowest mortality to those with the highest mortality is associated to a decline in per capita GDP growth of 6.5%, which dissipated within 3 years. Our estimates provide an upper bound of the adverse effect of pandemics on regional economic growth in the absence of non-pharmaceutical public-health interventions.","PeriodicalId":51703,"journal":{"name":"European Review of Economic History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/EREHJ/HEAB009","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42827039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Research on the intergenerational inheritance of occupational attainment has been restricted to sons for a long time. This is remarkable, given the ubiquity of historical settings where female labor force participation was high. This study of civil marriage certificates in nineteenth-century West Flanders investigates a comprehensive sample covering the economic activities not only of fathers and sons but also of mothers and daughters. We find that daughters were more mobile than sons. Daughters, however, enjoyed less growth in terms of intergenerational mobility against the background of a slowly industrializing economy.
{"title":"Intergenerational mobility of sons and daughters: evidence from nineteenth-century West Flanders","authors":"Vincent Delabastita, E. Buyst","doi":"10.1093/EREHJ/HEAA028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/EREHJ/HEAA028","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Research on the intergenerational inheritance of occupational attainment has been restricted to sons for a long time. This is remarkable, given the ubiquity of historical settings where female labor force participation was high. This study of civil marriage certificates in nineteenth-century West Flanders investigates a comprehensive sample covering the economic activities not only of fathers and sons but also of mothers and daughters. We find that daughters were more mobile than sons. Daughters, however, enjoyed less growth in terms of intergenerational mobility against the background of a slowly industrializing economy.","PeriodicalId":51703,"journal":{"name":"European Review of Economic History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/EREHJ/HEAA028","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43222072","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this article the effects of cartelization on firms’ efficiency are investigated using the example of an early twentieth century coal-mining cartel in Upper Silesia: the Upper Silesian Coal Convention. Established in 1898, the cartel comprised various types of private, as well as state-owned, mining enterprises. Using a microeconomic dataset based on firm-level data of the Upper Silesian mines, I focus on the cartel’s effect on efficiency. The cartel did not significantly reduce technical efficiency among mines. This finding confirms previous research on cartels’ effects on efficiency.
{"title":"Cartelization and firm performance in Upper Silesia 1880–1913","authors":"C. Beyer","doi":"10.1093/ereh/heab006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/heab006","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In this article the effects of cartelization on firms’ efficiency are investigated using the example of an early twentieth century coal-mining cartel in Upper Silesia: the Upper Silesian Coal Convention. Established in 1898, the cartel comprised various types of private, as well as state-owned, mining enterprises. Using a microeconomic dataset based on firm-level data of the Upper Silesian mines, I focus on the cartel’s effect on efficiency. The cartel did not significantly reduce technical efficiency among mines. This finding confirms previous research on cartels’ effects on efficiency.","PeriodicalId":51703,"journal":{"name":"European Review of Economic History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/ereh/heab006","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43293840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study provides new estimates on welfare ratios for London, Amsterdam, Paris, Strasbourg, Munich, and Leipzig for 1600–1850. I use a linear programming model to compute the basket that minimizes the food cost subject to nutrient requirements. For a balanced nutrition, I take into consideration that people should ingest not only calories and proteins, but also fat, iron, and some basic vitamins. The results suggest that living standards in Western Europe were lower than previously thought. However, like previous studies, this article suggests that welfare ratios in London were higher than in other European cities.
{"title":"Living costs and welfare ratios in Western Europe: new estimates using a linear programming model","authors":"L. Zegarra","doi":"10.1093/ereh/heab007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/heab007","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This study provides new estimates on welfare ratios for London, Amsterdam, Paris, Strasbourg, Munich, and Leipzig for 1600–1850. I use a linear programming model to compute the basket that minimizes the food cost subject to nutrient requirements. For a balanced nutrition, I take into consideration that people should ingest not only calories and proteins, but also fat, iron, and some basic vitamins. The results suggest that living standards in Western Europe were lower than previously thought. However, like previous studies, this article suggests that welfare ratios in London were higher than in other European cities.","PeriodicalId":51703,"journal":{"name":"European Review of Economic History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/ereh/heab007","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47211499","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The full analysis of the text of a contract, asiento, between Philip II of Spain and a Genoese merchant–banker details how in this pre-modern composite state, merchant–bankers acted as agents of the Crown who gathered many scattered sources of income to the Crown and transformed them into large and regular cash flows, mesadas, for the army. Because of the uncertain availability of these sources, the contract provided flexibility to both parties and legal assistance to the banker who reported to accountants for audit and, if necessary, the charge of an interest at about 1 percent per month.
{"title":"Asientos as sinews of war in the composite superpower of the 16th century","authors":"Carlos Álvarez‐Nogal, Christophe Chamley","doi":"10.1093/EREH/HEAA029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/EREH/HEAA029","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The full analysis of the text of a contract, asiento, between Philip II of Spain and a Genoese merchant–banker details how in this pre-modern composite state, merchant–bankers acted as agents of the Crown who gathered many scattered sources of income to the Crown and transformed them into large and regular cash flows, mesadas, for the army. Because of the uncertain availability of these sources, the contract provided flexibility to both parties and legal assistance to the banker who reported to accountants for audit and, if necessary, the charge of an interest at about 1 percent per month.","PeriodicalId":51703,"journal":{"name":"European Review of Economic History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/EREH/HEAA029","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45150031","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Before 1932, Britain’s essentially free-trade policy left barely any scope for reciprocating the preferential tariffs that the Dominions applied to Britain’s exports. Thus, Britain attempted to reciprocate by means of a “soft” trade policy aimed at increasing Britain’s imports from the empire through wide-reaching publicity coordinated by the Empire Marketing Board (EMB). This article, the first econometric assessment of the EMB, argues that there was not a differential increase in the volume of those imports advertised by the EMB. Principal arguments for this failure are that British consumers were frequently unaware of the geographic origin of many commodities and that they tended to identify company brand more than country of origin.
{"title":"Britain’s Empire Marketing Board and the failure of soft trade policy, 1926–33","authors":"D. Higgins, Brian D. Varian","doi":"10.1093/EREH/HEAB005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/EREH/HEAB005","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Before 1932, Britain’s essentially free-trade policy left barely any scope for reciprocating the preferential tariffs that the Dominions applied to Britain’s exports. Thus, Britain attempted to reciprocate by means of a “soft” trade policy aimed at increasing Britain’s imports from the empire through wide-reaching publicity coordinated by the Empire Marketing Board (EMB). This article, the first econometric assessment of the EMB, argues that there was not a differential increase in the volume of those imports advertised by the EMB. Principal arguments for this failure are that British consumers were frequently unaware of the geographic origin of many commodities and that they tended to identify company brand more than country of origin.","PeriodicalId":51703,"journal":{"name":"European Review of Economic History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/EREH/HEAB005","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44976474","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper explores the structural change in the job matching process in the United States from 1923 to 1932. Bai–Perron test is employed with data from public employment offices. The result shows that there are two structural changes, July 1928 and August 1930. The first breakpoint corresponds to approximately a year before the stock market crash, implying that there was a sign of downturn in the labor market when the economy was still in a period of expansion. The second break point is related to the Great Contraction when the entire economy was going in a downward spiral.
{"title":"Structural change in the job matching process in the United States, 1923–1932","authors":"Woong Lee, Yeo Joon Yoon","doi":"10.1093/EREH/HEAB004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/EREH/HEAB004","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This paper explores the structural change in the job matching process in the United States from 1923 to 1932. Bai–Perron test is employed with data from public employment offices. The result shows that there are two structural changes, July 1928 and August 1930. The first breakpoint corresponds to approximately a year before the stock market crash, implying that there was a sign of downturn in the labor market when the economy was still in a period of expansion. The second break point is related to the Great Contraction when the entire economy was going in a downward spiral.","PeriodicalId":51703,"journal":{"name":"European Review of Economic History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/EREH/HEAB004","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46178871","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In 1935, the United States introduced the old-age assistance (OAA) program, a means-tested program to help the elderly poor. The OAA improved retirement conditions and aimed to enable older persons to live independently. We use the transition from early elderly plans to OAA and the large differences in payments and eligibility across states to show that OAA reduced mortality by between 30 and 39 percent among those older than 65 years. This finding, based on an event study design, is robust to a range of specifications, a range of fixed effects, placebo tests, and a border-pair policy discontinuity design using county-level data. The largest mortality reductions came from drops in communicable and infectious diseases, such as influenza and nephritis, and mostly affected white citizens.
{"title":"Quantifying the mortality impact of the 1935 old-age assistance","authors":"G. Galofré-Vilà, M. Mckee, D. Stuckler","doi":"10.1093/EREH/HEAB001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/EREH/HEAB001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In 1935, the United States introduced the old-age assistance (OAA) program, a means-tested program to help the elderly poor. The OAA improved retirement conditions and aimed to enable older persons to live independently. We use the transition from early elderly plans to OAA and the large differences in payments and eligibility across states to show that OAA reduced mortality by between 30 and 39 percent among those older than 65 years. This finding, based on an event study design, is robust to a range of specifications, a range of fixed effects, placebo tests, and a border-pair policy discontinuity design using county-level data. The largest mortality reductions came from drops in communicable and infectious diseases, such as influenza and nephritis, and mostly affected white citizens.","PeriodicalId":51703,"journal":{"name":"European Review of Economic History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/EREH/HEAB001","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46129341","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
I use data for consistently defined municipalities to describe spatial patterns in population growth in Puerto Rico across all stages of economic development and rule by Spain and then the United States. The spatial distribution of population began to resemble the modern distribution after the turn of the twentieth century, around the time that municipal population densities diverged. Municipal population growth was positively correlated with crop production in the preindustrial era and was negatively correlated with agricultural employment from 1899 to 1970. Urbanization commenced around 1900, decades earlier than generally believed and before most of the Caribbean and Central America.
{"title":"Spatial population trends and economic development in Puerto Rico, 1765–2010","authors":"Brian Marein","doi":"10.1093/EREH/HEAB002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/EREH/HEAB002","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 I use data for consistently defined municipalities to describe spatial patterns in population growth in Puerto Rico across all stages of economic development and rule by Spain and then the United States. The spatial distribution of population began to resemble the modern distribution after the turn of the twentieth century, around the time that municipal population densities diverged. Municipal population growth was positively correlated with crop production in the preindustrial era and was negatively correlated with agricultural employment from 1899 to 1970. Urbanization commenced around 1900, decades earlier than generally believed and before most of the Caribbean and Central America.","PeriodicalId":51703,"journal":{"name":"European Review of Economic History","volume":"74 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/EREH/HEAB002","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41270959","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Market integration of European inland regions such as Germany caught up on North-Western Europe from the seventeenth century onwards. As many studies rely on grain prices and the pre-industrial era was a period of climate change, a relevant question is in how far changing weather shocks impact on the measurement of convergence trends. We create a new high-quality grain price dataset and apply four methodologies to quantify market integration robust to weather shocks and climate change. Population growth and river transport turn out as plausible explanations for price convergence rather than climate change.
{"title":"Climate change, weather shocks, and price convergence in pre-industrial Germany","authors":"H. Albers, U. Pfister","doi":"10.1093/EREH/HEAA030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/EREH/HEAA030","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Market integration of European inland regions such as Germany caught up on North-Western Europe from the seventeenth century onwards. As many studies rely on grain prices and the pre-industrial era was a period of climate change, a relevant question is in how far changing weather shocks impact on the measurement of convergence trends. We create a new high-quality grain price dataset and apply four methodologies to quantify market integration robust to weather shocks and climate change. Population growth and river transport turn out as plausible explanations for price convergence rather than climate change.","PeriodicalId":51703,"journal":{"name":"European Review of Economic History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2021-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/EREH/HEAA030","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47419006","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}