Private borrowing during the financial revolution: Hoare's Bank and its customers, 1702–241

The financial revolution improved the British government's ability to borrow, and thus its ability to wage war. North and Weingast argued that it also permitted private parties to borrow more cheaply and widely. We test these inferences with evidence from a London bank. We confirm that private bank credit was cheap in the early eighteenth century, but we argue that it was not available widely. Importantly, the government reduced the usury rate in 1714, sharply reducing the circle of private clients that could be served profitably.     

Some consequences of the single market for European and Danish consumer policy

In this paper, the future of consumer policy within the context of the European single market will be estimated. As the scope of the EC for consumer action is mainly economic, a broader social approach will be used as the theoretical framework. Within such an approach, consumer problems and consumer policy will be characterized, and three paradigms describing the social and political influence of consumers will be discussed as possible guidelines for consumer action. In the light of these guidelines and available published knowledge of the single market, consumer policy at Community level and in Denmark will be analysed.     

FLOWS OF THE PACIFIC: ASIAN FOREIGN EXCHANGE MARKETS THROUGH TRANQUILITY AND TURBULENCE

Using the longest data set on foreign exchange (FX) order flow to date, along with the broadest coverage of currencies to date, we examine the effect of FX order flow on exchange rates across small and large currencies, currencies with floating or fixed regimes, and across both tranquil and turbulent periods. Over our 15 years of data for 11 Asian and Australasian currencies, we find that order flow has a potentially strong impact on all exchange rates in the sample. The effect is strongest on floating exchange rates, both economically and statistically, but is sizeable also on the other exchange rates, especially during periods of turbulence. By creating a measure of regional order flow, we show that all exchange rates depreciate as flows are moved out of Asia/Australasia and into US dollars. This is true both across regimes and if their own flow is not included in the structure of the regional flow.     

The Dynamics of Dealer Markets Under Competition

The behavior of competing dealers in securities markets is analyzed. Securities are characterized by stochastic returns and stochastic transactions. Reservation bid and ask prices of dealers are derived under alternative assumptions about the degree to which transactions are correlated across stocks at a given time and over time in a given stock. The conditions for interdealer trading are specified, and the equilibrium distribution of dealer inventories and the equilibrium market spread are derived. Implications for the structure of securities markets are examined.     

Consumption levels of households based on expenditure and household production

The distribution of consumption is the relative ranking of households with regard to their consumption level. This article discusses the possibilities and some of the problems in measuring consumption levels by combining expenditure and household production into one total figure. The feasibility of our approach is illustrated by using data from the Dutch 1980 budget survey and the 1980 time use study. The findings show that this total figure differs more between households of different size than between households by stage of life cycle or by income level.     

ANOTHER LOOK AT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INNOVATION PROXIES*

Shortcomings in the treatment of intangible investment in company accounts imply that there is no statistical collection for innovative activity which abides by the logic used for other economic activity data. As a consequence, analysts rely on innovation proxies derived from administrative and survey data. However, it is still unclear exactly how the different proxies are correlated, and whether the choice amongst different proxies matters. In the light of the innovation measurement, this paper takes another look at the relationship between different proxies of firm innovation. The results show that firm‐level correlations between survey‐based indicators and other proxies for innovation are highest for manufacturing firms and for product innovations.