Monastic mortality: Durham Priory, 1395–15291

This article presents reliable data on the life expectancy of the monks of Durham Priory between 1395 and 1529. The number of years that monks survived in this northern monastery plunged precipitously in the second half of the fifteenth century before staging a partial recovery in the early sixteenth. The experience of Durham monks mirrors the scale, direction, and timing of the data already produced for the monks of Canterbury and Westminster. While the precise relationship between monastic mortality and that of the population at large remains difficult to determine, there can be no doubt that the symmetry that has been established between mortality in three monasteries located in different parts of the country has important implications for our understanding of the demographic history of late medieval England.     

Feeding the colleges: Cambridge's food and fuel supplies, 1450–1560

Von Thünen's model of the relationship between concentrated urban demand and rural land use proposes that towns will draw agricultural produce from a series of zones of specialized production around the urban centre. Using the accounts of King's Hall and King's College, this article identifies the areas that supplied Cambridge with food and fuel during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the persistence of such trade. Local geographical conditions meant that, contrary to von Thünen's model, firewood and charcoal were brought from more distant regions than those supplying wheat and malt barley, and Cambridge's hinterland also had to compete with demand from London.     

Estimating output gaps in Asia: A cross-country study

We estimate output gaps for Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Taiwan, using the Hodrick–Prescott (HP) filter, a band-pass (BP) filter, the Beveridge–Nelson (BN) filter and unobservable-components (UC) techniques. Three conclusions are notable. First, the gaps resulting from the BN filter, which is “one-sided,” differ from the other filters that are “two-sided.” Second, the UC approach has the advantage that it allows confidence bands for the gap to be constructed and that it yields estimates of the growth rate of potential. Third, the HP, UC, and BP gaps are similar. J. Japanese Int. Economies 18 (1) (2004) 115–136.     

Estimating Trade Mis-invoicing from China： 2000-2005

An examination of available data reveals large trade misinvoicing between China and its trade partners. The analysis finds a net trade misinvoicing of US$287.6bn between 2000 and 2005, while the full magnitude of unrecorded trade is estimated at US$1.4tn. China needs to establish more effective management of its international trade flows. At the same time, the international community needs to provide more effective governance mechanisms to address trade misinvoicing.