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Based on the Xingke Tiben, this paper assesses the long‐run economic development of China, by constructing a new estimate of male occupational structure during 1734–1898 by sector, sub‐sector pattern, and region. After assessing the source's biases, using this new empirical basis, this paper demonstrates that the national male occupational structure was nearly identical in 1761–70, 1821–30, and 1881–90, suggesting a long‐lasting structural stasis of the national economy, allowing for fluctuations between benchmark dates. Within agriculture, substantial regional differences in labour organisation are revealed. Three distinct models are found: the Northern Regions model features a high usage of wage labour, the Yangtze Valley model presents a high level of tenancy development, and the Southern Regions model displays the highest share of landowners. All three models saw increasing use of wage labour in 1761–1890 and shrinking landownership in 1821–90. At the regional level, the long‐run estimate for Lower Yangtze suggests that the region as a whole stagnated throughout the entire period, but the overall structural stasis hides dynamic, contrasting long‐run economic change between the region's core and peripheral areas. Comparative analysis with England further suggests that the timing of the Great Divergence between China and England took place before 1734, even in the context of the regional difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimating the contribution of enslaved workers to output and growth in the United States during the first half of the nineteenth century is a crucial building block to better understand the contours of nineteenth‐century US economic history, and more generally, the connection between slavery and capitalism. Existing estimates only present a partial picture and are potentially problematic. In this paper, we use data on enslaved person valuations to calculate the contribution made by enslaved workers to regional and national gross national product (GNP) in 1839 and 1859 and to the growth in per capita output in the 20 years before the Civil War. We find that in the United States, enslaved workers were responsible for somewhere between 12.49 per cent and 18.0 per cent of the increase in output per capita between 1839 and 1859. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the long‐term relationship between regional inequality and economic development. Our data set includes information on national and regional per capita GDP for four countries: France, Italy, Portugal and Spain, compiled on a decadal basis for the period 1860–2010. Using parametric and semiparametric regressions, our results confirm the rise and fall of regional inequalities over time although in recent decades they are on the rise again. Finally, we identify structural change as being a significant transmission mechanism of the inverted‐U relationship. The arrival of technological shocks, beginning during the onset of industrialization, and the transition from agrarian to industrial economies, would explain this result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas initially physical capital and later, knowledge capital were viewed as crucial for growth, more recently a very different factor, entrepreneurship capital, has emerged as a driving force of economic growth. In this paper, we define a region's capacity to create new firms start-ups as the region's entrepreneurship capital. We then investigate the local embeddedness of this variable and which variables have an impact on this variable. Using data for Germany, we find that knowledge-based entrepreneurship capital is driven by local levels of knowledge creation and the acceptance of new ideas, indicating that local knowledge flows play an important role. Low-tech entrepreneurship capital is rather increased by regional unemployment and driven by direct incentives such as subsidies. All three measures are locally clustered, indicating that indeed, entrepreneurship capital is a phenomenon that is driven by local culture, and is therefore locally bounded. Mientras que inicialmente el capital físico, y posteriormente el capital conocimiento, fue considerado crucial para el crecimiento, más recientemente un factor muy diferente, el capital empresarial de espíritu emprendedor ( entrepreneurship capital), ha surgido como una fuerza impulsora de crecimiento económico. En este artículo, definimos como capital empresarial emprendedor la capacidad de una región para originar la puesta en marcha de nuevas empresas. A continuación investigamos el arraigo local de esta variable y las variables que tienen un impacto sobre esta variable. Usando datos de Alemania, hallamos que el capital empresarial emprendedor basado en el conocimiento está motivado por niveles locales de creación de conocimiento y la aceptación de nuevas ideas, indicando que los flujos de conocimiento local juegan un papel importante. El capital empresarial emprendedor basado en bajas tecnologías aumenta con el desempleo regional y está motivado por incentivos directos como subsidios. Las tres variables están agrupadas localmente ( locally clustered), indicando que sin duda el capital empresarial emprendedor es un fenómeno motivado por la cultura local, y por tanto atribuible a una localidad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the industrialisation experience in Sri Lanka following the outward-oriented policy reforms initiated in 1977. The reforms helped transform a primary product exporting economy into one in which manufactures dominate exports. The improved performance of the economy is seen in significant terms of trade gains, improvement in output growth, and employment generation, with a notable shift in labour absorption in favour of workers belonging to low-income families. Were it not for the civil strife and inconsistent macroeconomic policies that existed during much of the post-liberalisation period, the economy would have performed even better than it did. The experience over the past two decades makes a strong case for a firm commitment to an export-led growth strategy while guarding against possible policy backsliding emanating from the newfound enthusiasm for state activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to measure markup and returns to scale for eight Australian manufacturing industries, for the period 1971-72 to 1984-85, and to explore the relationship between markup, the business cycle and openness to the international economy in this period. A Hall type model is used for this purpose, where allowance is made for non-stochastic time variation in the contribution of technical change to output growth and intermediate materials are included in the production function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper illustrates a simple method to derive the income accounts in the context of limited macroeconomic data. The method is relevant for several developing countries where the statements on income are clearly absent and the national accounts are confined to statements on expenditure and/or value added. Furthermore, the method is illustrated for four Central Asian economies, namely Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. A Cobb-Douglas factor utilisation function is then used to estimate factor income shares and the relative contributions of factors to economic growth. The analysis reveals limited contribution of labour to economic growth in these economies. This limitation appears to be strongest in the resource dependent economies of Kazakhstan and Mongolia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we evaluate empirically the impact of fiscal policy on two key determinants of long-term growth, i.e., private investment and productivity growth. We mostly focus on a panel of 20 OECD economies from 1970 to 2009, although we also present some estimates based on data for 80 developing economies. Our findings suggest that high public debt adversely affects both aggregate investment spending and productivity growth, through distortions related to the size of the public sector. We also find weak evidence of some non-linear effects on productivity, with government debt becoming more detrimental in advanced economies when above 85-90% of GDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

By considering yearly production growth rates for several manufacturing industries in more than 100 countries during (roughly) the last 40 years, we show that industries that are more dependent on external finance are hit harder during recessions. The observed difference in the behavior of industries is larger when financial frictions are thought to be more prevalent, linking the result directly to the financial mechanism hypothesis. In particular, more dependent industries are more strongly affected in recessions when they are located in countries with poor financial contractibility, and when their assets are softer or less protective of financiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past two decades, the fast-developing Asia has emerged as one of the most important economic regions. However, its economic growth is accompanied with severe software piracy. This paper analyzes productivity changes of 11 Asian economies and 4 non-Asian industrialized economies by taking into account software piracy using the Malmquist productivity index and its two components, efficiency change and technical change over the period 1994–2002. The results indicate that when software piracy is included, productivity growth in Asian developing economies regresses, while productivity growth in the four non-Asian industrialized economies improves. Interpretation and implications are provided. ( JEL L86, O34) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate appropriate methods of modelling the business cycle theory of trade union growth, and to develop and estimate a specification of the business cycle model. In so doing, the paper draws on the important pioneering work of Bain and Elsheikh (1976) for the United Kingdom. (The results of extension of the Bain and Elsheikh model to 1980 are shown in Appendix A.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolph Lowe's work was dedicated chiefly to developing "political economics" as a foundation for economic theory and instrumental analysis to direct a politically free economy along the path of economic growth. This paper argues that the public management inherent in instrumentalism is not likely to be acceptable in the U S or the U K, except in national economic emergency Yet, the formerly planned economies of central and eastern Europe, whose history is one of stringent control, may have a political preference for a Lowe type of instrumentalism to avoid the results of uncontrolled market processes. The reception accorded Lowe's political economics by economists, as members of a professional community, reflects their methodological preferences and policy views Those who are skeptical of the market clearing capability of the price mechanism, and explain capitalist development as an ongoing historical process, are more likely to be appreciative of instrumental analysis as a policy tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several governmental programs attempt to relieve economic stress for given segments of the population. Their success is often contingent upon how accurately economic distress in given areas can be identified and measured. The indicator most commonly used is the poverty rate or a related measure, such as the proportion of persons with incomes below 150% of the designated poverty threshold. However, these poverty thresholds are determined nationally and thus fail to take account of local income levels or variations in living costs. Nationally determined poverty thresholds obscure the existence of economic distress in affluent areas. This paper explores an alternate methodology that relates household income at the census tract level to county median household income in order to identify areas of significant poverty. The findings are then compared with official poverty statistics. The analysts is performed for Nassau and Suffolk Counties, two affluent suburban counties located on long Island, adjacent to New York City. The data used came from the 1990 decennial census. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a list of papers related to economic history of Europe. Some of the papers are: "An early Garolingian Mint in the Low Gountries: Bona-Tiel," by M. Metcalf; "Financial Intermediaries and Economic Development, the Belgian Case," by R.J. Morrison; "Middeleeuwse sociale structuren. Enkele kanttekeningen,"by J. Mertems; "Dutch Theology, Trade and War: 1590-1610," by C. Bangs; and others.

The article evaluates several papers related to economic history in since 1850. They include "A Deplorable Episode? South African Arms and the Statecraft of British Social Democracy," by T. Bale, "From the Treasury Diaries of Sir Alec Caincross: Four Anglo-French Conflicts 1967-1968," by A. Caincross "A New Look, a New Departure: A Personal Comment on our Changed Appearance," by A. Marwick, "Dispersion Versus Decentralization: British Location of Industry Policies and Regional Development 1945-1960," by P. Scott.

This paper develops an example in which persistent deterministic business cycles appear in a purely endogenous fashion under laissez-faire. These cycles are not attributable to exogenous "shocks" nor to any variation of policy since there are none in the model. Markets clear in the Walrasian sense at every date, and traders have perfect foresight along the cycles. The origin of these cycles is the potential conflict between the wealth effect and the intertemporal substitution effect that are associated with real interest rate movements. Business cycles appear in particular when the degree of concavity of a trader's utility function is sufficiently higher for old agents than for younger ones. The techniques employed to study the occurrence and the stability of such business cycles are borrowed partly from recent mathematical theories that have been constructed by using the notion of the "bifurcation" of a dynamical system in order to explain the emergence of cycles and the transition to turbulent ("chaotic") behavior in physical, biological, or ecological systems. The equilibrium level of output is shown to be negatively related to the equilibrium level of the real interest rate. A similar relation exists (but in the opposite direction) between equilibrium real money balances and real interest rates. These relations hold both in the long run, i.e. along business cycles, and in the short run, i.e. on the transition path, and whether movements of the real interest rate are anticipated or not. The basic ingredient there is the condition that older agents have a higher marginal propensity to consume leisure. Monetary policy by means of nominal interest payments is shown to be extremely effective. A permanent change of the rate of growth of the money supply by these means is superneutral. Yet, there exists a very simple deterministic countercyclical policy that enables monetary authorities to stabilize completely business cycles and to force the economy back to the unique (Golden rule) stationary state. Due to the nonlinearity of the model such a policy affects not only the variances of real equilibrium magnitudes but also their means. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a list of research grants and research completed in the year 1974-1975. Some of the research papers are: "Property Values Since 1905: Analysis of Data From the Register of Sasines"; "A Pilot Study of Source Material for an Economic History of British Inland Transport and Communications, 1600-1850"; "A Statistical Survey of Religion in Britain and Ireland"; "Survey of Materials for Certain Industrial Histories, 1500-1750"; "The Supply of Capital and the Economic Development of Merseyside, 1680-1880"; "Collection and Preservation of Oral Evidence on the Suffragist Movement"; "Historical Developments of Migrant Labour Markets: Nigeria, South Africa and Australian New Guinea"; "An Analysis of Differences in Birth Place and Place of Baptism in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century"; "Economic History of the Pottery Industry in England, 1670-1815."

Abstract: Clark's claims about the scale of English agricultural output from the 1200s to the 1860s flout historical and geographical reality. His income‐based estimates start with the daily real wages of adult males and assume that days worked per year were constant. Those advanced in British economic growth make no such assumption and instead are built up from the output side. They correlate better with population trends and are consistent with an economy slowly growing and becoming richer. Clark's denial that such growth occurred, his assertion that substantially more land must have been under arable cultivation, his belief that conditions of full employment invariably prevailed in the countryside at harvest time, his concern that the wage bill would have exceeded the value of output in British economic growth, his refusal to consider the possibility that the working year was of variable length, and his assertion that output per acre must have been equalized across arable and pasture are all shown to be figments of his ‘Malthus delusion’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the second half of the 20th century, most industrialized countries experienced declining fertility, rising life expectancy and a slowdown of population growth. Standard models of R&D-based growth predict that a decline in population growth reduces economic growth. We argue that this implication hinges on the assumption of infinitely lived individuals. The semi-endogenous growth model with overlapping generations that we propose implies a negative relationship between population growth and economic growth during a substantial part of the transitional dynamics if the decline in population growth is accompanied by an increase in life expectancy as observed in industrialized countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the rapid economic development of Qatar brought by its extraordinary reserves of natural gas enabling to become the leading exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Topics covered include the transformative changes occurring in the LNG market, the global investment in natural-gas exploitation in the absence of competition, and the need for the recalibration of Qatar's energy policy and supply linkages.

There has been a considerable amount of research into the growth of the Pacific island countries; however, there has been no attempt to identify episodes of growth (and non-growth) and to identify and understand the factors behind these episodes. This narrative article examines the growth experiences of the eight small and micro states of the North and South Pacific that are members of the World Bank. The experience of Samoa and Vanuatu supports the idea that economic reform can lead to growth spurts. Overall, the narratives suggest that unless aid leads to changes in institutions and policies, it does not have long-lasting positive growth impacts. As experience in the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands appears to show, substantial aid may raise Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for short periods, but may well have very adverse impacts over the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents historical indices for the main dimensions of economic freedom and an aggregate index for the developed countries of today, specifically pre-1994 OECD members. Economic liberty expanded over the last century-and-a-half, reaching more than two-thirds of its possible maximum. However, its evolution has been far from linear. After a substantial improvement from the mid-nineteenth century, the First World War brought a major setback. The postwar recovery up to 1929 was followed by a dramatic decline in the 1930s. Significant progress took place during the 1950s but fell short of the pre- First World War peak. After a period of stagnation, steady expansion since the early 1980s has resulted in the highest levels of economic liberty of the last two centuries. Each of the main dimensions of economic freedom exhibited a distinctive trend and its contribution to the aggregate index varied over time. Overall, improved property rights provided the main contribution to the long-run advancement of economic liberty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of several articles for the period 400-1100 AD is presented including one by Naismith on currency, link social and economic developments among the English, one by Lane on urban life at Wroxeter into the 6th and 7th centuries, and one by Lavelle on the policy of King Eadwig.

Overview: darkness before the dawn? A number of indicators suggest the global economy may decelerate into the year-end., One especially worrying development is an apparent renewed softening in world trade growth. Our OE export indicator dropped in October to its lowest level since May 2013 and some other trade indicators (e.g. for container trade) have also been subdued., At a country level, growth has remained subdued in the Eurozone, prompting another slight forecast downgrade this month. Japan meanwhile slipped back into technical recession in Q3., Emerging markets remain mixed but with an overall soft tone. Among the BRIC economies there are few signs yet of a significant cyclical upturn - and in Russia the situation has deteriorated further., There has been better news from the US, where Q3 growth again came in at an annualised rate above 3% and jobs growth continues at over 200,000 a month. Consumer spending growth ebbed a little in Q3 but we expect it to pick up in the quarters ahead., Despite some gloomy near-term signals, there are a number of key positive factors for 2015 and beyond. The first is the fall in oil prices - now almost 30% down from the June peak - which will support consumer spending and lower business costs., And global policy settings are becoming more supportive. Though the US has now ended asset purchases, the Bank of Japan has announced a big increase in asset purchases. And with the ECB suggesting a possible €1 trillion increase in its balance sheet, the flow of central bank policy support in 2015/16 may not be very different from 2014., Fiscal policy may also be moving in a more positive direction. The Eurozone seems to be edging away from austerity while in Japan there is a strong possibility that the second rise in the consumption tax, planned for Q4 2015, will be delayed., These positive factors mean that we expect world GDP growth to firm from 2.6% in 2014 to 2.8% next year. This will be the best year since 2011, though growth will remain sub-par for a recovery period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines whether the efficiency gains accompanying fiscal decentralization generate higher growth in more decentralized economies, applying pooled-mean group techniques to a panel dataset of 23 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, 1972-2005. We find that spending decentralization has tended to be associated with lower economic growth while revenue decentralization has been associated with higher growth. Since OECD countries are substantially more spending than revenue decentralized, this is consistent with Oates' (1972) hypothesis that maximum efficiency gains require a close match between spending and revenue decentralization. It suggests reducing expenditure decentralization, and simultaneously increasing the fraction financed locally, would be growth-enhancing. (JEL E62, H71, H72 ) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Urbanization has traditionally been understood as a byproduct of economic development, but this explanatory framework fails to account for the phenomenon of 'urbanization without growth' observed in sub-Saharan Africa throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In light of this apparent anomaly, I argue that urbanization is better understood as a global historical process driven by population dynamics associated with technological and institutional innovations that have substantially improved disease control and food security in urban settlements across the globe. These innovations first emerged in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and were subsequently diffused through colonialism, trade, and international development assistance. A range of qualitative and quantitative evidence is presented to demonstrate that this historically grounded theory of urbanization offers a more convincing explanation for the stylized facts of Africa's urban transition-and hence the process of world urbanization more broadly-than the traditional economic account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid rise of England's colonial commerce in the late seventeenth century expanded the nation's resource base, stimulated efficiency improvements across the economy, and was important for long-term growth. However, close examination of the interests at play in England's Atlantic world does not support the Whiggish view that the Glorious Revolution played a benign role in this story. In the decades after the Restoration, the cases of the Royal African Company and the Spanish slave trade in Jamaica are used to show that the competition between Crown and Parliament for control of regulation constrained interest groups on either side in their efforts to capture the profits of empire. Stuart 'tyranny' was not able to damage growth and relatively competitive (and peaceful) conditions underpinned very rapid increases in colonial output and trade. The resolution of the rules of the Atlantic game in 1689 allowed a consolidated state better to manipulate and manage the imperial economy in its own interests. More secure rent-seeking enterprises and expensive wars damaged growth and European rivals began a process of catch-up. The Glorious Revolution was not sufficient to permanently halt economic development but it was sufficient to slow progress towards industrial revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers an examination of the patterns and motivations behind parish apprenticeship in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century London. It stresses continuity in outlook from parish officials binding children, which involved placements in both the traditional and industrializing sectors of the economy. Evidence on the ages, employment types, and locations of 3,285 pauper apprentices bound from different parts of London between 1767 and 1833 indicates a variety of local patterns. The analysis reveals a pattern of youthful age at binding, a range of employment experiences, and parish-specific links to particular trades and manufactures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often asserted that, between 1865 and 1914, economic dependence on British capital subjected settler societies to an unofficial imperialism wielded by the City of London. This article argues that both advocates and critics of such models, particularly in the recent controversy over 'gentlemanly capitalism', pay insufficient attention to the City itself. Using the Edwardian City's connections with Australia and Canada, it illustrates the range of financial intermediaries involved and explores their perceptions of political economy in these countries. It concludes that the City's influence (or 'structural power') was limited by its internal divisions and hazy conceptions of political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demographers emphasize decreased mortality and “economic development” as the main contributors generating the demographic transition. Contrary to previous findings, we show that simple dynastic models à la Barro–Becker can reproduce observed changes in fertility in response to decreased mortality and increased productivity growth if the intertemporal elasticity of substitution is low enough. We show that this is largely due to number and welfare of children being substitutes in the utility of parents in this case. We find that with an IES of one-third, model predictions of changes in fertility amount to two-thirds of those observed in U.S. data since 1800. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the need to revise the social contract among nation leaders to address the increasing national unemployment in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations. It states that an extensive renovation of educational systems and increased attention to regulations that helps economic diversification producing jobs should be implemented in GCC countries including Kuwait and Oman. It discloses the latest trend of economic-diversification-projects initiated by government bodies to generate national jobs. Moreover, benefits and pensions must also be standardized on both private and public sectors.

This study provides insight into the importance of national culture, investment in operations, and performance in the context of emerging Asian economies with a collectivist orientation, which are compared to industrialized Western nations with an individualist orientation. Hypotheses are developed and tested based on the cultural concept of individualism/collectivism, the theory of performance frontiers, and the extent of economic development. More specifically, data collected from 639 manufacturing plants in nine countries are used to first assess the influence of the cultural trait of individualism/collectivism on the extent of investment in structural assets (specifically: physical and capital-based) and infrastructural assets (specifically: team-based methods and improvement programs). Second, the influence of the extent of economic development on these investment factors is measured. Third, evidence is provided supportive of the theory of performance frontiers, and the nature of resource investments in the context of the cultural construct of individualism/collectivism. And fourth, support is provided for the efficacy of this theory, as well as for its compatibility and association with the resource-based view of the firm. Overall, this study makes important contributions to both theory and practice, and provides evidence for the role played by the cultural characteristic of individualism/collectivism in determining plant level investment outcomes in emerging Asian economies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The general equilibrium approach in orthodox economics largely abstracted from the passing of time. In a timeless world, strategy and deception are difficult to define. The mainstream analysis of the second half of the twentieth century was mostly about establishing the limits within which price ratios might profitably vary in a world where people keep promises and are honest. Curiously, another group of milestones (some of which date back to the 1920s and 1930s) exist that, when taken together, may spark a renewed interest in the economics of fraud and deception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an outlook for the world economy in 2008. Because of the continued impact of the credit crunch, the flow of economic news over February 2008 has mostly pointed towards weaker growth. The U.S. growth forecast for the first half of 2008 has been downgraded because of a series of weak indicators on employment, chain store sales and service activity. In the Eurozone, the growth forecast for 2008 has been revised from 1.7% to 2%, reflecting a deteriorating outlook in the main Mediterranean economies.

We provide evidence for Granger causality between rent-seeking behavior and democracy in Uruguay, where both rent-seeking behavior and political shifts have varied widely in the past 80 yr but ethnolinguistic heterogeneity and inequality have remained low. This helps identify “pure” interactions and their link with rent-seeking outcomes. The presence and duration of democracy appear to have been conducive to a decrease in rent seeking, although the reduction in rent seeking does not appear to have had a bearing on the quality of democratic regime. While the duration of democratic regime may impact rent-seeking behavior, rent seeking also displays a Granger causality to democratic duration. ( JEL O10, O1) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conditions under which a durable good supplier employs a tying arrangement that binds aftermarket purchases to the original sale was a central issue in the Kodak case. Two competing theories were presented in that case. Importantly, neither of these provides an efficiency-based explanation for the observed behavior. Subsequent theories provide several efficiency-driven motivations for aftermarket tying. None of these, however, rely upon efficient contracting between the buyer and the seller of the durable good. This article demonstrates the conditions under which such a contract will contain an aftermarket tie-in provision. ( JEL L42) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early states like China and India have been experiencing more rapid economic growth in recent decades. We show that more rapid growth by early starters has been the norm in economic history, and that the “reversal of fortune” associated with the European overseas expansion was both exceptional and temporary. Not only was the post-1500 reversal in the process of being reversed after 1960, but also the advantage conferred by early development in the latter period was considerably greater than the growth rate disadvantage that it conferred during 1500–1960, implying a rapid undoing of the first reversal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current explanations for why a growing economy necessarily goes through periods of high and low growth predict countercyclical R&D investment. As this is very controversial from an empirical perspective, a stochastic Poisson model of endogenous growth cycles is presented where the determinants of the cyclical behavior of R&D investment are analytically studied. Providing an explicit expression for the expected length of a cycle shows that high-frequency fluctuations can indeed be understood by this approach. It is also shown how small technological improvements translate into large aggregate fluctuations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author of this article focuses on the economics of peace, by looking at the trends and prospects of the Palestinian economy and labor market. The article first examines the main characteristics of economic development in the occupied Palestinian territories since the Oslo accords were signed on September 13, 1993. Trends in economic growth, employment, and wages are investigated. This is followed by a discussion of the limitations of this model which were already apparent during the strong growth period of 1994-2000. The elements and implications of an alternative model are considered in the final section. And the conclusion argues for greater attention to be paid to the economics of peace while the political negotiations go on.

Prior to the Asian financial crisis, the cozy relationships between corporations governments, and banks were seen as a potent force for economic growth and development. In this article we examine the institution of crony capitalism. Under conditions in which the Second Welfare Theorem does not hold, there is a role for government. Some governmental institutions do encourage more risky, high-payoff entrepreneurial activities. Our aim is to -examine crony capitalism as a potential source of government activity that enhances economic productivity. In addition, we explore the conditions under which the government activity can instigate a financial crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Discusses the dilemmas of economic development in Oceania. Details of the shift to orthodox development policy; Political economy of agro-exports in Tonga; Policy implications.

Focuses on the economic condition of Morocco in 2000 and 2001. Privatization of Maroc Telecom, Morocco's state telecommunication company; Growth rate expected for 2001 and 2002; Economic challenges faced by Morocco; Government expenditures in selected sector for the year 2001.

The stability of the growth process, whether growth rates are rising, falling, or constant, is one of the central questions of economic growth theory. We use recently developed techniques for identifying structural change in economic time series, and find evidence of multiple breaks in per capita real GDP of the G7 countries over the past 120 years. Once determined, these breaks are used to delineate time periods. Although there is some evidence of individual periods of slowdowns, the overall tendency appears to be one of increasing steady state growth over the long run. (JEL 05, 01, C22) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a survey of research in Chinese economic history. The study of Chinese economic history is as old as China's modern history itself. The field has been led and dominated by the West. Scholarly attempts have been made since the beginning of this century to explain China's premodern success and its downfall after the Opium War. Two approaches can be identified: the "Sinological approach" which refers to China only and the "comparative method" which compares China with the West. The former tries to find out what achievements China managed to make and when and how it made them, and the latter seeks to understand why premodern China was not industrialized. With rich historical materials to work on, China embraces in its past almost all the key issues for economic history. The country's importance and utility in world economic history will remain, and research in Chinese economic history will attract even greater attention from the scholarly world in this new millennium. Among the great diversity of topics, the function of the Chinese state including the standardization of time, language, roads, currency, weights and measures, as well as construction and maintenance of the Great Walls and grand canals, may well have been the state response to the demand for public goods from the general public to lower transaction costs in the economy rather than the means to strengthen imperial rule.

The article explores the historical origins of the depressed areas in Great Britain before 1914. The depressed areas are those regions of Britain whose persistent economic difficulties have, for most of this century, constituted the regional problem. This is examined through an analysis of alternative sources of early regional unemployment statistics. Patterns of unemployment in the pre-1914 period are then related to census-derived statistics of regional growth and employment structure. Before 1914, the north was the region of high growth, based on the prosperity of the export-oriented industries created by the industrial revolution, especially engineering, shipbuilding, textiles and mining. Unemployment was primarily a problem of the south, with its stagnant agricultural sector and of London, where the old handicraft industries were making their final stand. Following the war, shifts in world trade caused a sudden drop in export demand, mainly affecting the staple industries of the north. This shift in trade was a clear exogenous shock to the British regional economic system, causing a sudden drop in demand for labour in previously prosperous areas and a reversal in the pre-war pattern of unemployment.

The article discusses the total factor productivity growth in Great Britain after 1870. The confusion over which industries witnessed entrepreneurial shortcomings remained until the use by new economic historians of geometric and arithmetic total factor productivity indexes to test directly Aldcroft's hypothesis that Britain's rate of technical progress was inferior to that of America or Germany. Productivity indexes measure output per unit input. Unlike partial productivity indexes, principally the output-labor ratio, total factor productivity indexes measure the rate of growth of output not accounted for by the growth of all factor inputs. After subtracting the rate of growth of weighted factor inputs from the rate of growth of output, what is left unexplained is labelled technical change or productivity. In this case, the index is a residual and, more properly, has been called a measure of our ignorance. By comparing total factor productivity growth in Britain after 1870 with best practice American efficiency growth, both lagging British productivity and the entrepreneurial failure thesis were subjected to an unambiguous test.