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作者:Uppsala University; Uppsala University; Lund University
摘要:Using new and uniquely detailed data, we examine how construction workers' wages in Sweden developed between 1831 and 1900. Wages grew rapidly from the 1850s, and comparisons with Northwestern Europe show that Swedish workers benefited more from growth than workers elsewhere. Globalization forces, most notably overseas migration, in combination with flexible and well-integrated labor markets-signified by strong regional convergence, falling skill differentials, and small urban-rural wage gaps-...
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作者:University of Antwerp; Monash University
摘要:With two news-based measures on war, I document that managers mitigated war risk through dividend cuts, arguably to establish a war chest. Moreover, I find that companies postponed their initial public offerings and that foreign companies were more likely to delist after the onset of wars. Investors reacted negatively to the increase in war news coverage. There is evidence of mean-reversion after a threat of war and a negative drift following the start of war. Finally, I highlight the importan...
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作者:Brandeis University
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作者:Vanderbilt University; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要:I study the impact of transportation on health in the rural United States, 1820-1847. Measuring health by average stature, I find that greater transportation linkage, as measured by market access, in a cohort's county-year of birth had an adverse impact on its health. A one-standard-deviation increase in market access reduced average stature by 0.14 inches, and rising market access over the study period can explain 37 percent of the contemporaneous decline in average stature, known as theAnteb...
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作者:Queens University Belfast; University of Tennessee System; University of Tennessee Knoxville
摘要:Do large franchise extensions bring about dramatic electoral changes? Electoral reforms in 1918 nearly tripled the number of people eligible to vote in Ireland. Following the reforms-the largest franchise extension in U.K. history-the previously obscure Sinn Fein party secured 73 of Ireland's 105 seats, an outcome that precipitated a guerrilla war and ultimately independence from the United Kingdom. However, our analysis finds little evidence that the franchise reforms benefited Sinn Fein. New...
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作者:Frydman, Carola
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作者:University of California System; University of California Berkeley
摘要:The late nineteenth century is often described as an era of innovation in managerial practice, including accounting. However, despite rich case studies of individual firms, we have little quantitative knowledge of average practices. This paper uses errors and omissions in balance statements to estimate the prevalence of double-entry bookkeeping and depreciation at Massachusetts corporations between 1875-1895. In 1875, 62 percent of firms balanced their returns, but by 1895 this number exceeded...
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作者:Wellesley College; University of Minnesota System; University of Minnesota Twin Cities
摘要:We analyze the effects of ownership of liberty bonds on election outcomes in the 1920s. We find that counties with higher liberty bond ownership rates turned against the Democratic Party in the presidential elections of 1920 and 1924. This was a reaction to the depreciation of the bonds prior to the 1920 election (when the Democrats held the presidency) and the appreciation of the bonds in the early 1920s (under a Republican president), as the Federal Reserve raised and then subsequently lower...
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作者:North Carolina State University
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作者:Humboldt University of Berlin
摘要:We revisit Max Weber's hypothesis on the role of Protestantism for economic development. We show that nationalism is crucial to both, the interpretation of Weber's Protestant Ethic and empirical tests thereof. For late nineteenth-century century Prussia we reject Weber's suggestion that Protestantism mattered due to an ascetic compulsion to save. Moreover, we find that income levels, savings, and literacy rates differed between Germans and Poles, not between Protestants and Catholics, using po...