Institutions for the taking: property rights and the settlement of the Cape Colony, 1652–1750

We examine the formation of property rights in land during the early settlement by the Dutch of the Cape Colony at the southern tip of Africa. After its founding in 1652 as a provisioning outpost for ships of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), the colonial government promoted settlement initially by granting land with well-specified and enforced property rights in restricted zones near Cape Town. By 1714 it transitioned to accommodate rapidly expanding settlement by creating a weaker form of property rights, the loan farm, which was imprecisely defined and had limited government enforcement. We develop a profit-maximizing monopsony model to explain the VOC's choice to transition from the better-specified land grant to the less well-specified loan farm. We conclude that the decline in the population size and ability of the Khoikhoi, the Cape's original inhabitants, to organize effective resistance to the Dutch invasion was critical to the transition, as it lowered the costs of private enforcement of settlers’ territorial claims. The choice of property rights thus enabled and encouraged the rapid taking by European settlers of the western Cape of Africa for the expansion of the Dutch colony's pastoral economy.     

The effect of value-added tax on leverage: Evidence from China’s value-added tax reform

In this paper, we use China’s value-added tax (VAT) reform in 2007, which was aimed to encourage fixed investment purchasing, as a natural experiment to explore the effect on firm financial leverage. Results show an expansion in firm balance sheet after the reform, manifested by greater liabilities (long-term, short-term and total liability) and asset. Moreover, in terms of the ratio to asset, it’s found that long-term liability rose while the short-term liability dropped, and as a net effect, the total asset-liability ratio declined as the latter effect dominated. To theoretically explain the observed patterns, three mechanisms are highlighted, “income effect”, “maturity-match effect” and “market disciplining effect”, where income effect corresponds to a proportional expansion of balance sheet while the latter two effects alter the composition of firm leverage.     

An experimental study of intra- and international cooperation: Chinese and American play in the Prisoner’s Dilemma Game

We study whether intra- and international groups have different cooperation rates in the Prisoner's Dilemma Game. We report on an experiment in which university students in China and America engage in a single iteration of the game, complete belief elicitation tasks regarding their counterparts' play, and complete a survey including attitudinal measurements regarding their in- and out-group attitudes. We find that Chinese overall cooperation rates are less than American ones. Further, female participants are more cooperative than males. With respect to international cooperation, Chinese participants accurately estimate the likelihood of cooperative behavior of their American counterparts, while Americans overestimate the same likelihood of their Chinese counterparts. Our results further show that Chinese participants cooperate more conditionally than American ones. Finally, we find a more positive attitude towards one's living country is related to less international cooperative behavior, and a more positive attitude towards the other country is related to more international cooperation.     

Living standards and the life cycle: reconstructing household income and consumption in the early twentieth-century Netherlands†

Conventional methods of measuring historical household living standards are often criticized because of the omission of women's and children's wages and non-wage income; the focus on urban centres; and the exclusion of life-cycle changes in household composition, income, and consumption. This article presents a method that accounts for these issues and applies it to agricultural and textile households in the early-twentieth century Netherlands. It uses total household income, as opposed to the husband's wage, as the enumerator for calculating alternative welfare ratios. The results show that welfare ratios were not only structurally higher than those based on the male-breadwinner model, but also followed a different life-cycle trajectory. Furthermore, household portfolios were diversified and depended on local labour market structures. Thus, the study concludes that analyses based on men's wages only reflect the rough outlines of how households functioned.     

Basel regulations and banks’ efficiency: The case of the Philippines

Using stochastic frontier analysis, this paper has examined the impact of Basel II on the cost efficiency of Philippine commercial banks from 2001 to 2011. The overall mean cost efficiency estimate is 0.75, indicating substantial inefficiencies in the banks averaging to 25% of total costs. Findings show that higher capital requirement tends to improve the cost efficiency but more powerful supervisors can adversely affect the efficiency of the banks. The other potential correlates that may help explain the efficiency of the banks are risk and asset quality and bank-specific variables. From a policy perspective, this study is informative to policymakers on the general direction in which to proceed with reforms (i.e., maintain higher capital requirements, curtail powerful supervisors, and enhance private monitoring) and in identifying factors that could contribute to banks’ efficiency especially in light of the newly implemented Basel III in the country. In effect, this paper also assesses the readiness of the banks toward the implementation of Basel III.     

Structural changes in Ukraine’s economy: The effect of internal and external factors and the consequences of the global crisis

The article examines the tendencies and internal and external factors of structural changes in the economy of Ukraine. A formalized procedure is suggested for the estimation of structural changes, and the results of international comparisons are presented. The effect of the crisis on structural changes is analyzed, and strategic guidelines for postcrisis development are stated.     

The Asymmetric Loss Function and the Central Banks’ Ability in Developing Countries

Abstract

This paper seeks to develop a theoretical strand of research in monetary economics by modelling central bank ability in the loss function. Recently, many working papers issued by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) prove that some central banks, particularly from developing countries, are suffering from serious operational problems that might affect their abilities to control the economy. Simultaneously, a literature review shows that the movements are toward using asymmetric loss function. Therefore, we utilize this function in the standard monetary approach. The results proved that both central bank ability and preference in developing countries are fundamental to explain inflation bias and the movement of monetary policy instrument.     

Taxation officers’ grassroots work experience and tax performance: Evidence from China

This paper examines the effect of grassroots work experience on the working capacities of Chinese officials and how this effect manifests in their measurable performance. Using the Chinese Industrial Enterprises Database (CIED, 1998–2007) and provincial-level local taxation directors’ personal data, we assess the actual tax burden of firms as a measure of directors’ tax levy performance. We analyze these officials’ grassroots work experience data in relation to the level of tax levy in their jurisdictions and find that grassroots work experience significantly improves jurisdictional tax levy performance, reflecting an enhancement effect on directorial capacity associate with grassroots work experience. This relationship remains robust even as we examine alternative hypotheses such as post-employment education, first-time appointment age and promotion incentives. Our analysis reveals that the threat of local tax penalties and the rate of tax offenses are two important mechanisms relating to this measure. Moreover, our findings are particularly significant in local taxation directors with higher first-time employment age and grassroots experience related to economics. Overall, this paper supports the notion that grassroots work experience plays a key role in shaping officials’ working capacity and provides suggestions for optimizing the tax levy system.     

Emotions,trading practices and communication in transnational itinerant trade: encounters between ‘Rucksack Russians’ and their customers in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Finland

ABSTRACT

This article examines relations between ‘Rucksack Russians’, itinerant traders from Russian Karelia, and their local customers in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century rural Finland. Finland was a part of the Russian Empire, but, according to Finnish law, itinerant trade was illegal for people without citizenship rights in the Grand Duchy. The trade was, thus, illicit, although often seen through the fingers. We study trader–customer relations through emotions, trading practices and communication, with a special focus on the consumption of women. We argue that analysing the relations from these perspectives deepens the understanding of the functions of itinerant trade for the shaping of a consumer society. For access to a consumer perspective, we use ethnographic questionnaires, a source type that historians have acknowledged only in recent decades. The questionnaires complement and nuance the predominantly negative attitudes towards itinerant trade conveyed in the newspapers, which mainly represent the viewpoints of the authorities and local merchants. Through the theoretical perspectives and through shifting focus from the consumption of the elite to that of that of the lower strata of society, the article offers a fresh take on such aspects of trader–consumer relations that previous historical research on itinerant trade has overlooked.     

The ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ in the discourses of the Central Asian states: political rhetoric of growth and academic prognostication

As official discourses throughout Central Asia reflect, China’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ has become very attractive to the local regimes. They perceive it as corresponding to the urgent need to achieve social and economic growth and maintain alternatives for international cooperation. Political elites have incorporated the BRI-agenda into their rhetoric of growth and actively promote the idea of BRI’s ‘conjugation’ with local development plans. The success of the initiative, however, differs from state to state.

The BRI-related narratives of local expert communities mainly correspond to the goals set by the officials. At the same time, local experts elucidate important issues, such as BRI’s impact on national security, Chinese migration, and public discontent. These elucidations may adjust the official stand towards the BRI. The possibility of such adjustments, varying in different Central Asian states, depends in each case on the openness of a regime to scholarly prognostications.

Abbreviations: BRI - Belt and Road Initiative; CDA - Critical Discourse-Analysis; DHA - Discourse-Historical Approach; SCO - Shanghai Cooperation Organisation; EAEU - Eurasian Economic Union; TAPI -Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (pipeline)     

Nuclear power: The family in decolonial perspective and ‘pro-family’ politics in Africa

ABSTRACT

This article argues that the normative construction of ‘family’ in heteronormative ‘nuclear’ terms is infused with power relations, and therefore must not be taken for granted as an analytical category or concept. Not only a site where racialised and patriarchal western notions of sexed and gendered hierarchies have been naturalised and institutionalised, the ‘nuclear family’ model was positioned as a signifier of modernity, civilisation and progress within eurocentric knowledge construction that served colonial interests. This discussion reviews decolonial thinking on the nuclear family, as well as anti-imperialist literature on the colonial history of the nuclear family ideal. These perspectives are brought into conversation with current developments in which the nuclear family model is being reinvigorated by the conservative US-based ‘pro-family’ movement. The ‘family’, it is concluded, is entangled in multiple relations of geo-political power that should be taken into account in research and the production of knowledge around kinship in African contexts.     

Otto Mønsted and the early margarine industry:

Abstract

The story of the Danish margarine matador, Otto Mensied has not previously been researched in depth. This paper gives a short outline of the career of this international businessman. The main emphasis is on his involvement in the British market. The eclectic theory of foreign direct investment has recently been expanded to cover international networks or alliances. Using this framework we offer some explanation of the fact that Mensted's British operations for some time were a threat to the Dutch early movers, Gebr. Jurgens and Van den Bergh. Their first cooperation agreement of 1908 may be interpreted as a response to the threat of a superior alliance between Mensiea Ltd., its suppliers and its distribution channel.     

What about the race between education and technology in the Global South? Comparing skill premiums in colonial Africa and Asia

Historical research on the race between education and technology has focused on the West but barely touched upon ‘the rest’. A new occupational wage database for 50 African and Asian economies allows us to compare long-run patterns in skill premiums across the colonial and post-colonial eras (c. 1870–2010). Our data reveal three major patterns. First, skilled labour was considerably more expensive in colonial Africa and Asia than in pre-industrial Europe. Second, skill premiums were distinctly higher in Africa than in Asia. Third, in both regions, skill premiums fell dramatically over the course of the twentieth century, ultimately converging to levels long observed in the West. Our paper takes a first step to explain both the origins of the Africa–Asia gap and the drivers of global skill premium convergence, paying special attention to the colonial context that shaped demand, supply, and labour market institutions.     

The Application Effect of Securities Portfolio in American and Its Enlightenment for China

Securities investment fund （SIF） is a financial product that centralizes the dispersed capitals of investors to form the SIF, and then invests it on other scattering securities and financial commodities according to the best profit and the least risk negotiated by the investors. It is well applied in US, and gives great enlightenment for the development of Chinese SIF.     

Where is the beef? The costs of American aid and wartime China's hyperinflation

Upon the outbreak of the Pacific War (December 1941), the United States expanded its military assistance to allied nations including China under the “Lend-Lease Act”. However, the US defaulted the payment for their staff dispatched to and stationed in China which forced China to make huge sums of advance payment. The total costs of American military presence in China, including China's Reverse Lend-Lease contribution as a return to US military aid, amounted 15% to 22% of China's total fiscal expenditures. Since the beginning of 1937, the price indices increased only 200% by 1941 but rocketed to 1600 times by 1945. We develop a dynamic Fiscal Theory of Price Level (FTPL) to capture the relationship between fiscal shocks and price level. Our DSGE model shows that seigniorage (fiscal demand) driven inflationary monetary policy can lead to some hyperinflation that can be predicted and quantified. We then empirically examine the relationship between fiscal expenditures and inflation levels using provincial panel data 1937–1945. The estimation results show that local price levels increased 1.6% to 3.7% for every 10% increases of China's advance payment to US troops.