Stuart London's standard of living: re‐examining the Settlement of Tithes of 1638 for rents,income, and poverty

The Settlement of Tithes of 1638 can be tested for biases in its London rents. Even so, it proves to be a relatively good source for seventeenth‐century London, and for calculating associated median and mean rents, as well as a Gini coefficient of inequality for the distribution of resources. Through other evidence in the Settlement, rent/income ratios for London can be approximated, and from them estimates made of London's median income. Median rents and income also allow estimates of the percentage of Londoners in poverty. Though the last is inevitably disputable, the estimate holds up well to testing by other evidence.     

The Seasonal Stability of the Factor Structure of Stock Returns

This paper investigates the month-by-month stability of (a) daily returns and correlation coefficients of stock returns, (b) correlation and covariance matrices, (c) number of return-generating factors, and (d) the APT pricing relationship. The results show that there is a January effect and a small-firm effect in stock returns. Correlation matrices are more stable than covariance matrices, but both types of matrices are not stable across months and across the sample groups. The number of return-generating factors is rather stable most of the time and for most of the sample groups, but there is some significant instability that is related to the average correlation coefficients among stocks. The APT pricing relationship does not seem to be supported by the two-stage process using the maximum-likelihood factor analysis.     

What Can America Learn from the British Tax System?

This paper examines elements of British tax policy and discusses their implications for the US, where several recent proposals would mirror aspects of the British system. These include reducing filing requirements under the individual income tax, indexing capital gains for inflation, cutting mortgage interest deductions, enacting a value added tax, and integrating the corporate and personal income taxes. The paper also discusses implications of the poll tax for tax reform. Britain and America have made different choices involving equity, efficiency, simplicity and other goals. These choices offer the chance to help identify the impact of tax policy. JEL classification: H20.     

Ideas, Civil Servants and Keynes

Sir John Hoskyns has joined Anthony Wedgwood Benn in condemning Civil Service obstruction to the implementation of government policy. William Kingston examines the changes in the Civil Service that have made bureaucratic stubbornness all too predictable.