Memory of famine: The persistent impact of famine experience on food waste behavior

The 1959–1961 Great Famine in China was one of the most devastating events in history and had long-term effects on economic behavior. This paper seeks to provide a novel explanation for heterogeneous food waste behaviors across age cohorts from the perspective of differing famine experiences. Based on 2004–2009 China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) data, this paper constructs a difference-in-difference estimator to explore the long-term effects of the early-life famine experience of the household head on household food waste behavior in later life. The results indicate that the more serious famine that the household head experienced in early life was, the less wasted food and lost calories per capita there were, especially for adolescence during the famine. The mechanism analysis shows that households whose heads experienced the 1959–1961 Great Famine in early life tend to save more than those whose head did not. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the formation of preference and the variation in household food waste behaviors across age cohorts.     

Mortality in the North Dublin Union during the Great Famine

Debate about the adequacy of public action during the Great Irish Famine is hampered by a lack of detailed information on its impact at local level. This study addresses the question of local agency with a case study of the North Dublin Union, which was responsible for administering the Irish poor law in the northern half of Dublin city. We use workhouse records to study the Union's functioning during the famine. High mortality of workhouse inmates mainly reflected the crisis outside its walls: the guardians and the managers did reasonably well in preserving human life in difficult circumstances.     

Royal paternalism and the moral economy in the reign of Edward II: the response to the Great Famine

This article contains the first systematic discussion of Edward II's response to the famine of 1315–17, the most severe of the middle ages. While there had been earlier famines, that of 1315–17 produced the earliest surviving evidence of official attempts at remedial actions. Those included the enforcement of traditional regulatory measures such as the assizes of ale and weights and measures, and efforts to regulate brewing by preventing the use of wheat and limiting the amount of barley used. In addition, the government acted to encourage the import of grain and imposed prohibitions on export that were explicitly justified by scarcity and high prices. English bishops were urged to encourage those who were hoarding grain to hold only enough for themselves and their families and sell the rest. While it is unclear whether government actions had much effect, it is difficult to imagine under fourteenth‐century conditions that any government had the means or measures to respond effectively to famine. Nonetheless, some of the measures taken by Edward II's government, especially export prohibition and attempts to persuade or compel those with supplies of grain to sell it, had a long future ahead of them.     

Laissez‐faire,the Irish famine,and British financial crisis

The decision in 1847 to cut Treasury spending on public relief efforts during the Irish famine is generally attributed by economic historians to the pervasive influence of ‘laissez‐faire’ ideas on the Whig government of Lord John Russell. This article draws on the papers of political leaders and contemporary financial information to argue that economic reasons were the trigger for the change in policy. Robert Peel and Charles Wood's macroeconomic policies of the 1840s, including the gold standard, the Bank Charter Act, and corn law repeal, left the Whigs unable to borrow to finance relief efforts in Ireland without panicking markets. The scaling back of public assistance programmes that resulted from this—and which increased mortality at the height of the Irish famine—was the unintended result of Peel and Wood's economic policies, in the context of the Whig government's parliamentary weakness.     

Causes and consequences of the Great Vietnam Famine, 1944–5

This article analyses Vietnam's 1944–5 great famine, which, even beyond its sheer scale of a million deaths, is historically important as instrumental in the August 1945 Viet Minh and communist revolution. It is argued that typhoons which struck coastal areas resulted in a shortfall of available food and were the proximate cause of famine. The Japanese in occupation of Vietnam, the American government directing attacks on the transport system, or the country's French colonial administration could have acted to limit, or even reverse, the famine. However, under the pressure of war, no government or institution opted for an effective famine alleviation strategy. That was also true of Asia's other great Second World War famines in Bengal, Henan, and Java, which paralleled Vietnam's both in causation and in feasible avoidance strategies. In Vietnam, differences in endowments and entitlements largely explain who died in the famine.     

Feeding the motherland: grain exports from the Swedish Baltic provinces during the Great Famine of 1696–1697

The research carried out so far has explained the Great Famine of 1696–1697 in the Baltic provinces as a result of the total crop failures in 1695–1696 and an inadequate Swedish economic policy that emptied all the stocks in the provinces through massive grain exports to Finland and Sweden. However, both these views are not consistent with the closer study of the grain exports from the major ports of the Baltic provinces during the famine years. The analysis of Tallinn's customs books shows that the grain exports occurred only on a small scale compared to the normal years, due to the strict ban on grain exports to foreign markets. Furthermore, there is no proof that the markets in the bigger towns lacked available grain in those years. It can also be concluded that the volume of the grain exports was hardly enough to alleviate the famine crisis in Finland or Sweden.     

Food availability versus consumption efficiency: causes of the Chinese famine

The Chinese famine of 1958–1961 is characterized not only by its great magnitude but also by the uniqueness of its causes. In this article we present evidence that conventional reasons; including FAD and entitlement failure, fail to offer plausible explanations for the tragedy because of the obvious contradiction between food availability and excessive deaths during the famine period. Our thesis is that the famine is caused by consumption inefficiency, a result of the free food supply in the communal dining system in the famine period. This causal factor is unique and unprecedented in the famine history and theory. Yet the thesis is consistent with a basic economic precept: if property rights for food in a society are not defined, food consumption will be inefficient. This inefficiency mades the previously barely adequate food supply in China inadequate, causing a large-scale famine.     

Mortality in South Africa: Socio-economic profile and association with self-reported health

This paper exploits the first two waves of the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) to describe the socio-economic profile of mortality and to assess whether self-rated health status is predictive of mortality between waves. Mortality rates in NIDS are in line with estimates from official death notification data and display the expected hump of excess mortality in early and middle adulthood due to AIDS, with the excess peaking earlier for women than for men. We find evidence of a socio-economic gradient in mortality, with higher rates of mortality for individuals from asset-poor households and with lower levels of education. Consistent with evidence from many industrialised countries and a few developing countries, we find self-rated health to be a significant predictor of two-year mortality, an association that remains after controlling for socio-economic status and several other subjective and objective measures of health.     

The evolution of ottoman–European market linkages, 1469–1914: Evidence from dynamic factor models

This paper exploits data on a set of traded goods to undertake the first comprehensive empirical analysis of market integration between the Ottoman Empire and Europe from 1469 to 1914. Computing dynamic factor models via Bayesian inference, we overcome such data constraints as missing observations and a small sample size. The results of this analysis suggest that there were persistent market linkages until the first half of the 19th century, followed by a decline in price convergence. We also find that the intensity of Ottoman–European conflict had a negative effect on integration, especially during the 1844–1914 period.     

An introduction to the history of infectious diseases,epidemics and the early phases of the long-run decline in mortality†

This article, written during the COVID-19 epidemic, provides a general introduction to the long-term history of infectious diseases, epidemics and the early phases of the spectacular long-term improvements in life expectancy since 1750, primarily with reference to English history. The story is a fundamentally optimistic one. In 2019 global life expectancy was approaching 73 years. In 1800 it was probably about 30. To understand the origins of this transition, we have to look at the historical sequence by which so many causes of premature death have been vanquished over time. In England that story begins much earlier than often supposed, in the years around 1600. The first two ‘victories’ were over famine and plague. However, economic changes with negative influences on mortality meant that, despite this, life expectancies were either falling or stable between the late sixteenth and mid eighteenth centuries. The late eighteenth and early nineteenth century saw major declines in deaths from smallpox, malaria and typhus and the beginnings of the long-run increases in life expectancy. The period also saw urban areas become capable of demographic growth without a constant stream of migrants from the countryside: a necessary precondition for the global urbanization of the last two centuries and for modern economic growth. Since 1840 the highest national life expectancy globally has increased by three years in every decade.     

Status and mortality: Is there a Whitehall effect in the United States?

The influential Whitehall studies found that top-ranking civil servants in Britain experienced lower mortality than civil servants below them in the organizational hierarchy due to differential exposure to workplace stress. I test for a Whitehall effect in the United States using a 1930 cohort of white-collar employees at a leading firm – General Electric (GE). All had access to a corporate health and welfare program during a critical period associated with the health transition. I measure status using position in the managerial hierarchy, attendance at prestigious management training camps and promotions, none of which is associated with a Whitehall-like rank-mortality gradient. Instead, senior managers and executives experienced a 3–5-year decrease in lifespan relative to those in lower levels, with the largest mortality penalty experienced by individuals in the second level of the hierarchy. I discuss generalizability and potential explanations for this reversal of the Whitehall phenomenon using additional data on the status and lifespan of top business executives and US senators.     

Assessing the Effect of Trade Openness on Health in the MENA Region: a Panel Data Analysis

This study examines the effect of trade openness on the health outcomes of 12 countries in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey, and the UAE. By using a panel data investigation over 1970–2015, we check whether the trade of these countries with developed economies (using the proxy of G7 countries) and the rest of the world affects life expectancy and the infant mortality rate. We also assess the moderating effect of governmental corruption. Our findings show two interesting results. First, trade openness has a positive effect on health in the MENA region as it reduces the infant mortality rate and boosts life expectancy for both men and women. Second, better control over corruption and more focus on trade with developed countries would lead to more technology and information spillovers, which positively affect the health sector.     

An econometric investigation of the condition of children in Italy

This paper provides some analytical contributions in evaluating the impact of worsening economic conditions and the prospect of more restrictive social policies on children's status in Italy. It specifies a causal model linking child's status to a set of variables (including, for example, parent's education, parent's employment, etc.). The specific effect of those variables has been estimated on the basis of two sets of data. The first consists of pooled cross-sectional and time-series information for infant mortality and the other variables indicated above. The second consists of data drawn from a 1979 household survey for the city of Turin. The results indicate that mortality rates, particularly neonatal rates, are sensitive to economic conditions and fluctuations. The employment level of mothers is also found to have a strong effect on child psychosocial status.     

On the causes of China''s agricultural crisis and the great leap famine

Recently researchers have conducted extensive investigations on China's Great Leap crisis. In this article, we critically review this literature and argue that, since the grain production collapse was not the only factor that led to the famine, the causes of these two catastrophes require separate examination. At the theoretical level multidimensional factors were responsible for the crisis. However, existing empirical findings mainly support the exit right hypothesis to explain the dramatic productivity fluctuations in Chinese agriculture, and support grain availability and the urban-biased food distribution system as important causes of the famine. We suggest that additional empirical research is needed to assess the relative importance of the proposed causes.     

Does the first job really matter? State dependency in employment status in Japan

This paper examines whether the failure to obtain regular full-time employment at the time of graduation has a long-term impact on subsequent employment status. Using micro data from the Japanese General Social Surveys and the job opening ratio (yuko kyujin bairitu) as an instrument for entry-level employment status, I show that the observed correlation between current and entry-level employment status produces a true causal link, which is not attributable to sorting on unobserved aptitude. I also discuss various underlying mechanisms including social institutions and stigmatization. J. Japanese Int. Economies 21 (3) (2007) 379–402.     

New perspectives on the contribution of sanitary investments to mortality decline in English cities, 1845–1909

Health improved in English cities in the last third of the nineteenth century, in tandem with substantial increases in public spending on water supplies and sanitation. However, previous efforts to measure the contribution of public expenditures to mortality improvements have been hampered by difficulties in quantifying public health investments and the lack of mortality data for specifically urban populations. We improve upon the existing evidence base by (1) creating measures of the stock of urban district sanitary capital, by type, on the basis of capital expenditure flows, rather than loan stocks; (2) using mortality and capital stock data that relate to the same administrative units (urban districts), and (3) studying the period 1880–1909 as well as the earlier period from 1845. The stock of sewerage capital was robustly related to improvements in all-cause mortality after 1880. The size of this effect varied with the extent of public investment in water supplies, suggesting complementarity between the two assets. For the period 1845–84, investments in water were associated with declines in infant and child mortality but the effect was much smaller and less precisely estimated in later decades. Our results suggest that improvements in water and sewerage targeted different transmission pathways for faecal–oral diseases.     

Speedier delivery: coastal shipping times and speeds during the Age of Sail †

There is a debate about whether coastal shipping experienced substantial productivity growth prior to the advent of steam power. To study changes over the long eighteenth century, this article uses thousands of coastal journey times culled from Board of Trade crew lists between 1835 and 1844 and coastal port books for the mid‐to‐late 1600s, along with a newly digitized coastal network. Comparisons between matched samples show that journey speeds, defined as miles sailed per day, were significantly higher in the crew lists compared to the port books, and that voyage cycle times, defined as days between starting two identical voyages, were substantially lower. The study also shows that voyage times in the east coast coal trade were substantially lower around 1840 than around 1700, but the difference was much smaller when peace years are compared. These new data imply that total factor productivity growth in the east coast coal trade was significant, especially if one accounts for gains from peace after 1815. The findings contribute to the larger literature studying the rate and sources of productivity growth during the industrial revolution.     

大饥荒与宗教信仰——基于CGSS数据的微观分析

文章采用2010—2013年中国综合社会调查(CGSS)微观数据,发现大饥荒对于个人宗教信仰选择具有长期影响。实证结果表明,在控制其他变量影响的情况下,成年时期经历过大饥荒的人群更加倾向于选择信仰宗教,并且考虑流动人口、DID方法和安慰剂(placebo)检验下的回归结果也非常稳健。同时,基于宗教社会网络模型和宗教事后保障模型,文章发现社交动机和个人健康状况是两者的重要影响机制。最后,文章提出了相应的政策建议。     

Evaluating participation in African monetary unions: A statistical analysis of the CFA Zones

Thirteen African nations are engaged in two monetary unions with France, often referred to as the CFA Zone. Despite the acknowledged benefits of Zone membership — a convertible currency, pooled resources and greater monetary and fiscal “discipline” — several observers have questioned whether particular aspects of the Zone such as the lack of autonomy of the two Central Banks and the surrender of the exchange rate as a policy instrument have impeded its members' growth. This paper addresses that question by testing whether CFA Zone countries had different GNP growth rates from selected “comparator” countries during 1960–1982. Results show that CFA countries grew significantly faster than comparator Sub-Saharan African countries but usually slower, and often significantly so, than the whole sample of developing countries. When the comparison is made by subperiod (before and after 1973), CFA countries' performance vis-à-vis that of their comparators improved during the 1973–1982 period, casting further doubt on the claim that the monetary union is not functioning adequately.