A global corporate census: publicly traded and close companies in 1910

In 1910 the world had almost half a million corporations, only one‐hundredth of today's total. About one‐fifth—with over half of corporate capital—were publicly tradable, higher portions than today. Most publicly quoted corporations traded in Europe and the British Empire, but most close (private) corporations operated in the US, which, until the 1940s, had more corporations per capita than anywhere else. The 83 countries surveyed here differed markedly in company numbers, corporate capital/GDP ratios, and average corporate size. Enclave economies—dominated by quoted (and often foreign‐owned) companies—had the largest average sizes, while other nations had more varied mixes of large quoted corporations and close company small and medium enterprises.     

International banking and transmission of the 1931 financial crisis

In May to July 1931, a series of financial panics shook central Europe before spreading to the rest of the world. This article explores the role of cross‐border banking linkages in propagating the central European crisis to Britain and the US. Using archival bank‐level data, the article documents US and British banks’ exposure to central European frozen credits in 1931. Central European lending was mostly done by large and diversified commercial banks in the US and by small and geographically specialized merchant banks/acceptance houses in Britain. Differences in the organization of international bank lending explain why the central European crisis disturbed few US banks but endangered many British financial institutions.     

Rent seeking and collusion in the military allocation decisions of Finland,Sweden, and Great Britain, 1920–381

Analysis of military acquisition policies in Finland, Sweden, and Great Britain in the period from 1920 to 1938 produces evidence of rent seeking, both quantitative and qualitative, in all three cases. The Finnish institutional environment offered the most extensive rents and collusion opportunities, which translated into tangible price advantages for domestic producers. The Swedish and British domestic producers operated under more efficient institutions and thus had to settle for more moderate rents. Evolving institutional environments determined the extent of the rent seeking.     

公益性软科学研究机构职工激励的问题与对策

改革开放以来,公益性软科学研究机构历经多个发展阶段,已进入高质量发展新阶段。围绕职工创新激励关键环节,对华东四家研究院所进行案例比较,对其中一家院所进行问卷调查。结果发现:青年科研人员创新活跃,但对机构评价偏低,创新激励需求多样化;机构现行收入分配机制亟待改革;需要更充分落实国家创新激励政策。未来,公益性软科学研究机构应以高质量发展为主线,持续推进市场导向改革,落实创新激励政策,优化科研经费管理,建立多元激励方式。     

The Impact of Special Economic Zones and Government Intervention on Firm Productivity: The Case of Batam,Indonesia

Various studies have explored the effects of industrial agglomeration and special economic zones (SEZs) in Asia, but there has been a lack of data-driven analysis of SEZ performance. This paper provides a case study on Batam, which has been developed as an SEZ through government-to-government (G2G) cooperation, offering lessons for other developing countries. The study examines the effects of industrial zones, foreign investment and government intervention on firm productivity, using an ex-post evaluation method and econometric models. The paper does not find conclusive evidence that Batam’s status as an SEZ affects firm productivity and growth. Although firm agglomeration proves beneficial for firm productivity, it is not clear that SEZ policy has driven this productivity. The paper argues that government policies should stimulate innovation and inter-firm cooperation to increase knowledge spillovers and technology transfer instead of focusing on attracting investment.     

公共政策影响中国地区工业集聚了吗？——来自省级数据的证据

既有研究表明,政府政策对产业集聚存在显著影响。而在转轨期中国,政府政策行为涉及财税政策、产业政策、土地政策、公共服务政策,以及部分地区政府直接参与地方经济的投资活动等多样化内容形式。通过考察中国现阶段地区工业集聚呈现的新特点,即地区工业集聚差距呈现先扩大后缩小、地区工业集聚程度降低态势;探讨政府差异化的政策行为对中国地区工业集聚的内在影响;并基于2003-2011年省际面板数据予以实证。研究发现：不同的政府政策对中国工业集聚的影响不同;对外开放政策、产业政策、公共服务政策有利于地区工业集聚;财政政策对地区工业集聚存在负向作用;而土地政策以及东部沿海地区虚拟变量和直辖市虚拟变量,对地区工业集聚发挥的作用并不显著。     

The North European depression of the 1920s

Abstract

While the rest of the world enjoyed relative prosperity during the 1920s, Northern Europe remained depressed. In particular, Britain and Scandinavia suffered relatively high rates of unemployment. In this paper, we investigate the links between the North European Depression and currency overvaluation. The role of currency overvaluation has received much attention in the British case, but has been relatively neglected in the economic history of Scandinavia (in the English language, at least).     

Factor prices and induced technical change in the industrial revolution

Using historical data for the 1700–1914 period, this paper analyses the nature and direction of technical change in Britain. The evidence in this paper indicates that, over this long period, labour-saving technology adoption was a major response to changes in relative factor prices, thus supporting the hypothesis that ‘induced innovation’ was a major driver of technical change during the British industrial revolution. Labour saving was made possible and sustained by capital-augmenting and energy-augmenting technical change coupled with continuous capital accumulation and abundant energy supplies. This process placed the British economy on a higher capital–labour ratio equilibrium, and was the primary force driving sustained productivity growth, which further raised wages and living standards.     

Britain, Butter, and European Integration, 1957–1964

Access to the British butter market was an important issue during British negotiations with continental Europe in the early 1960s. Commonwealth producers enjoyed preferential treatment under the terms of the Ottawa Agreement, and butter exports were of particular importance to New Zealand. This article explains how Britain attempted to safeguard New Zealand's trade while conforming to Europe's agricultural policy. When British/European negotiations collapsed in 1963, attention switched to the need to make dairy concessions to Denmark in order to speed up tariff reductions in EFTA. Commonwealth butter suppliers faced an increasingly uncertain future, and New Zealanders lived to regret their economic dependence on the British market.     

20世纪60年代英国经济贸易利益向欧洲转移中的美国因素

20世纪60年代英国对欧洲政策发生转变,由排斥加入欧共体,到积极申请加入欧洲经济共同体,其间美国因素发挥着重要作用.本文指在探讨60年代英国经济贸易向欧洲靠拢转移过程中美国因素的作用,试图说明经济强国因素对一国外交决断是一个不可忽视的推动力.     

生产性服务业集聚如何提升制造业创新效率?——基于集聚外部性的理论分析与实证检验

文章基于集聚外部性的角度理论分析了生产性服务业集聚对制造业创新效率提升的影响机制,并利用2007-2016年的省级面板数据,实证检验了生产性服务业集聚的三个外部性对制造业创新效率的影响。结果表明,生产性服务业集聚的MAR外部性和Porter外部性能提升制造业创新效率,而Jacobs外部性对制造业创新效率的影响并不显著。从区域异质性来看,在东部地区,生产性服务业集聚的Porter外部性对制造业创新效率的促进效应更为显著,而在中西部地区,生产性服务业集聚的MAR外部性对制造业创新效率的提升作用更为显著。     

Energy, the Environment, and Innovation

In this paper we review the theoretical and empirical literatureon the role of policies in stimulating innovation that is designedto produce greener and more energy-efficient technologies. Firstwe review the theoretical literature on the role of purely environmentalpolicies in inducing firms to undertake environmental innovation.The conclusion is that for a wide range of policies and in awide range of circumstances one cannot prove that these policiesnecessarily induce greater innovation. We then consider theempirical evidence, which suggests that the effect of thesepolicies is weak but that the largest effects come in the longrun when, through learning-by-doing, firms better understandthe scope and potential for new energy-efficient technologies.Finally we consider the design of both environmental and technologypolicies, and show that the interaction of these policies iscomplex and warrants considerable further research.     

Why the industrial revolution was British: commerce,induced invention,and the scientific revolution1

Britain had a unique wage and price structure in the eighteenth century, and that structure is a key to explaining the inventions of the industrial revolution. British wages were very high by international standards, and energy was very cheap. This configuration led British firms to invent technologies that substituted capital and energy for labour. High wages also increased the supply of technology by enabling British people to acquire education and training. Britain's wage and price structure was the result of the country's success in international trade, and that owed much to mercantilism and imperialism. When technology was first invented, it was only profitable to use it in Britain, but eventually it was improved enough that it became cost‐effective abroad. When the ‘tipping point’ occurred, foreign countries adopted the technology in its most advanced form.     

The rise of the professional accountant in British management

This article quantifies the growth in the number of professional accountants in British management, charts their influence over the past century, and analyses the causes. It is most likely that Britain initially spawned large numbers of accountants because of the particular nature of its capital market which led to demands for the independent auditing of company accounts. British companies then recruited their accountants from this ever growing pool of professionally qualified auditors and the reason why these accountants rose to the top in British management was probably that the profession provided virtually the only formal management training available in Britain.     

京津冀地区创新政策对区域创新绩效影响的空间计量分析

提升区域创新绩效是在创新驱动发展背景下促进区域发展的重要手段.对京津冀43个区市2013—2018年的创新政策进行量化,构建空间计量模型,实证研究京津冀各区市创新政策对区域创新绩效的影响.研究结果表明:京津冀各区市创新政策与创新绩效均呈现显著正向空间相关性,空间聚集特征明显;创新政策的实施有利于提升本区域创新绩效,且对相邻区域创新绩效存在空间影响效应;创新政策对区域创新绩效的影响及空间效应均存在区域异质性.相对于天津和河北,北京市的创新政策实施对区内创新绩效的促进作用更明显;不同创新政策工具对创新绩效的影响存在差异,相比于需求侧政策和环境侧政策,供给侧政策对本地区创新绩效的促进作用最强;需求侧政策对相邻区域的创新绩效有正向影响,供给侧和环境侧政策对相邻区域创新绩效有负向影响.     

Reinterpreting the convict labour market

The convicts transported to NSW between 1817 and 1840 were young, fit, highly literate and brought occupational skills which were broadly representative of the British and Irish working classes. In the colonial labour market where convicts were coerced, more labour was forthcoming and at a lower wage than in a free labour market. The assignment of convict labour in the colony was efficient; skilled urban and construction tradesmen were employed in the same jobs in NSW as they had held in Britain. Domestic servants and unskilled urban workers whose skills were not suited to the needs of the colony experienced job restructuring. The organization of convict workers into teams and gangs in Australia was similar to the way work was organized in free labour Britain, and a mbc of incentives and rewards characterized the extraction of work from convicts. The human capital of the transportees and the labour system within which they worked help to explain the rapid growth of the colonial economy before 1840.     

The empire strikes back: Hong Kong and the decline of sterling in the 1960s1

The aftermath of the sterling devaluation of 1967 is usually portrayed only in terms of the performance of the British economy, but it had more far‐reaching implications, exposing the changed financial relationship between Britain and its overseas dependencies and prompting the end of the sterling reserve system. This article explores the reasons why Britain was forced to offer its first exchange guarantee to Hong Kong in May 1968. Prolonging the colonial monetary system devised in the period from the 1930s to the late 1960s created problems for Britain that shifted the balance of power to the point where Hong Kong and other colonies were able to force a re‐negotiation of their link to sterling.     

The Old Commonwealth and Britain's First Application to Join the EEC, 1961–3

New Zealand, Canada, and Australia reacted in different ways to Britain's decision in 1961 to seek membership of the EEC. We show that the umbrage taken by the members of the old Commonwealth was in inverse proportion to the economic interests at stake. Canada, whose trade with Britain was relatively small, adopted a position of violent opposition to British policy. New Zealand, which was still heavily dependent on the UK as a market for staple commodities, was careful to avoid acting in a manner likely to alienate the British government. Australia, which was in an intermediate position as regards the importance of its trade with Britain, mounted a sturdy defence of its commercial interests, but did not indulge in the histrionics of the Canadians. All three of the old dominions were disappointed with the arrangements for Commonwealth trade towards which the UK and the Six were moving when de Gaulle vetoed British membership in January 1963, but at least New Zealand had obtained some special concessions. Whilst it is unlikely that a less combative attitude by Canada and Australia would have resulted in a better outcome for these countries, a more belligerent approach on the part of New Zealand would have put its economic future in even greater jeopardy.     

政治联系、制度因素与企业的创新活动

本文使用世界银行在中国开展的投资环境调查（Investment Climate Survey）的数据,主要研究了法律环境、金融体系等制度因素以及政治关联对企业创新活动的影响。在控制了一系列影响创新的因素后,本文得出了以下几个主要结论：（1）良好的法律保护制度（以法律对合同的维护来衡量）以及高效的金融体系能够促进企业的研发活动,随着转轨过程的进行,金融体系对企业经济活动发挥着越来越重要的作用;（2）被动形成的政治关联程度弱化了企业创新的动机,CEO不是由政府直接任命的企业较CEO由政府任命的企业更倾向于进行创新活动,国有制的所有制形式阻碍了企业的创新活动;（3）企业主动建立的政治关联正向影响企业研发活动。此外,我们还发现企业的规模与企业的创新活动正相关。