Factor substitution and induced innovation in north American kraft pulping: 1914–1940

A Rosenberg/David framework is used to explain induced pulping innovations. Rising spruce prices motivated a switch to a preexisting pulping technique that could theoretically utilize cheap southern pine. In practice, however, specific southern pine characteristics created technical problems, impeding the profitable expansion of kraft pulping. With accumulated experience, technical problems were overcome by minor chemical and mechanical improvements that nonetheless propelled the rise to dominance of kraft pulping. In addition to motivating the switch to the kraft technique, rising spruce prices induced a costly search for kraft-pulping innovations that ultimately saved on the use of more expensive factors.     

Foreign Direct Investment(FDI)in China’s Mobile Telecommunications Sector

Introduction Ten years after China’ s accession to the World Trade Organisation(WTO),the country has emerged as a world economic powerhouse.By the end of 2010,China’ s foreign exchange reserves hit a record US$2.85 trillion(Wang,14 January 2011) and FDI in China rose to a record $US105.7 billion(Bloomberg News, 18 January 2011).Furthermore,China overtook Germany in 2009 as the world’s largest exporter and likely surpassed Japan to be the world’s second largest economy(Bloomberg News,18 January 2011 ).     

Visualising defence and war in economic history journals (1989–2018)

ABSTRACT

Economics usually takes for granted a peaceful world with peaceful market transactions, where war and conflict are anomalies to the current state of business life. However, as History shows violence is a pervasive phenomenon. How is the current state of the art of research on war and defence in economic history journals? This paper provides an overview of research published on this topic by a selection of economic history journals since the fall of Berlin wall. By means of bibliometric and cluster analysis, and using visualising analytical tools, we show the production, main topics, authors, sources, etc. on this research area, and compare with the treatment received in economic journals. The main findings are that publications in economic history journals have increased in the last decades; cover a list of themes broader than that in economic journals; give an increasing importance to quantitative techniques; cite sources from the same area as well as from the top economic journals; and show a relative lack of appeal to neighbouring disciplines. Although economics and economic history influence each other, the direction of the scientific knowledge is going mostly from economics towards economic history rather than the opposite.     

The bank of France and the sterilization of gold, 1926–1932

The malfunctioning of the interwar gold standard is frequently ascribed to sterilization of gold flows by central banks, particularly the Bank of France. This paper analyzes the actions of the Bank of France and the issue of sterilization. New estimates of the impact of policy on the Bank of France's gold reserves indicate that, of the policies which ostensibly influenced gold flows, only the absence of expansionary open market operations, which were precluded by statute, significantly affected French reserves. Those statutes and the sentiment which led to their adoption are in turn ascribed to France's experience with inflation earlier in the decade. Thus, the gold standard's collapse in the 1930s is linked to the circumstances under which it was reconstructed in the 1920s.     

Changes in the demographics of American inventors, 1870–1940

We assemble a novel dataset linking inventors listed in the Annual Reports of the Commissioner of Patents to Population Census records spanning 1870 to 1940. We find that inventors are not a random subset of the population. They differ in some unsurprising ways in that they tend to be older, whiter, and more likely male. However, these patterns do change over time. The odds ratio relative to the population as a whole of female inventors increases from a low of 0.07 in 1880 to a high of 0.13 in 1940 and that of non-whites ranges from 0.16 in 1880 to 0.34 in 1940. Both populations remain severely underrepresented throughout the timeframe. We find changes in the occupations of inventors with trends away from farming and towards white collar occupations. We also show the increasing importance of foreign born people in patenting. In 1870, the odds of a foreign born person patenting relative to the population as a whole is nearly 1 and increases to over 1.6 by 1940.     

American shipping in the trade with Northern Europe 1783–1860

Abstract

As early as 1741 an American ship passed through the narrow waters of the Sound on its way to some port in the Baltic. Danish officials collected the traditional toll and recorded the fact in their account book. This was probably the first North American ship to visit the Baltic sea. The Danish records of ships passing the Sound indicate that altogether fifteen vessels declaring their home ports to be in the British North American colonies were reported before the American Revolution. The last of these was a Nantucket ship in the fateful year of 1776.²     

Housing rent dynamics and rent regulation in St. Petersburg (1880–1917)

This article studies housing rents in St. Petersburg from 1880 to 1917, covering an eventful period of Russian and world history. Digitizing over 5000 rental advertisements, we construct a state-of-the-art index – the first pre-war and pre-Soviet market data index for any Russian city. In 1915, a rent control and tenant protection policy was introduced in response to soaring prices following the outbreak of WWI. We document official compliance, rising tenure duration, and strongly increased affordability for workers. While the immediate prelude to the October Revolution was indeed characterized by economic turmoil, rent affordability did not dominate.     

Foreign Direct Investment and Income Inequality in Southeast Asia: a Panel Unit Root and Panel Cointegration Analysis, 1990–2013

This paper examines the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and income distribution in the host country as measured by the Gini coefficient. After providing some background and reviewing the extant literature, it undertakes a panel unit root and cointegration analysis that tests whether FDI has a non-linear impact on income inequality in seven selected Southeast Asian countries over the period 1990 to 2013. The paper finds strong evidence for panel cointegration using the Pedroni Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) and Phillips-Perron (PP) tests. Thus, it proceeds to utilize the group-mean fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) procedure to generate long-run estimates that are unbiased and consistent. The FMOLS estimator is also extremely accurate even in panels with very heterogeneous serial correlation dynamics, fixed effects, and endogenous regressors. The results confirm the hypothesis that FDI inflows tend to raise income inequality in the short run but reduce it in the long run. In this study, the Gini index starts decreasing after FDI inflows as a percentage of GDP reaches 5.6. The fact that the Gini coefficient reaches its maximum at a relatively low level of FDI inflows suggests that sample countries are endowed with substantial absorptive capacity. In other words, they will shift into the new technological paradigm quickly, thus supporting pro-globalization claims that, on balance, FDI is more beneficial than harmful.     

Life-insurance Efficiency in China： A Comparison of Foreign and Domestic Firms

The Chinese life-insurance industry has experienced major structural changes in recent years, primarily because of increasing demand and the entry of foreign insurers. Although the market is clearly booming, the efficiency of its growth and development is unclear. In this paper, we evaluate the efficiency of life insurers operating in China and compare foreign firms with domestic firms. We find that foreign insurers have not brought efficiency into the Chinese market, and that the market is still dominated by domestic giants. However, the gap between foreign insurers and domestic insurers is narrowing. After testing hypotheses regarding scale economy, technical progress andpotential improvements, we discuss several issues＇ of importance to life insurers, market investors and government regulators.     

Power politics and the expansion of US exports, 1879–1938

In this article, we present quantitative evidence for the first time of the effect of US power politics on the expansion of its export market from the late nineteenth century to the eve of the Second World War. Like other empires, US imperial policy was expressed through annexation, gunboat policies, and asymmetrical trade agreements. We find that US exports to territories that became colonies or protectorates and those involved in other US military interventions grew more than three times faster between 1880–5 and 1934–8 than in the rest of the world. Our most relevant contribution to this discussion relies on a new geographically extensive database with information on bilateral trade flows, market size, trade costs, and variables that capture US political and military power. We first estimate a gravity equation to see the relationship between our power politics variables and US exports. Then, we present causal evidence of the role played by the colonies and protectorates in the expansion of US exports through an event study and the estimation of a generalized difference-in-differences model.     

What Does “Privatization” Do for Efficiency? Evidence from Argentina’s and Brazil’s Railways

Railway restructuring and privatization have now become a mainstream policy option in many developing countries. This paper provides the first analysis of the efficiency payoffs of railway reform for two developing countries, Argentina and Brazil. We track down the evolution of the performance of the private operators in both countries since reform, compare with the pre-reform performance when possible, distinguishing between the output and input sources of efficiency changes. This is done by computing the total factor productivity of each business unit since the regulators started collecting enough data.     

A View of the Occupational Structure in Imperial and Republican China (1640–1952)

Despite being considered a prime indicator of economic change, the occupational structure does not figure prominently in the debate regarding the economic development of early modern China. One reason is the virtual absence of occupational data before the start of the twentieth century. In this paper, we make a first attempt to sketch the occupational structure between ca. 1640 and 1952 using a variety of unique and rather fragmented occupational sources. We find that the share of persons working in agriculture remained stable until the mid-nineteenth century, with the share in industry showing some growth thereafter.     

Denmark in China 1839–65: A pawn in a British game

Abstract

Denmark's trading connections with China date back to the seventeenth century, but it was not until the establishment of Asiatisk Kompagni (the Danish Asiatic Company) in 1732 that they became at all regular. In the period between the Company's foundation and the outbreak of war with England in 1807, 124 ships were sent to China; imported Chinese products were the basis of the trade, and of course the Danish market was too small to absorb such a volume of business. The China trade was therefore primarily a transit trade with Copenhagen as the entrepôt: conditions for this were particularly favourable during periods of war between the European great powers when, by virtue of their neutrality, Danish ships were able to take over a major share in supplying the north-west European market. The war of 1807–14 with England, however, entirely changed both the external political and the internal economic conditions for the continuation of this traffic. Thus the exceptionally large-scale and, by Danish standards, profitable operations of Asiatisk Kompagni in the eighteenth century were emphatically a passing phenomenon produced by the peculiar business conditions of the time.¹     

沈从文早期小说选本出版研究(1926～1929)

编选作品出版选本,很早以前就是受到钟爱的出版形式。我国有出版选本的悠久传统,历代选家蜂起,佳选如林。著名的《昭明文选》成为后世学习古代文学的标本;而唐代诗歌的流传和普及,主要依靠唐诗选本。编辑出版工作者不能不重视选本的价值和作用,并且认真做好选本的出版工作。本文以1926—1929年间出版的沈从文小说选本为研究对象,梳理不同选本编选、出版及其影响的历史脉络,归纳、分析不同选本的特点,并对其编选原则、选本的价值等作出客观的评价,以期引起对当下选本出版中相关问题的重视与思考。