A Norwegian fixation: explaining cheap money in Norway, 1945–1986

In a number of European countries, credit markets were characterised by heavy regulations of quantities and prices, in terms of interest rates, in the post war years. In Norway, the regulations became more vigorous and lasted much longer, than most other countries. This article seeks to explain the extent and persistence of the policy by tracing the role of leading economists, of financial sector, and political considerations in relation to growths policies and the housing markets. Whereas a number of factors are highlighted in the emergence of the system, the role of political considerations in relation to cheap funding for the housing sector appears as a fundamental cause and condition in explaining the persistence of the cheap money policies into the mid-1980s.     

The South African labour market, 1995–2015

This study investigates the changes in the South African labour market in the post-apartheid period. While unemployment increased over the 1995–2015 period, employment also increased. Nonetheless, the extent of employment increase is not rapid enough to absorb all net entrants into the labour force, resulting in increasing unemployment, or an employment absorption rate of 65.3%. Unemployment is concentrated in specific demographically and geographically defined groups, most notably Africans, the lowly educated and those aged below 30 years, residing in rural areas in Gauteng. Finally, four worrying findings are observed: youth jobseekers aged below 30 years struggle to find their first job; chronic unemployment is more serious for the relatively older jobseekers (aged 45 years or above) with past work experience; employees working for small, medium and micro enterprises still stagnate at approximately 3.5 million; and jobseekers from the older age cohorts are less likely to actively seek work by enquiring at workplaces and answering job advertisements.     

The political economy of post-war Finland, 1945–19521

Abstract

The paper is primarily concerned with the Finnish government's management of the Finnish economic situation after the Second World War. Overall, post-war policies were dominated by three main goals, first, how to deal with the war reparation payments required under the harsh political terms of the 1944 Armistice Treaty; secondly, to ensure the settlement of the Karelian refugees and demobilised veterans; and thirdly, the raising of production and the standard of living, including the easing of the rationing system. The focus is especially in analysing how this was financed externally and by the state economy without hyperinflation and considerable indebtedness of the state. From the point of view of the government finances, the financing of the war was transformed to the financing of the war reparations, the compensations due to the war and the settlement of the homeless people. The paper has drawn on the findings of the Studies of the Economic Growth of Finland and other sources and can be seen as a sequel to a previous article on the Finnish war economy between 1939-1945.²     

The Russian market in world trade, 1500–1860

Abstract

The Russian market has played a prominent part in world trade throughout the ages. In Viking times Russia was a source of furs and slaves for the Arabian caliphate. However, from about AD 1000 the situation changed and from then on western Europe provided the market for Russian products. The trade with Novgorod and later on also with Riga came to be a vital element in the activities of German merchants, and the Hanseatic League's counting-house in Novgorod was an important rallying-point. In early medieval trade it was fur and wax products that were the chief exports from the Russian market. In the later Middle Ages other important products emerged: flax, hemp, tallow, ashes and skins. Flax and hemp were key articles for the shipbuilding industry, being used as materials for the rigging, ropes and sails. Flax was also an essential raw material for the textile industry. Tallow was used for the manufacture of soap and candles and also in making cloth and leather. Ashes and potash had a variety of technical uses, for example in the textile and glass industries. Skins were the raw material for the manufacture of leather. The products enumerated were virtually monopoly goods of eastern Europe and were regarded as quality goods. In western Europe there was a constant demand for Russian products.     

The Danish Agro Machinery Industry in a Global Perspective, 1945–2005

Abstract

Since the mid-nineteenth century, agriculture and the agro machinery industry has formed an integral part of the developed world, dominated by North America and Western Europe. After the Second World War, agricultural industrialization speeded up. Millions of small and mixed farms in the West disappeared to be replaced by large-scale and specialized farming. The technology needed to transform agriculture was supplied by an expanding agro machinery industry. As in other fields of industry, the agro machinery industry turned into an international business. By the turn of the twentieth century, farming and industry took an even bigger step as business and technology were being globalized. The agro machinery industry that served these global markets remained in the West, however. Eventually, transatlantic mergers consolidated firms into industries for plant, dairy and pig and poultry farming equipment. This article discusses how the Danish agro machinery increasingly became an integrated part of international and global developments.     

The consumption–wealth ratio,real estate wealth,and the Japanese stock market

The first contribution of this paper, in following the works of Lettau and Ludvigson, 2001a, Lettau and Ludvigson, 2001b, is to construct a Japanese consumption–wealth ratio data series and to examine whether it explains Japanese stock market data. We find that the consumption–wealth ratio does predict future stock returns, but the evidence is weaker than that from US data, and the source of predictability is limited to observations after the collapse of the asset bubble at the beginning of the 1990s. The consumption–wealth ratio also helps to explain cross-sectional Japanese stock returns. The second contribution of the paper is that we propose new consumption–wealth ratio that more explicitly deal with household real estate wealth utilizing Japanese aggregate-level data. Such “real estate augmented” consumption–wealth ratio perform better than the consumption–wealth ratio calculated with only financial wealth data. While the scaled factor model proposed by Lettau and Ludvigson performs relatively well with Japanese data, the book-to-market related anomaly pointed out by Chan et al. (1991) and Jagannathan et al. (1998) remains strong.     

Politics and economic theory in allied planning for peace, 1944–1945

Abstract

At the beginning of June 1919, a member of the British Delegation at the Paris Peace Conference, the young John Maynard Keynes, gave up hope of anyone listening to his views which were based on economic theory, or to his call for a sensible revision of the peace terms.     

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.     

Coal exports and British shipping, 1850–1913

We export of British coal was a major feature of late 19th-century ocean shipping. It has often been argued that British coal was key to the success of British shipping, but close examination raises doubts. Most British coal went to European ports where British ships carried a smaller proportion of the trade than they did in more distant trades. Shared costs between outward and homeward freights created an important relationship between coal freight rates and the freight rates on imports into northwestern Europe. In general, however, there seems to be little connection between Britain's shipping success and the export of coal.     

Greasing the wheels of rural transformation? Margarine and the competition for the British butter market

This article considers an example of the impact of a new good on producers of close substitutes: the invention of margarine and its rapid introduction into the British market from the mid‐1870s. This presented a challenge to the traditional suppliers of that market, butter producers from different European countries. We argue that the capacity to react quickly to the appearance of this cheap substitute by improving quality and establishing product differentiation was critical for the fortunes of butter producers. This is illustrated by a discussion of the different reactions to margarine and quality upgrading in Ireland, Denmark, and the Netherlands. A statistical analysis using monthly data for Britain from 1881–7 confirms that margarine had a greater impact on the price of poor quality butter than that of high quality butter, presumably because it was a stronger substitute.     

Big business in Sweden: The golden age of the great Swedish shipyards, 1945–1974

Abstract

This article examines the great Swedish shipyards during the long period of expansion and transformation which lasted from the end of the Second World War to the beginning of the shipping crisis in 1974. It aims to try to explain the successes achieved during this period of growth. Swedish shipbuilding's character as an export industry was linked to the rapidly growing international oil economy and the building of tankers which created enormous opportunities for development. The tanker vessel's simple hull, along with the requirement of tightness, brought an early orientation towards welding and sectional building. The demand for ever-larger vessels resulted in the alignment of production systems towards such construction. The consequences of this are studied in terms of markets, financing problems, investment. production technology and the role ofthe state.     

Credits of export-import bank to Finland, 1945–48

Abstract

When Finland signed the armistice with the USSR and Great Britain in the autumn of 1944, Sweden promised considerable economic aid to the Finns, but she made it clear that because of her limited means she could not remain sole benefactor. Great Britain had announced that because of her difficult economic position, no credit could be considered; the Finns therefore turned to the United States, a move that even the Soviets expected.     

Purchasing Power of Labour: Norwegian Real Wages, 1726–2006

Abstract

By utilizing data from one of the largest international historical archives on wages and prices, this article offers new nominal and real wage series for Norway, 1726–2006. These serve as measures for the purchasing power of labour as input to production. The new series cover all main industries and thereby enables solid conclusions. The new series challenge existing views on the development of the purchasing power of labour in Norway during the last three centuries.     

Value creating mergers: British bank consolidation, 1885–1925

The British banking sector had many small banks in the mid-nineteenth century. From around 1885 until the end of World War One there was a process of increasingly larger mergers between banks. By the end of the merger wave the English and Welsh market was highly concentrated, with only five major banks. News of a merger brought a persistent rise in the share prices of both the acquiring and the target bank (roughly 1% and 7%, respectively). Non-merging banks, especially those whose local market concentration rose because of the merger, saw their stock prices rise. Our findings suggest that the process of bank consolidation increased collusive behavior among merged banks, to the likely detriment of the consumer.     

The rise of coffee in the Brazilian south-east: tariffs and foreign market potential, 1827–40†

During the period spanning independence in 1822 to mid-century, Brazil's south-east shifted from specializing in the export of cane sugar to coffee. This article explores the mechanism underlying this shift by exploiting a wealth of new monthly data on the Brazilian and international coffee and cane sugar markets during the period 1827–40. It argues that the timing of the coffee boom was driven by a rapid increase in foreign market potential associated with the abolition of the tariff on coffee in the US. It estimates that American tariff reform served to increase coffee exports and African slave imports by around one-fifth. American firms, with indirect links to the slave trade, rapidly became major players in the export market in Rio de Janeiro, while non-American firms, traditionally specialized in continental European destinations, turned their sights on the American market.     

Academic Anti-Semitism and the Austrian School: Vienna, 1918–1945

The theme of academic anti-Semitism has been widely discussed recently in histories of the interwar period of the University of Vienna, in particular its Faculty of Law and Policy Sciences. This paper complements these studies by focusing on the economics chairs of this faculty and, more generally, on the fate of the younger generation of the Austrian School of Economics. After some introductory remarks the paper concentrates on three case studies: the neglect of Mises in all three appointments of economics chairs in the 1920s; the anti-Semitic overtones in the conflict between Hans Mayer and Othmar Spann, both professors of economics in the faculty; and on anti-Semitism as a determinant of success or failure in academia, and consequently of the emigration of Austrian economists. Finally, we have a short look at the development of economics at the University of Vienna during and after the Nazi regime.     

Determining the reasons for the failure of British aircraft manufacturers to invest in Australia's industry, 1934–1941

The aim of the article is to identify the factors that prevented British aircraft manufacturers from investing in Australia in the second half of the 1930s, a period when rearmament was creating demand for aircraft. The article looks at several unsuccessful proposals by British manufacturers to establish factories in Australia to build aircraft in the late 1930s, with additional attention being given to one proposal in particular. There is evidence that the Australian Government favoured the creation of an Australian-owned industry building aircraft under licence to foreign manufacturers, and it was this factor that largely deterred British investors.