Free or central banking? Liquidity and financial deepening in Sweden, 1834-1913

During Sweden’s nineteenth-century modernization, Enskilda banks contributed to economic expansion and integration by providing generally accepted means of payment beyond what would have been possible for the central bank, the Riksbank. The Riksbank was constrained by specie-convertibility requirements for Sweden’s currency. Contrary to previous arguments, however, the Enskilda banks did not operate according to free banking theory. The Enskilda banks held Riksbank notes instead of specie as base-money reserves. This arrangement led to a higher supply of formal liquidity than what would have been the case with either a free banking system or a pure deposit-based commercial banking system. The consequence for Sweden was a rapid rate of monetization and financial deepening.     

Food, nutrition, and substitution in the late nineteenth century

Economic historians hypothesize that households in the nineteenth century substituted away from carbohydrates and fiber and towards protein and fat as their incomes rose. Anthropometric historians assert that there was increased nutrient intake without any nutritional substitution. I test these hypotheses using the 1888 Cost of Living Survey. I fail to reject the hypothesis that the income elasticity of fiber is greater than or equal to the income elasticities of protein, fat, or sugar—contrary to the nutritional substitution posited by economic historians. A food modified Engel curve reveals that the shares of carbohydrates, fat, and sugar in the diet vary with household income, but the shares of protein and fiber do not. I do find, however, that the share of protein from animal sources increases with household income. I also find that the diets of late nineteenth century industrial workers were surprisingly balanced by modern standards.     

RISK, PERSISTENCE and FOCUS: A LIFE CYCLE OF THE ENTREPRENEUR

Adapting a life cycle model from managerial literature, conclusions are drawn about the nature of colonial entrepreneurship from a case analysis of 133 New Zealand entrepreneurs, active between 1880 and 1910. Five stages in the life cycle of the entrepreneur are investigated: preparation, embarkation, exploration, expansion and transformation. Characteristic behaviours observed include the prevalence of entrepreneurial partnerships; a propensity for commencing multiple business ventures; and persistence in the face of business failure. Strategically, the colonial entrepreneur leveraged personal skills and abilities as a modus operandi for business expansion, often relying on family ownership and family management structures.     

KEITH WINDSCHUTTLE's CONTRIBUTION TO AUSTRALIAN HISTORY: AN EVALUATION

In two recent books, Keith Windschuttle has reinvigorated debate on two central questions in Australian history: the extent of frontier violence in the colonisation of Australia and the origins of the White Australia Policy. This assessment of Windschuttle's scholarship will focus on how he arrives at his conclusions: his methodology, his use of evidence and the coherence of his arguments. It will draw on the literature of economic history to show how its methods and perspectives can inform these debates in Australian history.     

The fertility of the Irish in the United States in 1910

The relatively high marital fertility of the Irish in the United States in the 19th century has long been interpreted as evidence for the persistence of a distinctive Irish culture in the United States. This claim echoes a similar view of Irish-American marriage patterns. Recent work has shown that the marriage patterns of the Irish in the United States were similar to native-born whites with similar occupational and other characteristics. This paper studies the reasons for the high fertility of Irish-Americans in 1910. Irish-born women in that year had much larger families than the typical native-born woman, and little of the difference can be attributed to other characteristics. Second-generation Irishwomen were less distinctive in this regard, although even they differed from the natives primarily because of a different proclivity to have a large family. Our results signal the complexity of immigrant adjustment to a new environment; the Irish largely abandoned one aspect of Irish demographic behavior while clinging to another.     

Reason's shadow: Notes on the psychodynamics of obstruction

The remarks that follow are made with regard to the behavior of leaders whose self-image is threatened by a variety of conditions comprising the world problematique. Of all those conditions, surely those associated with violence and warfare are the most threatening. I would speculate, therefore, that what I've written here is especially pertinent for deliberations on how to encourage peace and disarmament.While these remarks are focused on the behavior of leaders—especially those in government—they can hold, too, for those in the public who identify with those leaders…itself another psychodynamic process. Of course, the public's contexts differ so the degree of threat and response will differ, too. This is a matter for further attention.Moreover, self-images are usually rich in content and while some aspects are threatened, others may not be or, indeed, may be attracted by new rational ideas. The resultant struggle within the psyche complicates the overt expression of these unconscious conflicts.But these dynamics mirror those comprising the problematique, especially its expression around issues of war and peace. Therefore, psychodynamic matters deserve as much attention and utilization as we now give to conventional, indeed, often ritual means, masquerading as rationality, for dealing with violence and armaments.     

Significant Issues for the Future: Some Additional Perspectives

The rational elements of management dominated the questions raised by our Editorial Board members in the previous issue of JPIM when they offered their ideas in, "Significant Issues For the Future of Product Innovation." In this article, the discussion is continued with some other Board members but this time the human side of managements gets its due attention. The issues presented here add to the picture of complexity that is the reality of product innovation but they also may provoke the thinking that can lead to an improvement in management performance.     

Stunting and selection effects of famine: A case study of the Great Chinese Famine

Many developing countries experience famine. If survival is related to height, the increasingly common practice of using height as a measure of well-being may be misleading. We devise a novel method for disentangling the stunting from the selection effects of famine. Using data from the 1959-1961 Great Chinese Famine, we find that taller children were more likely to survive the famine. Controlling for selection, we estimate that children under the age of five who survived the famine grew up to be 1 to 2 cm shorter. Our results suggest that if a country experiences a shock such as famine, average height is potentially a biased measure of economic conditions during childhood.