Search

We study European demand for American state bonds after the state debt crisis of the 1840s to establish this finding. Peter Nencka and Enrico Berkes, I The Ohio State University i SESSION 12: BANKING SERVICES FOR UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES Generating African-American Wealth through Banking Compiling a new dataset of banks owned and managed by African Americans from 1907 to 1930, I provide the first analysis of the contribution of African-American banks to the increase in economic welfare of African-American communities. Following a national bank holiday in 1933, New York state bank regulators suspended the publication of balance sheets of state-charter banks for two years, whereas national-charter bank regulators did not. We find that state-charter banks experienced less deposit outflows than national-charter banks in 1933. [Extracted from the article]

This paper documents the persistence of Southern slave owners in political power after the American Civil War. Using data from Texas, we show that former slave owners made up more than half of all state legislators until the late 1890s. Legislators with slave-owning backgrounds were more likely to be Democrats and voted more conservatively even conditional on party membership. A county's propensity to elect former slave owners was positively correlated with cotton production, but negatively with Reconstruction-era progress of blacks. Counties that elected more slave owners also displayed worse educational outcomes for blacks in the early twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper exploits the history of Reconstruction after the American Civil War to estimate the effect of politician race on public finance. While the effect of black politicians is positive and significant, black officials may be endogenous to electoral preferences for redistribution. I therefore use the number of free blacks in the antebellum era (1860) as an instrument for black political leaders during Reconstruction. Instrumental variables (IV) estimates show that an additional black official increased per capita county tax revenue by $0.20, more than an hour's wage at the time. The effect was not persistent, however, disappearing entirely once black politicians were removed from office at Reconstruction's end. Consistent with the stated policy objectives of black officials, I find positive effects of black politicians on land tenancy and black literacy. These results suggest that black political leaders had large effects on public finance and individual outcomes over and above electoral preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines trends in nutrition and health in native-born white soldiers in antebellum United States using data on height-by-age. Number of soldiers included in the random sample made; Exploration on the economic and demographic implications of the findings.

Comments on the criticism given to a procedure for computing the cost of the American Civil War and related events. Factors attributed to the total cost of the war; Discussion on the computation for cotton demand.

Presents information on productivity and income distribution in the southern United States after the Civil War.

Examines the formation of debt peonage in the South after the Civil War in the United States. Reason for the failure of Southerners to diversify the region's economy.

Comments on several articles about demography which appeared in the March 1980 issue of `The Journal of Economic History.' Applicability of the Malthusian model to explain the economic and demographic trends in Ireland in the prefamine period in the 19th century; Analysis of the fertility rates of white families in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1850-1880; Contribution of interregional migration to the elimination of labor market disequilibrium during the American Civil War.

The American Civil War fractured communities in border states where families who would eventually support the Union or the Confederacy lived together prior to the conflict. We study the subsequent migration choices of Civil War veterans and their families using a unique longitudinal dataset covering enlistees from the border state of Kentucky. Nearly half of surviving Kentucky veterans moved to a new county between 1860 and 1880. We find strong evidence of sorting along ideological dimensions for veterans from both sides of the conflict. However, we find limited evidence of a positive economic return to these relocation decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have shown a connection between finance and growth, but most do not consider how financial and real factors interact to put a virtuous cycle of economic development into motion. As the main transportation advance of the nineteenth century, railroads connected established commercial centers and made unsettled areas along their routes better candidates for development. We measure the strength of links between railroads and banks in seven Midwest states using an annual transportation geographic information system (GIS) database linked to a census of banking. These data indicate that those counties that already had a bank were more likely to see their first railroad go through over the next decade, while new banks tended to enter a county a year or two after a railroad was built. The initial banking system thus helped establish the rail system, while the rapid expansion of railroads helped fill in the banking map of the American Midwest. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Asserts that the decline in agricultural output is partially the result of increased disease brought about by substandard living conditions suffered by the Souther population during the Civil War in the United States. Hookworm symptoms among the Southern population; Suggestion that emancipation and increased hookworm infection were responsible for the income decline.

Presents estimates of the profitability and extent of cotton smuggling during the Civil War in the United States. Claims of historians; Data for individual trips through the blockade.

Presents a study which discussed the distribution of wealth in the egalitarian society of the rural North during the Civil War. Role of age structure in determining wealth distribution within the society; Implication of life-cycle pattern of accumulation to wealth distribution.

Discusses how the interregional migration between 1870 and 1920 led to the substantial elimination of the labor market disequilibrium produced by the Civil War in the United States. Assessment of the labor market during the Civil War; Examination of the level of per capita income levels in the 1920.

Discusses the measures that facilitate analysis of political market activity in the United States. Origins of the American Civil War.

Analyzes the economics of slavery in relation to the causation of the United States (U.S.) Civil War. Profitability of the slave trade; Market value of slaves in the U.S. in 1860, prior to the Civil War; Alternatives implicit in the decision to start the Civil War; Decision of the Northern U.S. and the Southern U.S. to resort to war in April 1861.