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Articles 1 - 14 of 14
Full-Text Articles in Economic History
National Integration And Institution Building, Haiwen Zhou
National Integration And Institution Building, Haiwen Zhou
Economics Faculty Publications
The mutual dependence between national integration and institution building is established in a formal model. It is shown that a decrease in transportation costs, but not necessarily an increase in population size, reduces the equilibrium number of states and the adoption of rule-based institutions. With endogenous transportation costs or endogenous population size, the unification process can feed on itself. The model is illustrated by the state of Qin's unification of China in 221 BC. During this process of national integration, transformations from relation-based governance to rule-based governance happened.
Unification And Division: A Theory Of Institutional Choices In Imperial China, Haiwen Zhou
Unification And Division: A Theory Of Institutional Choices In Imperial China, Haiwen Zhou
Economics Faculty Publications
Ancient China experienced various rounds of division and unification. Unification was maintained through economic and political institutions such as low tax rates to reduce peasant rebellions and the division of authority among government officials to reduce usurpation of power. A ruler’s choice of institutions to maintain unification is studied in a theoretical model. Interactions among external threats, internal rebellions by peasants, and usurpation of power by government officials are established. A higher level of external threats induces the ruler to choose a higher level of autonomy for government officials and a higher tax rate. That is, equilibrium probability of internal …
Did Dr-Cafta Affect The Exports Of The Dominican Republic To The United States?, Maria Ivanova Reyes Peguero, Asger V. Hansen
Did Dr-Cafta Affect The Exports Of The Dominican Republic To The United States?, Maria Ivanova Reyes Peguero, Asger V. Hansen
Economics Faculty Publications
This article evaluates the impact the Dominican Republic and Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) had on the exports of the Dominican Republic (DR) to the United States. We estimate a gravity model for the DR exports to the 109 trade partners of the country from 1990 to 2014. This model quantifies the effect of the DR-CAFTA since 2007, when the agreement was ratified, and finds that the DR-CAFTA negatively affected DR exports to the US. We conduct further analysis of factors that could explain the decline in exports, in spite of the ratification of the agreement. We find that …
In Classical And Keynesian Times: The Twentieth Century Economy Revisited, Lewis Karstensson
In Classical And Keynesian Times: The Twentieth Century Economy Revisited, Lewis Karstensson
Economics Faculty Publications
A descriptive analysis of the performance of the United States economy with respect to production, employment, and average price level over the twentieth century by presidential administration.
Governance By Economist: An Historical Note On The Keynesian Revolution, Lewis Karstensson
Governance By Economist: An Historical Note On The Keynesian Revolution, Lewis Karstensson
Economics Faculty Publications
An inferential analysis of the performance of the United States economy with respect to production, employment, and average price level over the twentieth century by presidential administration.
Adam Smith, Natural Movement, And Physics (Working Paper), Spencer J. Pack
Adam Smith, Natural Movement, And Physics (Working Paper), Spencer J. Pack
Economics Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Institutional Divergence In Economic Development, Jonathan B. Wight
Institutional Divergence In Economic Development, Jonathan B. Wight
Economics Faculty Publications
The Anglo-American capitalist model (AACM) encompasses a set of theories and policies that advance the classical objectives of individual autonomy, wealth acquisition, and economic growth. In the twentieth century, the neoclassical goal of short-run Pareto efficiency was added yet remains in possible tension with these other aims. The AACM generally upholds the primacy of markets as the means for achieving its normative ideals through private, decentralized actions, with some exceptions. In the modern political arena this ideology is associated with the Reagan-Thatcher revolution of the 1980s and provides a framework for many who oppose statist solutions to social problems (Steger …
Moral Markets: The Critical Role Of Values In The Economy By Paul J. Zak (Book Review), Jonathan B. Wight
Moral Markets: The Critical Role Of Values In The Economy By Paul J. Zak (Book Review), Jonathan B. Wight
Economics Faculty Publications
This volume contains the fruits of a two-year seminar on ethics and economics funded by the John Templeton Foundation and administered through the Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research. Participants came from the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities, and included Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith and other figures such as Frans de Waal, Herbert Gintis, Robert Frank, and Robert Solomon (for whom the book is dedicated in memoriam). The book’s editor, Paul Zak, is a pioneer in the emerging field of neuroeconomics, which uses medical technology to discover the physiological manifestations of cooperative and altruistic behavior. A theme of …
The Impact Of Military Forts On Agricultural Investments On The Great Plains In 1880, Christopher Decker, David T. Flynn
The Impact Of Military Forts On Agricultural Investments On The Great Plains In 1880, Christopher Decker, David T. Flynn
Economics Faculty Publications
We empirically investigate the relationship between agricultural development and proximity to military forts in Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado in 1880. Agricultural investments are substantially higher in counties where a military fort is present, suggesting that military forts stimulated agricultural development on the Great Plains. However, the reverse is not true; there is no statistical support for the notion that forts necessarily located in counties where substantial development was already occurring. Moreover, we found that while the presence of a military fort has the effect of increasing agricultural development, there is no evidence that such a presence sustained agricultural development.
Kentucky's Debt Relief Attempt, Stephen E. Lile
Kentucky's Debt Relief Attempt, Stephen E. Lile
Economics Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Culture And Prosperity: The Truth About Markets—Why Some Nations Are Rich But Most Remain Poor (Book Review), Jonathan B. Wight
Culture And Prosperity: The Truth About Markets—Why Some Nations Are Rich But Most Remain Poor (Book Review), Jonathan B. Wight
Economics Faculty Publications
John Kay’s latest book offers an absorbing romp through the history of economic thought in the 20th century. Kay attempts to explain the complex reality of a modern market system rather than resorting to simplistic theorizing about it. Gone are perfectly rational traders, perfectly competitive markets, incentive compatibilities, low transaction costs, informational symmetries, and no externalities. Kay highlights problems and problem solving as the ubiquitous and historical strata through which markets in the West evolved.
A Little Adam Smith Is A Dangerous Thing, Jonathan B. Wight
A Little Adam Smith Is A Dangerous Thing, Jonathan B. Wight
Economics Faculty Publications
Adam Smith was trying to counter medieval church theology, which held that any self-interested behavior was sinful and detrimental. Smith countered that self-interest could yield valuable outcomes for society as people pursued specialization and market trade. Much later these quotes would be used to justify the greedy and grasping personae of homo economicus, illustrating how a little Adam Smith can prove to be a dangerous thing. For example, Max Lerner in 1937 would say that Adam Smith "sanctified predatory impulses" and "gave a new dignity to greed." By the 1980s the movie Wall Street has the financial tycoon Gordon …
(Review) The Political Economy Of Israel, Spencer J. Pack
(Review) The Political Economy Of Israel, Spencer J. Pack
Economics Faculty Publications
The Political Economv of Israel: From Ideology to Stagnation by Yakir Plessner. Albany: State University of New York Press. 1994, 328 pp. $21.95.
Adam Smith’S Invisible/Visible Hand/Chain/Chaos, Spencer J. Pack
Adam Smith’S Invisible/Visible Hand/Chain/Chaos, Spencer J. Pack
Economics Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.