bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
p53 is dispensable for the induction of apoptosis after inhibition of protein kinase CK2
Authors: Schneider Carolin C. , Hessenauer Andrea , Montenarh Mathias , Götz Claudia
Published: September 2009

BACKGROUND

Protein kinase CK2 is a ubiquitously expressed heterotetramer consisting of two catalytic α/α′ and two regulatory β subunits. Expression of CK2 is highly elevated in tumor cells where it protects cells from apoptosis. A variety of different compounds were tested as inhibitors of protein kinase CK2 in order to find new therapy strategies. To analyze the role of p53 in the response to CK2 inhibition we used one of the most specific CK2 inhibitors available, TBB, in different prostate cancer cell lines.

METHODS

We treated prostate cancer cells with the CK2 inhibitor TBB and determined its effect on CK2 activity by an in vitro phosphorylation assay and its effect on viability by an MTT assay. Furthermore, we analyzed changes in the expression of p53 and PARP cleavage by Western Blot analysis.

RESULTS

Inhibition of CK2 by TBB led to a decrease in cell viability and apoptosis in two cell lines which express wild‐type p53 whereas two other cell lines expressing mutant or no p53 failed to show signs of apoptosis. Moreover, cell lines expressing wild‐type p53 showed an increase of the amount of p53 and of its transactivation efficiency. However, down‐regulation of p53 by RNAi showed that p53 is not necessary for the induction of apoptosis.

CONCLUSIONS

Wild‐type p53 is not necessary for the induction of apoptosis by TBB in prostate cancer cells. Prostate 70: 126–134, 2010. ©2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Ets‐1 and hypoxia inducible factor‐1α inhibition by angiotensin II type‐1 receptor blockade in hormone‐refractory prostate cancer
Authors: Kosaka Takeo , Miyajima Akira , Shirotake Suguru , Kikuchi Eiji , Hasegawa Masanori , Mikami Shuji , Oya Mototsugu
Published: September 2009

BACKGROUND

Accumulating evidences have suggested that the renin‐angiotensin system (RAS) participates in the regulation of tumor angiogenesis. We previously demonstrated that hormone‐refractory prostate cancer (HRPC) showed significantly higher angiotensin II (Ang II) type‐1 receptor (AT1R) expression, and that the AT1R blocker (ARB) exerted protective effects by inhibiting angiogenesis. However, the downstream transcriptional factors induced by Ang II in prostate cancer cells have not been fully elucidated yet.

METHODS

Three human prostate cancer cell lines: LNCap, C4‐2 and C4‐2AT6 were used and analyzed. C4‐2AT6 cells were established by culture in androgen‐ablated conditioned medium for 6 months.

RESULTS

C4‐2AT6 cells showed significantly higher AT1R expression, accompanied by higher HIF‐1α and Ets‐1 expression in the nucleus. In C4‐2AT6 cells, VEGF production was significantly higher than in C4‐2 cells and LNCaP cells. These results suggested that HRPC exhibited aggressive angiogenic properties, accompanied by up‐regulated HIF‐1α and Ets‐1. Ang II stimulated VEGF production in C4‐2 cells and C4‐2AT6 cells but not in LNCaP cells. ARB significantly inhibited VEGF production. Western blot analysis demonstrated that AngII induced nuclear expression of HIF‐1α and Ets‐1 in C4‐2 and C4‐2AT6 cells, but not in LNCaP cells. ARB significantly inhibited HIF‐1α and Ets‐1 induction in C4‐2 and C4‐2AT6 cells.

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggests that AT1R blockade may have a significant impact on HRPC through the inhibition of HIF‐1α and Ets‐1 and the resulting suppression of angiogenesis. Our results provide the molecular basis of the clinical benefit of ARB as an angiogenic inhibitor in HRPC. Prostate 70: 162–169, 2010. ©2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Evolutionary analysis of herbivorous insects in natural and agricultural environments
Authors: Gassmann Aaron J , Onstad David W , Pittendrigh Barry R
Published: September 2009

Herbivorous insects offer a remarkable example of the biological diversity that formed the foundation for Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. The ability of insects to evolve resistance rapidly to insecticides and host‐plant resistance present a continual challenge for pest management. This paper considers the manner in which genetic constraints, host‐plant availability and trade‐offs affect the evolution of herbivorous insects in natural and agricultural environments, and the extent to which lessons learned from studying natural systems may be applied to improve insect resistance management in agricultural systems. Studies on the genetic architecture of adaptation by herbivores to host plants and to insecticides are reviewed. The genetic basis of resistance is an important component of simulation models that predict the evolution of resistance. These models often assume monogenic resistance, but available data suggest that this assumption may be overly narrow and that modeling of resistance as oligogenic or polygenic may be more appropriate. As omics (e.g. genomics and proteomics) technologies become more accessible, a better understanding of the genetic basis of resistance will be possible. Trade‐offs often accompany adaptations by herbivores. Trade‐offs arise when the benefit of a trait, such as the ability to feed on a novel host plant or to survive in the presence of an insecticide, is counterbalanced by fitness costs that decrease fitness in the absence of the selective agent. For resistance to insecticides, and resistance to insecticidal transgenic crops in particular, fitness costs may act as an evolutionary constraint and delay or prevent the evolution of resistance. An important observation is that certain ecological factors such as host plants and entomopathogens can magnify fitness costs, which is termed ecological negative cross‐resistance. The application of omics technologies may allow for more efficient identification of factors that will impose ecological negative cross‐resistance, thereby bolstering insect resistance management. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry
Effect of copper salt and thiourea concentrations on the formation of Cu2ZnSnS4 thin films by spray pyrolysis
Authors: Kumar Y.B. Kishore , Bhaskar P. Uday , Babu G. Suresh , Raja V. Sundara
Published: September 2009

Thin films of Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS), a potential candidate for absorber layer in thin film heterojunction solar cell, have been deposited by spray pyrolysis technique onto soda‐lime glass substrates held at a substrate temperature (Ts) of 643 K. The effect of copper salt and thiourea concentrations on the formation of Cu2ZnSnS4 thin films is investigated. CZTS films formed under optimized conditions are found to be polycrystalline in nature with kesterite structure. The lattice parameters are found to be a = 0.543 nm and c = 1.086 nm. The optical band gap of these films is found to be 1.43 eV. It is found to increase with decrease in copper salt concentration in the solution.
Liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma: the Hong Kong experience
Authors: Ng Kelvin K. , Lo Chung Mau , Chan See Ching , Chok Kenneth S. , Cheung Tan‐To , Fan Sheung Tat
Published: September 2009

Orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) is the best treatment option for selected patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with the background of cirrhosis since this treatment modality can cure both diseases at once. Over the years, the applicability of OLT for HCC has evolved. In Asia, including Hong Kong, a shortage of deceased donor liver grafts is a universal problem having to be faced in all transplant centers. Living‐donor liver transplant (LDLT) has therefore been developed to counteract organ shortage and the high prevalence of HCC. The application of LDLT for HCC is a complex process involving donor voluntarism, selection criteria for the recipient and justification with respect to long‐term survival in comparison to the result of deceased donor liver transplant. This article reviews the authors’ experience with OLT for HCC patients in Hong Kong, with emphasis on the applicability and outcome of LDLT for HCC. Donor voluntarism has a significant impact on the application of LDLT. “Fast‐track” LDLT in the setting of recurrence following curative treatment carries a high risk of recurrence even though the tumor stage fulfills the standard criteria. Although the survival outcome may be worse following LDLT than DDLT for HCC, LDLT is still the main treatment option for patients with transplantable HCC in Hong Kong, and a reasonable survival outcome can be achieved in selected patients with extended indications. It is particularly true that LDLT provides the only hope for patients with advanced HCC under the constricting problem of organ shortage.
A distinct structural region of the prokaryotic ubiquitin‐like protein (Pup) is recognized by the N‐terminal domain of the proteasomal ATPase Mpa
Authors: Sutter Markus , Striebel Frank , Damberger Fred F. , Allain Frédéric H.-T. , Weber-Ban Eilika
Published: September 2009

MINT‐7262427: pup (uniprotkb:B6DAC1) binds (MI:0407) to mpa (uniprotkb:Q0G9Y7) by pull down (MI:0096) MINT‐7262440: mpa (uniprotkb:Q0G9Y7) and pup (uniprotkb:B6DAC1) bind (MI:0407) by isothermal titration calorimetry (MI:0065)
Wage Determination Theory and the Five-Dollar Day at Ford
Authors: Raff Daniel M.G.
Published: September 2009

This paper examines the five-dollar day compensation policy instituted by the Ford Motor Company in 1914 in light of recent developments in wage-determination theory. The new wage was above the opportunity cost of the labor employed. Yet various efficiency wage theories, by which high wages increase output, are shown to provide an implausible explanation. The particular (and epochal) technical change that occurred at Ford and the attitudes and beliefs of relevant actors suggest instead a rent-sharing theory driven by the threat of collective action by labor. This confluence, not the money, marks the episode as a watershed.
Changes in the Level of Literacy in a New Community of Early America
Authors: Gallman Robert E.
Published: September 2009

When arrayed in time series, the rates of signature literacy of free persons in colonial Perquimans County, North Carolina, exhibit the ∪-shaped pattern found in the records of many other new communities of early America. In Perquimans, the pattern was due to coincident movements in the literacy rates of immigrants and natives of the county. The initial drop was associated with pronounced political and social disorder; the rise, with improved political stability and with demographic and economic growth.
Free Banking Laws and Barriers to Entry in Banking, 1838–1860
Authors: Ng Kenneth
Published: September 2009

The thesis that free banking laws lowered barriers to entry in the U.S. banking industry is tested by examining entry of firms and output of banking services before and after the institution of free banking. The output of banking services and the number of banks remained the same or declined after the institution of free banking, in all states with viable free banking laws except New York. In light of this evidence, the belief that free banking in the antebellum United States increased competition and efficiency of the banking industry by lowering barriers to entry must be reconsidered.
Agricultural Supply During the Industrial Revolution: French Evidence and European Implications
Authors: Grantham George
Published: September 2009

Analysis of the spatial pattern of prices and output in the manuscript returns of the French agricultural census of 1852 indicates that the availability of market outlets was probably the dominant factor determining the rise in agricultural productivity prior to the mid-nineteenth century and that agricultural supply was probably price elastic. The belief that the period of the industrial revolution was one of inelastic agricultural supply is shown to rest on a misinterpretation of the extant data on agricultural prices.
Capital Mobilization and Southern Industry, 1880–1905: The Case of the Carolina Piedmont
Authors: Carlton David L. , Coclanis Peter A.
Published: September 2009

As the American South commenced its modern industrialization in the late nineteenth century, it found itself handicapped not simply by its poverty, but also by its lack of institutionalized means for mobilizing investment capital for manufacturing. Using evidence from the first major southern manufacturing region, the Carolina Piedmont, we argue that the resulting high information and transactions costs forced industrial promoters to rely heavily upon small, local investors who preferred safety to innovation. As a result, southern manufacturing firms were hampered in their flexibility, and southern industrial structure was skewed toward mature industries with little developmental potential.
Why Apprenticeship Persisted in Britain But Not in the United States
Authors: Elbaum Bernard
Published: September 2009

During the nineteenth century, under free labor market contracting, apprenticeship persisted in Britain but declined in the United States. This article argues that apprenticeship endured in Britain because of its efficiency advantages and because of customs, inherited from the guilds, that favored training certification for entry into skilled jobs. By contrast, within the United States guild traditions were weaker, occupational certification was seldom required, and, as a result, indenture obligations were hard to enforce. Understandably, U.S. employers refrained from making training investments in potentially mobile apprentices.
Biological Consequences of Segregation and Economic Deprivation: A Post-Slavery Population from Southwest Arkansas
Authors: Rose Jerome C.
Published: September 2009

Analysis of 80 skeletons from Cedar Grove, Arkansas, permits comparison of the skeletal data with historic accounts and interpretations of textual data. The high frequencies of skeletal lesions indicating dietary deficiencies and infectious disease demonstrates that this was a highly stressed population and that Cedar Grove participated in the historically documented nationwide decline of Afro-American health. The evidence is overwhelming that congenital syphilis was a major contributor to high infant mortality and population decline.
New Jersey Corporate Chartermongering, 1875–1929
Authors: Grandy Christopher
Published: September 2009

New Jersey played a dominant role in the merger wave at the turn of the century. The state facilitated the rise of large firms by liberalizing its corporation law in exchange for incorporation fees and franchise taxes. This article suggests that chartermongering emerged from the U.S. federal political system and the economic structure of the state. Delaware became the preferred state of incorporation as New Jersey's economic structure changed.
Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England
Authors: North Douglass C. , Weingast Barry R.
Published: September 2009

The article studies the evolution of the constitutional arrangements in seventeenth-century England following the Glorious Revolution of 1688. It focuses on the relationship between institutions and the behavior of the government and interprets the institutional changes on the basis of the goals of the winners—secure property rights, protection of their wealth, and the elimination of confiscatory government. We argue that the new institutions allowed the government to commit credibly to upholding property rights. Their success was remarkable, as the evidence from capital markets shows.
The Political Economy of Crude Oil Cartelization in the United States, 1933–1972
Authors: Libecap Gary D.
Published: September 2009

This article examines a government-sponsored cartel that fixed domestic crude oil prices in interstate markets from 1933 through 1972. Although the cartel raised and stabilized nominal oil prices beyond earlier private efforts, it also resulted in politically driven constraints on price, output levels, and cartel rent distribution. Political factors molded quota assignments, diverted production from low- to high-cost producers, and raised production costs. Political pressures prevented Texas from acting as a residual or swing producer. Instead, the interstate oil cartel members maintained nominal prices and spread the political costs of output adjustments.
Reputation and Coalitions in Medieval Trade: Evidence on the Maghribi Traders
Authors: Greif Avner
Published: September 2009

This article examines the economic institution utilized during the eleventh century to facilitate complex trade characterized by asymmetric information and limited legal contract enforceability. The geniza documents are employed to present the “coalition”, an economic institution based upon a reputation mechanism utilized by Mediterranean traders to confront the organizational problem associated with the exchange relations between merchants and their overseas agents. The the oretical framework explains many trade-related phenomena, especially why traders utilized specific forms of business association, and indicates the interrelations between social and economic institutions.
The Financial Market and Government Debt Policy in France, 1746–1793
Authors: Velde François R. , Weir David R.
Published: September 2009

This article offers a new quantitative history of the market for government debt in France before the Revolution. The monarchy was a persistent default risk because of institutional obstacles to raising taxes. Default followed observable rules in targeting specific assets. The financial market reflected both facts: interest rates were high on the safest assets and ranged higher on the most likely default targets. The cost of all forms of new borrowing became substantially higher than the yields on old debt, resulting in increasing government reliance on expensive life annuities.
A Peculiar Sample: The Selection of Slaves for the New Orleans Market
Authors: Pritchett Jonathan B. , Freudenberger Herman
Published: September 2009

Domestic slave traders selected taller slaves for shipment to the New Orleans market in order to increase their profits. Because traded slaves made up a large share of the slaves shipped coastwise, age/height profiles constructed from the shipping manifests are biased upwards. The extent of the bias appears to be small for adult slaves but not for children; those listed on the manifests were taller than the general population of a comparable age.
How Long Was the Workday in 1880?
Authors: Atack Jeremy , Bateman Fred
Published: September 2009

This article develops the first comprehensive set of estimates of daily hours of work in 1880 using new data from the Census of Manufactures. We conclude that the average workday was almost exactly 10 hours in 1880—almost a decade earlier than hitherto supposed. Our statistical analysis also reveals small but statistically significant variations in hours between firms and industries, between regions, and by location. We also find that higher-paid workers probably substituted leisure for income, that total employment was unresponsive to hours, and that hours and days of employment during the year moved together.
Technological Inertia in Economic History
Authors: Mokyr Joel
Published: September 2009

Technological progress depends for its success on a conducive social environment. The resistance to innovation is identified as a central element governing the success of new inventions. Such resistance usually takes the form of non-market processes. It consists of vested interests, whose assets are jeopardized by new techniques, as well as by intellectuals who are opposed to new technology on principle. The role of resistance in the British and French economies during the Industrial Revolution is assessed.
The Magnetic Telegraph, Price and Quantity Data, and the New Management of Capital
Authors: Field Alexander James
Published: September 2009

The contribution to growth of telegraphic- as opposed to rail-speed transmission of financial asset and commodity price data remains unclear. With more certainty we can identify savings in the holdings of real capital—savings made possible by the use of the telegraph at the firm level to implement tight systems of logistical control.
Britain's Productivity Gap in the 1930s: Some Neglected Factors
Authors: Broadberry S. N. , Crafts N. F. R.
Published: September 2009

This article proposes a reinterpretation of the failure of interwar British productivity levels to match those of the United States. We argue that key elements in poor British productivity performance included inadequate human capital, a bargaining environment that allowed workers to maintain restrictive practices, and collusive agreements that limited the exit of inefficient firms. We suggest that weaknesses in the structure of British firms pointed out by Chandler and his followers have been overemphasized and that more attention should be given to the role of the market environment in determining the conduct of business.
International Competitiveness of the Antebellum American Cotton Textile Industry
Authors: Harley C. Knick
Published: September 2009

Although the American cotton textile industry was heavily protected, most commentators, following Frank Taussig's lead, have concluded that indigenous technological advance made large branches of the industry internationally competitive by the 1830s. The prices of equivalent fabrics in Britain and America in the late 1840s and 1850s challenge that conclusion. “Domestic” fabrics, in which American mills had supposedly become competitive, cost 20 percent more in America. Critical reexamination of other evidence—cost comparisons from the 1830s and American exports—supports the conclusion that an unprotected American industry could not have competed.
What Ended the Great Depression?
Authors: Romer Christina D.
Published: September 2009

This paper examines the role of aggregate-demand stimulus in ending the Great Depression. Plausible estimates of the effects of fiscal and monetary changes indicate that nearly all the observed recovery of the U.S. economy prior to 1942 was due to monetary expansion. A huge gold inflow in the mid- and late 1930s swelled the money stock and stimulated the economy by lowering real interest rates and encouraging investment spending and purchases of durable goods. That monetary developments were crucial to the recovery implies that self-correction played little role in the growth of real output between 1933 and 1942.
The Emergence of a National Capital Market in England, 1710–1880
Authors: Buchinsky Moshe , Polak Ben
Published: September 2009

Was eighteenth-century London's financial market linked to domestic real capital markets? When did English capital markets cease to be regionally segmented? We compare London interest rates with annual registered property transactions in Middlesex and in West Yorkshire. This evidence, though tentative, suggests that London financial markets were weakly linked to local real capital markets in the mid-eighteenth century. By the late eighteenth century those links were strong. Regional markets were still segmented in the mid-eighteenth century but were integrated by the time of the Napoleonic War.
Debasements, Royal Revenues, and Inflation in France During the Hundred Years' War, 1415–1422
Authors: Sussman Nathan
Published: September 2009

Historians of the period have generally played down the debasement of France's coinage to increase crown revenues during the Hundred Years' War or treated it as a last resort and an inept one. Based on archival data and an analytical framework drawn from the modern literature on inflation tax, this article supports challengers of that view, showing that debasement was an effective instrument of public finance.
The Search for the Sources of Growth: Areas of Ignorance, Old and New
Authors: Abramovitz Moses
Published: September 2009

Many economic historians, like most economists, depend on standard growth accounts to provide some quantitative description of the proximate sources of growth, but this is misleading. American growth experience illustrates the difficulty. The seeming major contribution of tangible capital accumulation to nineteenth-century growth was the consequence of scale-dependent and capital-using technological progress. The large twentieth-century contributions of education and R&D conceal technology's new intangible capital-using bias. Additionally, reverse forces run from capital accumulation to technological progress. Without a greater understanding of these interactions, our knowledge of even the proximate sources of growth is incomplete.
“Schemes of Practical Utility”: Entrepreneurship and Innovation Among “Great Inventors” in the United States, 1790–1865
Authors: Khan B. Zorina , Sokoloff Kenneth L.
Published: September 2009

The growth in inventive activity during early American industrialization is explored by examining the careers of 160 inventors credited with important technological discoveries. Analysis of biographical information and complete patent histories through 1865 indicates that these “great inventors” were entrepreneurial and responded systematically to market demand. Their inventions were procyclical and originated disproportionately from localities linked with extensive markets. Although unexceptional in terms of schooling or technical skills, they vigorously pursued the returns to their inventions, redirected their inventive activity to meet emerging needs, and were distinguished by high geographical mobility toward districts conducive to invention and its commercialization.
Indians, the Beaver, and the Bay: The Economics of Depletion in the Lands of the Hudson's Bay Company, 1700–1763
Authors: Carlos Ann M. , Lewis Frank D.
Published: September 2009

Indians depleted the beaver, yet we do not understand why. We analyzed the pattern and determinants of beaver exploitation in the hinterlands of three Hudson's Bay Company posts. Simulating beaver population, we found declining beaver stock within each hinterland, but overharvesting in only two. Central to this process was the Company reaction to French competition. Managers raised prices in the Albany and York hinterlands, and in response the Indians increased their harvests. Churchill, which did not experience French competition, had more stable fur prices and showed no evidence of overexploitation of the beaver.
At What Cost A Room of Her Own? Factors Contributing to the Feminization of Poverty Among Prime-Age Women, 1939–1959
Authors: Barrington Linda , Conrad Cecilia A.
Published: September 2009

This article investigates the feminization of poverty prior to 1960 by focusing on three factors that contributed to the increase in the propensity to form female-headed households and to the poverty rate among such households. Compared with 1939, households headed by prime-age women in 1959 included fewer adults, thereby reducing earnings potential. The earnings level at which such women formed independent households was lower relative to the poverty line; and although higher earnings allowed more women to form independent households, the increase was not large enough to lift some of these households out of poverty.
Crop Choices in the Piedmont Before and After the Civil War
Authors: Harris J. William
Published: September 2009

Census and tax data for three counties in the Georgia Piedmont in 1860 and 1880 are used to analyze changes in crop-choice decisions after the Civil War. Although changes in the lower and upper Piedmont were similar, the explanations for these changes in the two areas differ in important respects. In the upper Piedmont the use of fertilizer is a very important explanator, whereas race and tenure are of little significance. Fertilizer is also an important explanator in the lower Piedmont, but so are race, tenure, and poverty of farm operators.
Remeasuring Business Cycles
Authors: Romer Christina D.
Published: September 2009

This article evaluates the consistency of the NBER business cycle reference dates. It finds that the early reference dates are derived from detrended data, whereas the dates after 1927 are derived from data in levels. To evaluate the importance of this and other changes in technique, I derive a simple algorithm that matches the postwar NBER peaks and troughs closely. When this algorithm is applied to data for 1884 to 1940, the new prewar dates differ systematically from the NBER dates and challenge the conventional view that recessions have gotten shorter over time.
The Bubble Act: Its Passage and Its Effects on Business Organization
Authors: Harris Ron
Published: September 2009

By surveying contemporary sources this article reveals direct evidence for the involvement of the South Sea Company in the passage of the Bubble Act. The dominant position of the Company and of its national debt conversion scheme in the affairs of England in 1720 support the conclusion that the act was in fact a piece of special-interest legislation for the Company. The short-term interest that motivated the enactment, together with the limited legal and economic effects of the act, minimized its significance as a turning point in the long-term development of the English joint-stock company.
The Shoe That Didn't Drop: Explaining Banking Stability During the Great Depression
Authors: Grossman Richard S.
Published: September 2009

This article attempts to account for the exceptional stability exhibited by the banking systems of Britain, Canada, and ten other countries during the Great Depression. It considers three possible explanations of stability—the structure of the commercial banking system, macroeconomic policy and performance, and lender of last resort behavior—employing data from 25 countries across Europe and North America. The results suggest that macroeconomic policy—especially exchange-rate policy—and banking structure, but not lenders of last resort, were systematically responsible for banking stability.
World War II Fiscal Policies and the End of the Great Depression
Authors: Vernon J. R.
Published: September 2009

The United States economy completed its recovery from the Great Depression in 1942, restoring full-employment output in that year after 12 years of below-full-employment performance. Fiscal policies were not the most important factor in the 1933 through 1940 phase of the recovery, but they became the most important factor after 1940, when the recovery was less than half-complete. World War II fiscal policies were, then, instrumental in the overall restoration of full-employment performance.
Globalization, Convergence, and History
Authors: Williamson Jeffrey G.
Published: September 2009

There were three epochs of growth experience after the mid-nineteenth century for what is now called the OECD “club”: the late nineteenth century, the middle years between 1914 and 1950, and the late twentieth century. The first and last epochs were ones of overall fast growth, globalization, and convergence. The middle years were ones of overall slow growth, deglobalization, and divergence. Thus history offers an unambiguous positive correlation between globalization and convergence. When the pre-World War I years are examined in detail, the correlation turns out to be causal: globalization playedthecritical role in contributing to convergence.
The Debasement Puzzle: An Essay on Medieval Monetary History
Authors: Rolnick Arthur J. , Velde François R. , Weber Warren E.
Published: September 2009

We establish several facts about medieval monetary debasements: they were followed by unusually large minting volumes and by increased seigniorage; old and new coins circulated concurrently; and, at least some of the time, coins were valued by weight. These facts constitute a puzzle because debasements provide no additional inducements to bring coins to the mint. On theoretical and empirical grounds, we reject explanations based on by-tale circulation, nominal contracts, and sluggish price adjustment. We conclude that debasements pose a challenge to monetary economics.
The Durable Experiment: State Insurance of Workers' Compensation Risk in the Early Twentieth Century
Authors: Fishback Price V. , Kantor Shawn Everett
Published: September 2009

In the early 1910s state governments debated the private versus public underwriting of workers' compensation risk. The choices they made established the existing system today and set the stage for later debates over the government's underwriting of unemployment, health, and disability risks. This article offers both quantitative and case-study analyses of states' original choices between public and private insurance. Monopoly state funds were adopted in some states because of an unusual combination of strong unions and weak insurance and agricultural interests. In other states, the emergence of progressive political coalitions played the decisive role.
The French Crime of 1873: An Essay on the Emergence of the International Gold Standard, 1870–1880
Authors: Flandreau Marc
Published: September 2009

This article attempts to provide a new view of how the bimetallic standard was maintained before 1873 and how it came to change into a monometallic gold standard between 1870 and 1880. The conventional view that the gold standard emerged out of the contradictions of bimetallism is not persuasive. Instead, this article claims that bimetallism might have survived and provides an alternative explanation of the emergence of the gold standard. Political and historical factors proved essential in precipitating the uncoordinated emergence of the international gold standard.
Endogenous Innovation, Trend Growth, and the British Industrial Revolution: Reply to Greasley and Oxley
Authors: Crafts N. F. R. , Mills Terence C.
Published: September 2009

David Greasley and Les Oxley provide an interesting but ultimately unconvincing chalenge to the perspective on the British Industrial Revolution that we have set out in recent articles1. We believe that the issues that they raise are important and deserve a full response. Thus, we take the opportunity to clarify ideas on growth theory and its implications for growth accounting, to review the econometrics of estimating trend growth in an economy undergoing structural change, and to reconsider the persuasiveness of different views of the nature of technological change in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Metropolitan Development, Regional Financial Centers, and the Founding of the Fed in the Lower South
Authors: Odell Kerry A. , Weiman David F.
Published: September 2009

The Lower South remained a financial outlier in postbellum America, partly because it lacked developed metropolises. As focal points of regional economic networks, metropolises spawn externalities necessary for financial intermediaries. This cumulative process was constrained in the Lower South by the plantation system and staple monoculture. Only after 1880 did metropolitan networks form around new wholesale distribution centers, notably Atlanta and Dallas. Unlike coastal ports, these cities mediated more diverse commercial and financial transactions and attracted more correspondent banks. Consequently, Atlanta and Dallas were the most likely Federal Reserve cities in their districts, a view shared by local banks.
The Late Medieval Bullion Famine Reconsidered
Authors: Sussman Nathan
Published: September 2009

The bullion famine, manifested in chronic balance-of-payments deficits with the East, is widely cited as the cause of the great depression of the Renaissance. Adapting the monetary approach to the balance-of-payments model to the medieval commodity money setting this article shows that western Europe could not suffer a balance-of-payments deficits and bullion shortage simultaneously. New data show that it is unlikely that France suffered a shortage of silver from 1360 to 1415. Minting volumes diverged between regions according to economic fortunes. Excess silver stocks were likely hoarded rather than exported.
Labourers at the Oakes: Changes in the Demand for Female Day-Laborers at a Farm near Sheffield During the Agricultural Revolution
Authors: Burnette Joyce
Published: September 2009

The wage book of a Derbyshire farm, which includes payments to laborers for 1772 to 1775 and 1831 to 1845, allows me to examine the employment patterns of male and female day-laborers at this farm before and after important innovations in agriculture. I find a fall in relative female employment which appears to be due to a fall in demand. Male employment shifted to the spring, but female employment maintained the same seasonal pattern. These seasonal and sexual shifts in the demand for labor probably resulted from the changes in animal husbandry that followed enclosure.
The Civil Rights Revolution as Economic History
Authors: Wright Gavin
Published: September 2009

This address urges Americanists to take the post–World War II era on board as economic history, using the Civil Rights Revolution to set an example. The speed and sweepof the movement's success illustrates the dynamics of an “unanticipated revolution” as analyzed by Timur Kuran, to be grouped with famous historical surprises such as the triumph of British antislavery and the fall of Soviet communism. The evidence confirms that the breakthroughs of the 1960s constituted an economic as well as a political revolution, in many respects an economic revolution for the entire southern region, as well as for African-Americans.
Why Nations Fail: Managerial Decisions and Performance in Indian Cotton Textiles, 1890–1938
Authors: Wolcott Susan , Clark Gregory
Published: September 2009

Between 1890 and 1938 Japan experienced rapid economic growth. India stagnated. This national divergence was reflected in the performance of both countries' leading modern industiy, cotton textiles. The parallels between national and industry performance suggest the problems of the Indian textile industry may have been those of India as a whole. Weak management is widely blamed for poor performance in textiles. An analysis of managerial decisions in Bombay shows, however, that on all measurable dimensions Indian managers performed as well as they could. The problem instead was one factor they could not change—the effort levels of Indian workers.
Clogs to Clogs in Three Generations? Explaining Entrepreneurial Performance in Britain Since 1850
Authors: Nicholas Tom
Published: September 2009

Research into sculture and entrepreneurship in Britain has been dominated by casual empiricism. This article shows the benefits of using a new method. Lifetime wealth accumulation is specified as a measure of entrepreneurial performance, and applied to data collected from dictionaries of business biography. Industry, region, and religious dissent are ruled out as explanations of entrepreneurial performance. Education and entrepreneurial type are the important predictors. Firm inheritors and those receiving a high-status education experienced relatively low lifetime rates of wealth accumulation. Firm founders, managers, and individuals with a lower-status education were comparatively successful.
Monetary Innovation in America
Authors: Sylla Richard
Published: September 2009

Monetary innovation, the development of new forms of money, has not received much systematic study from economic historians. This essay presents a framework for analyzing the determinants of monetary innovation and illustrates the argument by means of a sketch of monetary innovation in America from colonial times to the present.
Induced Innovation and Economic Performance in Late Victorian British Industry
Authors: Phillips William H.
Published: September 2009

Previous “new” economic history research on late Victorian Britain often assumes that technology was exogenous to British entrepreneurs. Foreign innovations were available for inspection, and if they were not found suitable, there was no way to adapt new techniques to the British situation. Alternatively, one can assert that technological failure is a key issue in any study of retarded economic performance. A test for the presence of induced innovation—an endogenous theory of technological change—is applied to the British pig iron and cotton textile industries. Results are compared to other technological studies of British and American industry.
Mechanization and North American Prairie Farm Costs 1896–1930
Authors: Dick Trevor J. O.
Published: September 2009

This paper attempts to document and account for cost savings on North American small-grain prairie farms in the early twentieth century. Costs of production are analyzed using the ex post price and yield data abundantly available. Cost conjectures are developed and compared with scattered farm data that itemize inputs and reveal some aspects of farming technique. Total costs per acre, despite year to year fluctuations, appear to have fallen gradually over the entire period consistent with a comprehensive and continuous learning process, rather than only suddenly in the late 1920s when there was a marked increase in the sales of gasoline-powered farm machinery.
The 1807–1809 Embargo Against Great Britain
Authors: Frankel Jeffrey A.
Published: September 2009

The lack of success of the 1807–1809 Embargo by the United States has generally been attributed, first, to a lack of effective enforcement, and, second, to an inability to inflict greater economic damage on Great Britain than was suffered by the United States. This paper challenges both explanations. It is argued, first, that the Embargo did effectively reduce both countries to autarky. It is argued, second, that in autarky the relative price in Britain of agricultural products that had previously been imported rose by more than the relative price in the United States of manufactured goods that had previously been imported.
Contractual Mix in Southern Agriculture since the Civil War: Facts, Hypotheses, and Tests
Authors: Alston Lee J. , Higgs Robert
Published: September 2009

In the South after 1865, workers and property owners employed a variety of contracts—wage payment, crop sharing, and land rental—to bring together cooperating resources in agricultural production. The contractual mix varied over time and space, depending on the relative resource endowments of the contracting parties, the prevailing risk conditions, and the transactions costs of alternative contractual arrangements. To understand the contractual mix, certain empirical distinctions must be made, and the major hypotheses advanced to explain the mix must be seen as complementary rather than mutually exclusive. These hypotheses, however, differ in their demonstrated ability to account for the empirical variance. In addition to factual clarification and theoretical explication, the paper presents a new sample of plantation data and a new econometric procedure for performing more detailed and better controlled tests of hypotheses.
Mergers, External Growth, and Finance in the Development of Large-Scale Enterprise in Germany, 1880–1913
Authors: Tilly Richard
Published: September 2009

The external growth of a sample of large German enterprises for the 1880–1913 period is here investigated. External growth, defined as acquisition of existing firms and measured by the reported value of their assets, is found to have accounted for no more than one-fifth of average overall enterprise growth in the period. An examination of individual examples, however, reveals that external growth was frequently decisive for the growth of survivor enterprises and, in some sectors, a significant contributor to concentration. Some quantitative tests suggest that financial factors, and particularly stock prices, significantly influenced external growth. The paper concludes by comparing German with British and American findings.
Women, Children, and Industrialization in the Early Republic: Evidence from the Manufacturing Censuses
Authors: Goldin Claudia , Sokoloff Kenneth
Published: September 2009

Manufacturing firm data for 1820 to 1850 are employed to investigate the role of women and children in the industrialization of the American Northeast. The principal findings include: (1) Women and children composed a major share of the entire manufacturing labor force; (2) their employment was closely associated with production processes used by large establishments, both mechanized and non-mechanized; (3) the wage of females (and boys) increased relative to that of men with industrial development; and (4) female labor force participation in industrial counties was substantial. These findings bear on the nature of technical change during early industrialization and why American industrial development was initially concentrated in the Northeast.
Was Russian Peasant Agriculture Really That Impoverished? New Evidence from a Case Study from the “Impoverished Center” at the End of the Nineteenth Century
Authors: Wilbur Elvira M.
Published: September 2009

The mainstream of Russian historiographical studies holds that at the turn of the century peasant economic conditions were in a state of near collapse. In one of the poorest parts of the empire three measures of that economic impoverishment were seriously in error: draft animals were incompletely inventoried, and the meanings of both land leasing and fallow reductions were misinterpreted. These methodological errors have systematically distorted prevailing discussions about the wealth and poverty of peasant farms in Voronezh. Accumulating evidence is beginning to suggest reopening the question of the severity of the Russian “agrarian crisis” on the eve of the Revolution of 1917.
Differentiating between the Living Standards of Husbands and Wives in Two-Wage-Earner Families, 1968 and 1979
Authors: Spalter-Roth Roberta M.
Published: September 2009

This paper applies a feminist analysis to the measurement of living standards during the 1970s. It suggests that widely made assumptions of homogeneous pooling and redistribution of income, labor, and expenditures within families mask inequalities and uneven changes in the living standards of wage-working husbands and wives. Two waves of the Panel Study of Income dynamics are used to create two rough indicators, that is, reproduction pay and surplus, to test for inequalities and uneven changes in 1968 and again in 1979. In general, the findings show differential living standards between husbands and wives when assumptions of homogeneous pooling and redistribution are not made. The paper concludes that the suggested rough indicators are useful for the measurement of living standards.
From Shafts to Wires: Historical Perspective on Electrification
Authors: Devine Warren D.
Published: September 2009

The shift from steam to electric power in manufacturing is recounted. Between 1880 and 1930 the production and distribution of mechanical power rapidly evolved from water and steam prime movers with shaft and belt drive systems to electric motors that drove individual machines. The use of electricity reduced the energy required to drive machinery, but more important, enabled industry to obtain greater output per unit of capital and labor input.Reduced energy needs and increased productivity in manufacturing influenced the relationship between energy consumption and gross national product in the first three decades of the twentieth century.
Arable Productivity in Medieval England: Some Evidence from Norfolk
Authors: Campbell Bruce M. S.
Published: September 2009

Statistics on crop yields for the period 1268–1430 from 62 demesnes in the eastern half of Norfolk are used to demonstrate a new method of measuring arable productivity. The method takes into account seeding rates, the frequency of cropping, and the relative importance of the different crops grown, and it acknowledges the existence of different farming regions. Within eastern Norfolk two such regions are shown to have existed, which cut right across estate affiliations and had radically different productivities. The wider implications of these findings are then discussed.
Industrial Organization and Regional Development in Interwar Britain
Authors: Heim Carol E.
Published: September 2009

Developments in industrial organization contributed to the lack of diversification in Britain's older industrial areas during the interwar period. The large-scale firm had not yet developed in appropriate industries to the point where large numbers of branch plants could be sent to the depressed areas (as they were after World War II), even if interwar macroeconomic policy had been more expansionary. At the industry level, barriers to new entrants and restrictive practices were high in the 1930s, precisely the period when the need for structural change in the depressed areas was most apparent.