Economic History Commons^™

Intergenerational Comparison Of Inequality And Standard Of Living, Jillian Cookinham

Honors Theses and Capstones

This paper encompasses how inequality and standard of living have changed intergenerationally. Existing research and a regression analysis examine how income, corporate profits, housing, education, retirement, and health insurance are interconnected in American inequality and standard of living. Data analyzed in the regression includes the period of 1990 to 2021. However, the literature review extends back to 1970. Findings from existing research and regression analysis are used to provide policy recommendations on how the federal government may improve inequality by addressing the housing shortage, revising the tax system, and encouraging automatic enrollment in retirement plans.

The Challenges Of Writing The History Of Localities That Were Under Colonial Rule In The Early Phase Of European Expansion: An Investigation Into Writing The History Of Negombo (Sri Lanka) In The Sixteenth And Early Seventeenth Centuries, Chandra R. De Silva

History Faculty Publications

Local history has been conventionally defined as a chronicle of a limited geographical area. The study of local history can have positive outcomes including reconstructing our ancestor’s everyday lives and providing opportunities for students to develop investigative research skills, develop linkages with locals and to also motivate students to improve their basic skills of reading, writing and critical thinking. Unlike in the West, however, where local historians use old records of their locality, local historians of lands colonized by Westerners have problems finding source material. For example, in Sri Lanka, the Portuguese occupying the southwest lowlands destroyed Buddhist and Hindu …

An Analysis Of Post-War Economic Growth In The Balkans, Edina Tahirovic

Honors Program Theses

When examining the economies of several former Yugoslav countries, presently known as the Balkans, it is essential to consider the economic development that occurred in the aftermath of the region’s civil wars. This paper analyzes the factors influencing post-war economic development in the former Yugoslav countries using statistical regression analysis of panel data collected from 2002 to 2019. In this model, I selected variables based on previous research and theories that underscored their importance. To explain post-war economic development, I tested variables such as foreign direct investments, unemployment, migration, trade, corruption, the Gini index, personal remittances, and population. The results …

Exploring The Value Of Cannabis And Changing Mindset For Advancing Socio-Economic Development In Tanzania, 1891–2023, Iddy Ramadhani Magoti

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

This paper examines the origin, cultivation, laws, values, uses and other cultural practices connected to cannabis in Tanzania, and other parts of the world, for the purpose of contributing to the existing debate on whether cannabis should be legalised or illegalised in Tanzania and other parts of Africa. The data for this study were collected from both primary and secondary sources, including published documents, oral sources, archival documents and newspapers. Based on the evidence collected, I argue that the values and other benefits accrued from the cultivation and uses of cannabis outweigh the negative impacts which policy makers capitalize on …

Argentina And The Philippines: Similar Development Struggles, Jesus Felipe, Matias Vernango

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

ALTHOUGH the economies of Argentina and the Philippines are very different, the two share structural problems that make both nations’ development a complex process. The election of Javier Milei as the new president elect of Argentina, gives us the opportunity to review the differences and parallels between the two economies.

Milei is a radical libertarian populist economist with authoritarian tendencies. His proposals range from the dangerous in economics (dollarization, closing the Central Bank, a drastic reduction of social spending) and social issues (curtail human rights and democratic advances, loosen gun ownership laws, and the elimination of all those institutions that …

How To Define (Or Not To Define) The New History Of Capitalism, Sharon Ann Murphy

Economics Faculty Publications

Lindsay Schakenbach Regele’s essay “A Brief History of the History of Capitalism, and a New American Variety” attempts to provide more structure to the field known as the new history of capitalism (NHOC) by defining martial capitalism as a new variant. In contrast, this essay asserts that the lack of definitional precision within the NHOC is not a bug, but rather one of its key features. To define capitalism would be to delimit where it was and was not present historically. If part of the argument of the NHOC is that capitalism pervaded—indeed infected—all aspects of American life, then defining …

The Philippine Economy During The Japanese Occupation, Jasper Lem

Asian Studies: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

The economy of the Philippines was derailed by the Japanese occupation during World War II. As an American colony before World War II, the Philippines had close amicable ties with the United States highlighted by promises of independence on July 4th, 1946. The Philippines also maintained a beneficial economic relationship with the States at this time through extensive foreign trade. However, because of the Japanese invasion, the Philippine economy was robbed of this profitable foreign trade and the promise of independence, severely crippling the island nation and her morale. The first policies implemented by Japan were designed to control the …

Shifting Frontiers Economic Consequences Of The Polish Partitions, Andrew J. Fox

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uses spatial regression discontinuity design to examine the impacts of historical border changes on economic development in modern Poland. Positive effects on institutions and infrastructure are found in the Austro-Hungarian zone of the Polish partition, while the Prussian zone suffer negative consequences due to 20th-century destruction and post-war expulsions.

Bankers As Immoral? Some Parallels And Differences Between Aquinas’S Views On Usury And Marxian Views Of Banking And Credit, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Since ancient times the practices and ethics of bankers and banking in general have undergone a great deal of criticism. While lending is motivated by profit, and while households are not explicitly coerced into borrowing money, the justice of a system which exploits workers and at the same time encourages them to borrow money in order to maintain a certain standard of living can be viewed as sometimes unfair and perhaps immoral. The value of goods, according to St. Thomas Aquinas and Karl Marx, should mostly reflect the value of labor embodied in them, and for that reason, labor should …

Are There Differences In Household Borrowing Across Religions?, Seth Dunn

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This study explores the relationship between religion and economic behavior, specifically asking whether variations in household borrowing can be attributable to identification with different Christian religious traditions across the United States. The hypothesis of different borrowing behaviors across religions is motivated historically and theoretically. Historical data from l967 and 1971 are used in ordinary least squared and logistic regression analyses. Density of religious affiliations and relevant controls are used to predict households’ debt and attitudes towards different reasons for borrowing. Some differences across religions are found. This research contributes to a broader literature exploring the impact of religion on economic …

An Analysis Of Capital Flow To Construct An Economic Typology In A Comparative Case Study Of Three Ancient Cities: Third Kingdom Of Ur, New Kingdom Of Thebes, And Classical Athens, Darrell Gremillion

Dissertations

This dissertation adds to the literature on Economic Development through the development of a Typology of Economy applicable to the earliest cities. Understanding the evolution of these early economies is a crucial step in understanding the past to assist in the establishment of policies for the future. This is especially important in the light of the environmental and sustainability challenges facing the globe today.

The cities in the comparative case study include the Third Dynasty of Ur in Mesopotamia, the New Kingdom of Thebes in Egypt, and Classical Athens in Greece. These cities are chosen for the case study for …

Democratic Facades, Authoritarian Penchants: Post-Communist Monetary Restructuring In The Baltic States, Jokubas Salyga

Political Science Faculty Publications

This paper argues that the paths taken by Estonia and Latvia in their departure from the rouble zone are illustrative of authoritarian neoliberal governance. By challenging the widely assumed simultaneity of ‘democratic’ and ‘market’ revolutions, it critiques institutionalist literature on Baltic exchange-rate regimes and sheds light on the various methods employed to curtail democratic political discourse and participation. The paper delves into the origins of the Baltic neoliberal historical blocs and identifies the social forces that influenced the development of monetary reform initiatives. It then explores the construction of exchange-rate systems through the lens of power struggles within the state …

The Reluctant Feminist: Angela Merkel’S Cautious Leadership, Ls Gaiek, Marlyn Garcia

The Scholarship Without Borders Journal

Abstract: What does it mean to be a modern feminist global leader today? Global leadership research is growing, but less research focuses on female leaders, even though the 21st century thus far contains a significant rise of female leaders. Angela Merkel’s infamously historic reticence and aversion, concerning speaking about feminism, irrevocably dissolves in an interview in January of 2019. This interview offers a glimpse into Angela Merkel’s cageyness, and provides an intimate insight into her circumspect perspective concerning feminism. This article aims to explore barriers and challenges to Angela Merkel’s rise as a global leader, how crisis forged and …

Monitoring The Philippine Economy State Of The Economy Report, Mitzie Irene P. Conchada, Lawrence B. Dacuycuy, Jesus Felipe, Desher Edgar Empeño, Brendan Emmanuel A. Miranda

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

The Philippine economy recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic during 2022. It posted a very high annual growth rate, 7.6%, although this must be understood in the context of a low base. AKI’s State of the Economy Report focuses on three issues in the context of the new Administration’s 8-Point Socioeconomic Agenda and the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028: growth, inflation, and the fiscal deficit and national debt. Overall, we have a positive view of the economy over the medium and long-term. However, we argue that:

-The focus of economic policy has to shift decisively toward changing the structure of the economy …

What Russia-Ukraine Conflict May Imply For The Future Of Dollar-Centered Monetary System, Jesus Felipe

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

AGLOBAL financial summit held in Paris some days ago reached a "new" global pact to help developing countries deal with poverty, climate change and debt. Part of the solution? More "funds," that is, debt. Ironically, nobody at the Paris summit questioned the current monetary system, which is at the root of the debt problem.

Coincidentally, a recent article in the journal Real-World Economics Review (http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue104/Spano) argues that one of the potential consequences of the Russia-Ukraine war could be the demise of the US dollar as the international unit of account. If this materializes, the international monetary system may change significantly. …

Working Paper No. 81, A Critique Of Ideas Advanced By Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, Chloe Kneedler

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that ideas advanced by economist Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen fall short and are deserving of a critique. Certainly, Georgescu-Roegen provided a foundation for the area of inquiry known as Ecological Economics. As suggested with the title, The Entropy Law and the Economic Process (1971), in this book Professor Georgescu-Roegen relates the Law of Entropy drawn from Physics to the economic process, in an effort to raise his concern over the finiteness of resources. In the modern, industrial economic system that he considers, he regards that goods with low entropy are consumed, and that their entropy increases until …

Liquid Border, Yingfan Jia

Masters Theses

A River is a mighty and constantly-evolving force, leaving behind an intricately designed and constantly changing system. Not just a river, the Rio Grande stretches all the way from Colorado before intersecting with the US-Mexico Border in southern Texas - a point where the powerful forces of nature now merge with a clearly-defined political boundary. The outcome of this is a unique ecological niche, which may often go unnoticed despite its distinctiveness.

Texas is famous for its farms and ranches, and the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas was once an agricultural hub. However, urbanization and the depletion of water …

Fiscal Decentralization And Economic Performance In Selected Developing Federal Econom, Samuel Onyeka Okonkwo, Walter Okwudili Ugwuoke Phd

Bullion

Extant literatures on fiscal decentralization in most developing countries show more concerns on revenue allocation principle/sharing. Contrary to extant studies, this paper undertakes analysis of fiscal decentralization and economic performance in five emerging federal economies. The curiosity is to ascertain if poor economic performance in most emerging economies could be attributed to ill - structured fiscal decentralization. This objective was addressed using Panel Vector Autoregressive technique and impulse response function. The results showed that all the measures of fiscal decentralization such as revenue measure denoted as (FDC1), spending measure denoted as (FDC2) and revenue — spending measure or Simultaneity measure …

National Debt And The Misleading Family Metaphor: A Message To The Economic Managers And Journalists, Jesus Felipe

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

A recent article in the prestigious British newspaper, The Guardian (“Bad economics at the BBC enabled Tory austerity and its aftermath — and it knows as much,” James Meadway, January 31, 2023), claimed that bad economics by the British Broadcasting Co. (BBC), the reputable British television company, enabled Tory austerity and its aftermath. A BBC internal review noted that too many journalists don’t get “basic economics,” with a negative effect on U.K. politics. The review refers to taxation, public spending, government borrowing, and debt output. Poor information is particularly serious when it comes to reporting on the central political issue …

Economic Factors And Theories Of Decline And Reform In The Late Ottoman Empire C. 1789–1911, Peter S. Gomori

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Tribes of Turkish speaking people (“Turks”) migrated in the 11th century from the Central Asian Steppes to what we consider the Middle East. Over the next two centuries this community would expand north, west and south to form a vast empire: the Ottoman Empire. Possibly the peak of the size of this empire would probably occur during the 16^th century under the rule of the Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent (1494- 1566) where the population of the Ottoman Empire was estimated to be up to 30 million. Yet there would be rivals. To the East was the Safavid Empire (today …