New series for agricultural prices in London, 1770–1914

New annual series for the prices of major agricultural commodities sold in London markets between 1770 and 1914 are presented. These series are based on bimonthly observations drawn from newspaper market reports. The products covered are wheat, barley (grinding and malting), oats, potatoes, hay, butter, beef, mutton, and pork. Annual prices are calculated for both calendar and production years. The new series are compared to existing series.     

Copper sheathing and the British slave trade

British slave traders were early and rapid adopters of the new technique of sheathing ships' hulls with copper. From the 1780s this innovation increased sailing speeds of British slave ships by about a sixth, prolonged the ships' lives by at least a half, and reduced the death rates of slaves on the middle passage by about half. It was, above all, the fall in death rates, and possibly the improved condition of surviving slaves, that made the investment so compelling. Copper sheathing may have paid for itself in a single voyage, even though it was usually good for several. By the 1790s few slave ships, even if making only a single voyage, were uncoppered. These results confirm that copper sheathing was one of the major improvements in shipping productivity before the use of iron and steam in the mid‐nineteenth century.     

Optimal employment subsidies and market structures in industries with unemployment

In this paper we analyze the issue of optimal employment subsidiesin imperfectly competitive industries in which a distortionin the labour market generates involuntary unemployment. Asa benchmark case, we focus on monopolies and duopolies and oncomplete information between firms and government. We characterizethe levels and creations of employment in the subsidized industryand we check when such employment policies are more favorableto the least productive firms.     

Corporate incentives for hedging and hedge accounting

This article explores the information effect of financial riskmanagement. Financial hedging improves the informativeness ofcorporate earnings as a signal of management ability and projectquality by eliminating extraneous noise. Managerial and shareholderincentives regarding information transmission may differ, however,leading to conflicts regarding an optimal hedging policy. Weshow that these incentives depend on the accounting informationmade available by the firm. Under some circumstances, if hedgetransactions are not disclosed (i.e., firms report only aggregateearnings), managers hedge to achieve greater risk reductionthan they would if full disclosure were required. In these cases,it is optimal for shareholders to request only aggregate accountingreports.     

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