Economic History Commons^™

The Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy A: Overview, Rosalind Z. Wiggins, Thomas Piontek, Andrew Metrick

Journal of Financial Crises

On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc., the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank, sought Chapter 11 protection, initiating the largest bankruptcy proceeding in U.S. history. The demise of the 164-year old firm was a seminal event in the global financial crisis. Under the direction of its long-time Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld, Lehman had been very successful pursuing a high-leverage, high-risk business model that required it to daily raise billions of dollars to fund its operations. Beginning in 2006, Lehman began to invest aggressively in real-estate-related assets and soon had significant exposures to housing and subprime mortgages, just as these …

The Early Phases Of The Financial Crisis: Reflections On The Lender Of Last Resort, Timothy F. Geithner

Journal of Financial Crises

This essay discusses the powers and limitations of the Federal Reserve’s role as Lender of Last Resort and how it deployed those powers during the financial crisis of 2007-2009. It considers the Fed’s authorities and the frameworks that it relied on in utilizing its powers to calm markets in turmoil and to assist specific financial institutions.

Working Paper No. 14, Gramsci, Dugger And Hegemony, Devin Bales

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish connections between William Dugger’s understanding of subreption leading to corporate hegemony with Antonio Gramsci’s understanding of power and the hegemon. Specifically, this inquiry examines the similarities between both authors’ descriptions and understandings of power in a civil society. Going further, I draw parallels between Gramsci’s description of ‘passive revolution’ as a key process for achieving hegemony and Dugger’s explanation of the role ‘subreption’ plays in the rise of corporate hegemony in the United States. Finally, this inquiry explores connections between Gramsci’s writings on ‘Americanism’ and Dugger’s research into ‘corporate hegemony’. While Dugger does not cite …

Working Paper No. 03, Thorstein Veblen And The Vested Interests, Lauren Sweger-Hollingsworth

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish the importance of "vested interests" as introduced and relied upon within Thorstein Veblen’s system of reasoning. Veblen considers vested interests from two different perspectives in his 1919 book The Vested Interests and the Common Man. First, Veblen considers the relationships between vested interests and what he terms “the business enterprise”. Veblen takes a historical view, relating vested interests to lingering laws and customs of an old era that continue to be applied in modern times. In addition, Veblen considers vested interests and "the divine right of nations", which he connects to the historical institution of …

Working Paper No. 11, The 'Green' New Deal In Light Of Roosevelt's New Deal, Gabriel Duvidovich

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that the current proposal for a Green New Deal shares similarities and dissimilarities with Roosevelt´s New Deal. The House Resolution submitted to Congress at the beginning of 2019 proposes public policies that aim to address global warming, inspired by how Franklin Roosevelt´s New Deal addressed the Great Depression. The first part of this essay will analyze the origin and the main policies of Roosevelt´s New Deal. Moreover, the article will examine the policy foundations proposed on the Green New Deal House Resolution. Finally, the inquiry will try to understand the connections between the original New …

Working Paper No. 19, Werner Sombart And National Socialism, Jenica M. Kramer

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that Werner Sombart serves as an example of an exponent of the German Historical School of Economic Thought who joined the National Socialists. This thesis is explored in three sections. The first examines the historical context in which Sombart was reared, considering aspects of his family life, economic class, education, and early academic career. In addition, this section explores Sombart’s relations to the Historical School and his mentor Gustav Schmoller, as well as Sombart’s relation to Marxism and socialism. The second section of this inquiry seeks to trace the changes in Sombart’s ideology that eventually …

"I Think Of The Future": The Long 1850s And The Origins Of The Americanization Of The World, Joshua Taylor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While historians often point to the rise of the United States as a major global player and technological leader on the world stage in the 1890s and early 1900s, this study argues it was the 1850s, not the 1890s, that this transition occurred. It utilizes transnational methodologies to analyze European perceptions of the United States, American international businessmen, and new ways Americans thought and talked about their place in the world. During the 1850s, European travelers to the United States began to recognize the young nation was taking the lead in technological innovation, while American businessmen like Samuel Colt began …

A Tall Ship: The Rise Of The International Mercantile Marine, Jeffrey N. Brown

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Between 1890 and the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, nations on both sides of the Atlantic attempted to gain prestige by building the world's greatest steamships for their merchant marines. In 1901, the United States entered this competition with the advent of J.P. Morgan's International Mercantile Marine, which built on the previous work of shipping magnate Clement Griscom. This project will explore why and how Morgan built his monopoly and the implications and repercussions this project had for both Atlantic shipping and U.S. foreign relations. Moving beyond Morgan the man, it also tells the story of the key …

Celtic Tiger Ireland As A Case Study In The Practical Application Of Neoliberal Economic Policy, Natalie Sneed

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The Celtic Tiger economic boom, which occurred in Ireland from approximately 1987 to 2009 has generally been considered one of the most remarkable economic turnarounds in any country in the modern era. My purpose in this project was to identify the primary causes and effects of such rapid and dramatic economic growth and development to determine whether it is sensible for other countries emerging from colonial rule to seek to emulate the Irish economic model. Through a review of the economic literature on the Irish economy in the last three decades, I identify Ireland’s implementation of a neoliberal economic policy …

Counterparty Risk And The Establishment Of The New York Stock Exchange Clearinghouse, Asaf Bernstein, Eric Hughson, Marc Weidenmier

Business Faculty Articles and Research

We examine the effect of the establishment of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) clearinghouse in 1892 on counterparty risk using a novel historical experiment. During this period, the NYSE stocks were dual-listed on the Consolidated Stock Exchange (CSE), which already had a clearinghouse. Using identical securities on the CSE as a control, we find that the introduction of multilateral net settlement through a clearinghouse substantially reduced volatility of NYSE returns caused by settlement risk and increased asset values. Our results indicate that a clearinghouse can improve market stability and value through a reduction in network contagion and counterparty risk.

The Effect Of Per Capita Relief Spending On County Level Joblessness In The United States In 1937 & 1940, Mohammad S. Ahmed

Theses and Dissertations

This paper uses the 1937 and 1940 county level census data to estimate what effect did additional per capita relief spending have on joblessness in the United States in 1937 and 1940. To account for endogeneity in relief spending and its unequal/non-random distribution, an instrumental variables approach is used. The results show that additional per capita relief spending lowered joblessness in the United States in both years: 1937 and 1940.

Immigration, Small Business And Assimilation: Three Stories Of Small-Time Capitalism On The Lower East Side, Marcus Hillman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Small businesses in New York City have often been a catalyst to assimilation for individual immigrants, their families and their communities. For this capstone project, I have recorded conversations with three small-time entrepreneurs on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and created a narrative audio piece that explores some of the important and study-worthy characteristics of New York City including economic opportunities in the city, immigration, assimilation and the ways that New Yorkers share space, just to name a few. These themes are threads that ran through all three of the conversations that I had and are crucial elements of …

Humanomics: Moral Sentiments And The Wealth Of Nations For The Twenty-First Century, Vernon Smith, Bart J. Wilson

Economics Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Sometime in the last 250 years, economists lost sight of the full range of human feeling, thinking, and knowing in everyday life. Smith and Wilson show how Adam Smith's model of sociality can re-humanize twenty-first century economics by undergirding it with sentiments, fellow feeling, and a sense of propriety - the stuff of which human relationships are built. Integrating insights from The Theory of Moral Sentiments and the Wealth of Nations into contemporary empirical analysis, this book shapes economic betterment as a science of human beings.

New Jersey Urban Enterprise Zone Program Assessment 2019, Thomas Edison State University, Pel Analytics, Anderson Economic Group, The John S. Watson Institute For Public Policy

Urban Mayors Policy Center

In 2019, the State of New Jersey sought an evaluation of its Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) Program to determine the program’s economic impact and make recommendations for the program’s future. The John S. Watson Institute of Public Policy of Thomas Edison State University joined with PEL Analytics and Anderson Economic Group to produce the following study. The main recommendation of this analysis is to retain the UEZ Program while instituting various changes to make it stronger. Recommended changes in brief include reinstating some form of Zone Assistance Funds (ZAFs), creating a better system to collect data and track outcomes, assisting …

Contrasting Chicago School And Kaleckian Theories: Industrial Organization, Income Distribution, And Historical Policy Significance In The United States, Henry Aaron Dobbs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this paper is to identify the role that long-run industry concentration plays in determining the distribution of income, particularly in the past four decades in the United States, as well as examining how industry concentration has developed during that period. The paper is especially focused on the fall in labor’s share of income. First, I examine current literature regarding trends in industry concentration and its relation to the distribution of income. Next, I examine the historical impact of the Chicago School of Economics on this subject, focusing on the school of thought’s propositions regarding industry concentration, their …

The Size Of The Multiplier: Comparing Alternate Views After The Great Recession, Daniel Focht

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reviews the major theoretical frameworks and their outlook on the government spending, its effectiveness, the implied size of the multiplier and how they differed in empirical studies. This is followed by an estimation of the government multiplier for the major U.S. fiscal policy, namely the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), after the Great Recession of 2007-2009. Own estimation of the size of the multiplier is presented using a standard SVAR model based on New Keynesian approach for time period between 2009 and 2018. In addition, following the classical economic theory, the multiplier is recalculated in the absence …

Financial Crisis And Bank Lending Behavior In Nigeria, Michael A. Oyakojo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bank lending is an important monetary policy transmission channel with significant impact on economic growth in Nigeria. The research was conducted to test the hypothesis that given the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) / government financial intervention, there is a significant increase in the lending behavior of Nigerian bank during and post 2008 financial crisis. Total loan ratio is the proxy for bank lending behavior while the dependent variables are bank specific characteristics like total assets, core deposit ratio and macroeconomic variables like the 91-day Treasury bill rate and inflation rate.

Using the fixed effects regression technique, it was observed …

Changing The Rules Of The Game: Can Voicing For Social Responsibility Influence Market Behavior Toward Greater Inclusiveness In Economic Development?, Eileen M. Hoffmann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines social responsibility within a capitalist economy by investigating socially responsible investing and, tangentially, corporate social responsibility. These concepts have been at the heart of economic and legal debates for hundreds of years, with no clearly defined consensus regarding how to account for multi-stakeholder welfare inside the market system. This point is brought to life by analyzing two dominant twentieth-century economic periods, 1945-1975/79 and post-1980, through the deliberations of Keynesian economics and Milton Friedman.

This thesis postulates that since the 2008 global financial crisis, a new (i.e. third) economic period is taking shape, ushered in by both the …

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 …

Spanish California Missions: An Economic Success, Lynne Doti

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

Starting in 1769, the Spanish established missions in Alta California. A small band of soldiers, Franciscan priests and volunteers walked from Baja California to San Francisco Bay through semi-arid, scarcely populated land stopping occasionally to establish a location for a religious community. Usually two priests, a few soldiers and a few Indians from Baja California settled at the spot. Their only resources for starting an economy were themselves, a few animals and a nearby source of water. They attracted the local Indians to join the community and perform the work necessary to create a strong economy. After only a few …

The Explosion Development Of Chinese Contemporary Art Market From 2000 To 2015, Yaning Wang

MA Theses

After Chinese Culture Revolution, the brand new chapter was approaching which opened for the modern Chinese art history; Chinese contemporary art has been deepened understanding by the art market. In the context of an emerging market, art is as much a matter of cultural economy as socio-politics. Thus the thesis will focus on the challenges facing the market and how tradition and economics providing the framework for the sustainability of art market. It will present a historical overview of emergence of Chinese contemporary art the period of 2000 to 2015 and expose the unbreakable bind between the development of its …

Through The Eyes Of Locals: A Changing Climate In Bolivia, Jacob D. Rex

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Deforestation and Agricultural Land-Use Change in Bolivia as a Function of Socio-Economic Realities.

This research combines semi-structured interviews of key informants and local participants, as well as field observations, which were conducted between January and April of 2019 in the Departments of Santa Cruz & Chuquisaca.

The Effect Of Outward Foreign Direct Investment On Exports In Japan During The Lost Decade, 1985-2005, Alexandros Ladas

Dissertations and Theses

This study will utilize an OLS analysis of the panel data coming from various databases such as the World Bank, Federal Reserve and etc. to determine if there exists a significant correlation between the exports of Japan and its foreign direct investment (FDI) in the period of 1985-2005 with nearby trading partners of which include the countries of ASEAN, China and South Korea. In addition, a selection of supplemental factors will be used to determine if they also possess any significance with exports. These factors include: the exchange rate of the Japanese yen with the currency of the trading partner …

Money And The Downfall Of A Democracy Economic Crises And The Weimar Republic, Leshan Xiao

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I. Synthesis Essay……………………………….2

II. Primary Documents and Headnotes……….32

III. Textbook Critique…………………………….45

IV. New Textbook Entry…………………………48

V. Bibliography…………………………………..54

Working Paper No. 29, Lina Khan, New Technologies, And Institutional Reform, Lillian Garcia

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that Lina Khan’s work brings to light the importance of reforming institutions in order to address the challenges of internet technology. As the dominance of a small number of technology giants has increased to unforeseen proportions, legal mind Lina Khan has emerged as a leading voice in the call for an updated legal framework, as well as a revision of current economic understanding, to address the new forms of monopoly power these firms practice. The first part of this inquiry examines Chicago School dominance over economic thought and its effect on antitrust enforcement over the …

Working Paper No. 10, The Epic Rise And Subtle Fall Of American Herbalism, Julia Schweid

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that we can track the development and evolution of herbalism as the initial form of medicine in American economic history. Upon colonization of North America, the indigenous people generously shared their knowledge of plant medicine with the settlers from Europe. The indigenous knowledge combined with the translation of ancient herbal texts created a synthesis of understanding and an important form of cultural exchange. People then began making attempts to standardize the medicine and its potency was compromised with the rise of the industry in patent medicine, or what I have named pseudo herbalism. It was …

Working Paper No. 22, Coffee And The American Independence Movement, Ross Bradner

Working Papers in Economics

Coffee has a long history as a motivating force in society, as can be seen through its history in different parts of the world. The introduction of coffee houses to western culture would promote the emergence of a public sphere, and would come to influence revolutionary behavior in both Western Europe and the North American colonies.

Working Paper No. 28, Roots Of The American Labor Movement, Lillian Garcia

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that early developments in America’s workforce helped to shape the national labor movement that emerged at the end of the 19th Century. The first section discusses the changing social, economic, and legal landscapes from the colonial era to the Industrial Revolution. The second section examines the history of concerted action amongst the free and bound working classes leading up to 1842, when the case Commonwealth v. Hunt established the previously contested per se legality of labor combinations. The final section discusses developments in labor organization during the decades following Hunt, in which, amidst …

Working Paper No. 38, Baseball In The Nineteenth Century: From Sport To Business, Brian Burres

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that in the 19^th century baseball transitioned from a sport to a business activity. At the outset, the game of baseball was first played for the enjoyment of the players and spectators. Typically, teams were composed of players stemming from the towns for which they played, and early organized leagues enacted rules to keep the game played as a serious activity—but for amateurs. As the 19^th century came towards its close, these amateur leagues were challenged by the emergence of new, professional leagues, and players took the liberty to play for the teams …

The Spirit Is Willing, But The Flesh Is Weak: Contemporary Pan-Africanism And The Challenges To A United States Of Africa, Adesola Adeyemo

Master's Theses

Establishing a ‘United States of Africa’ to the average individual is deemed as a mythical idea in contemporary Africa, irrespective of the popularity of this idea several years ago. Today, the idea is idealized as overambitious – considering the balkanized state of the continent post-colonialization. Because of this, attempts made since then have favored enforcing regional integration over continental integration. Undeniably, this idea would not have come into being if it wasn’t for the concept of Pan-Africanism - which has for long guided the political and socio-economic policies created on the continent. The goal of this research is …