Hukou and Graduates’ Job Search in China*

This paper presents evidence that graduates from rural areas, classified as non‐urban Hukou, choose to invest in higher levels of job‐search effort (as measured by number of different search methods used and the number of employers contacted) and also set a lower reservation wage, reflected in acceptance of a lower starting salary, than do comparable graduates of urban Hukou, in China. The former also appear to have higher probabilities of being employed, in terms of both their higher probabilities of receiving offers and, more importantly, their higher probabilities of acceptance. The evidence thus suggests that graduates with non‐urban Hukou face more intense pressure to gain employment in the period leading up to graduation, than do their urban counterparts. More generally, the evidence suggests that effort invested in job search is rewarded in the graduate labor market in China.     

Independent invention in Italy during the Liberal Age, 1861–1913

This article examines the phenomenon of independent invention in Italy during the Liberal Age (1861–1913). It makes use of a new dataset comprising all patents granted in Italy in five benchmark years: 1864–5, 1881, 1891, 1902, and 1911. The following exercises are carried out. First, an examination is undertaken of the shares of independent, corporate, and foreign inventions and their evolution over time and across industries. Second, by exploiting the peculiarities of Italian patent legislation, which was characterized by relatively cheap fees and a flexible renewal scheme, the relative quality of independent and corporate patents is assessed. The results indicate that in Italy independent inventors made an important contribution to technological change in terms of number of patents, but the quality of their patents was significantly lower than that of firms and of foreign patentees.     

Monetization and the behavior of velocity in Sweden, 1871–1913

The income velocity of money declined sharply in Sweden between the 1870's and the outbreak of World War I. This decline is explained by a monetization process. An account of this process is given focusing on (a) the growth of commercial banking, (b) changes in wage contracts and in labor markets, and (c) changes in exchange arrangements in the markets for goods. A number of proxy measures of the spreading use of money are presented and included in regressions on velocity. The influence of the monetization variables is compared to the effects of the standard explanatory variables in money demand studies, that is, of real income and interest rates. The econometric results support the view that monetization variables significantly contributed to the fall in velocity. These results question the luxury-good hypothesis of money, suggesting that the standard approach of including real income as an explanatory variable in money demand studies covering long spans of time runs the risk of ignoring important determinants of the secular behavior of velocity.     

Price Fluctuations and Growth Patterns in Singapore's Trade, 1831–1913

Using a newly created trade price index, this paper determines the real growth rate of Singapore's trade during 1831–1913. We find that Singapore's trade grew between 1831 and 1873 at a higher rate than during the later period. An analysis of the terms of trade and purchasing power parity reveals that the growth pattern of Singapore's entrepôt trade changed after 1850 from growth fuelled by transit trade of industrial products to balanced growth between regional imports and exports. This change resulted from the operation of the international monetary system, which enhanced market integration between Britain and Southeast Asia via Singapore.