bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Quality of Services in Company Towns: Sanitation in Coal Towns During the 1920s
Authors: Fishback Price V. , Lauszus Dieter
Published: September 2009

Coal company towns were infamous, being described as exploitive, and charged with providing low-quality services, like sanitation. Yet, the quality of sanitation in coal towns in 1922 appears similar to that in cities of similar size, although lagging behind that in major cities. Within the coal region, company and independent towns provided similar levels of sanitation. The quality of sanitation in company towns varied in response to cost-related factors, including town age, population, and natural location. Meanwhile, workers were mobile and demanded compensating increases in wage rates in towns with lower-quality sanitation and higher rents.
What Did Merchants Do? Reflections on British Overseas Trade, 1660–1790
Authors: Price Jacob M.
Published: September 2009

The relative dynamism of English and Scottish foreign trade from 1675 to 1775 can largely be explained by the interrelated phenomena of the growing domestic demand for American and Asian consumer goods and North European raw materials; the growing market in northern and western Europe for re-exports of American and Asian consumables; and the growing protected market for British manufactures in the American colonies and Africa. Trade growth depended on development of a wide variety of credit practices, supported primarily by big wholesalers and export merchants. Wholesalers and merchants also accounted for important institutional innovations.
The Integration of Regional and Interregional Capital Markets: Evidence from the Pacific Coast, 1883–1913
Authors: Odell Kerry A.
Published: September 2009

The literature on national capital market integration in nineteenth-century America has overlooked the role of markets at a regional level. Such markets were important in reducing the possible burden of isolation by efficiently recycling local savings, and in promoting eventual integration into a national financial market. This article presents evidence that a commercial market centered on San Francisco extended into the Pacific Coast states and formed the basis for a regional financial market. The degree of market integration is measured through tests of interest rate covariability and convergence.
Interest Rate Controls: The United States in the 1940s
Authors: Toma Mark
Published: September 2009

In 1942 the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve agreed to keep the interest rate on long-term government bonds below a ceiling of 2.5 percent. Assuming rational expectations, the ceiling on long-term interest rates can be viewed as a government commitment to low long-run inflation. The Fed also agreed to buy and sell short-term government bonds at a below-market rate of 3/8 percent. This policy did not result in long-run inflation because it was narrowly confined to 3-month Treasury bills.
City-Farm Wage Gaps in Late Nineteenth-Century France
Authors: Sicsic Pierre
Published: September 2009

Wage gaps between farm and city are used to assess whether industrialization in late nineteenth-century France was choked off by peasants' alleged reluctance to move. If industry suffered due to labor scarcity, wage gaps should have been large and rising. It turns out that the wage gap, when adjusted for costs of living and computed as an average of 20 regional wage gaps, was nil in 1852 and about 25 percent in 1892. Thus wage gaps were rising but were far smaller throughout the late nineteenth century than they were in England during similar stages of industrialization.
External Dependence, Demographic Burdens, and Argentine Economic Decline After the Belle Époque
Authors: Taylor Alan M.
Published: September 2009

Once one of the richest countries in the world, Argentina has been in relative economic decline for most of the twentieth century. The quantitative records of income growth and accumulation date the onset of the retardation to around the time of the Great War, and patterns of aggregate saving and foreign borrowing show that scarcity of investable resources significantly frustrated interwar development. A demographic model of national saving demonstrates that the burdens of rapid population growth and substantial immigration depressed Argentine saving, contributing significantly to the demise of theBelle Époquefollowing the wartime collapse of international financial markets.
The Demand for Consumer Durables in the United Kingdom in the Interwar Period
Authors: Bowden Sue , Turner Paul
Published: September 2009

Distinct diffusion curves are identified by model type and significant differences in regional motor car ownership in the interwar U.K. economy. We assess the viability of applying mass production strategies such as Ford and General Motors pursued in America. Given the demand-side constraints present in the U.K. market, the price reductions made possible by the exploitation of economies of scale were insufficient to create a mass market. Hence, the relatively low levels of ownership achieved can be seen as a rational response to the constraints perceived by firms.
On the Political Foundations of the Late Medieval Commercial Revolution: Genoa During the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries
Authors: Greif Avner
Published: September 2009

Although the late medieval Commercial Revolution is considered to be a watershed in the economic history of Europe, the analysis of the interrelationship between political and economic systems in bringing about this period of economic growth has been neglected. This article conducts such an analysis with respect to the city of Genoa during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Viewing political institutions as self-enforcing agreements rather than as exogenous rules, I present and analyze the nature and evolution of Genoa's political systems and the relations between these systems and economic growth.
Rural Credit Markets and Aggregate Shocks: The Experience of Nuits St. Georges, 1756–1776
Authors: Rosenthal Jean-Laurent
Published: September 2009

Using a complete enumeration of credit contracts for a rural area in Burgundy, this article examines how credit markets functioned and what role they served. Credit markets distributed funds to a large fraction of the population, and they were organized to mediate problems of asymmetric information. A central constraint on credit markets, however, was the threat of government intervention. Because of this threat, capital markets remained relatively isolated from one another.
Consistent Output Series for the Antebellum and Postbellum Periods: Issues and Preliminary Results
Authors: Calomiris Charles W. , Hanes Christopher
Published: September 2009

Existing output series that cover both the antebellum and postbellum periods are inconsistent and unsuitable for comparing cyclical patterns across the nineteenth century. More consistent data show that output in cyclically sensitive sectors was no less, and probably more, volatile before the War Between the States than after it.
Health and Labor Force Participation of Older Men, 1900–1991
Authors: Costa Dora L.
Published: September 2009

I use Body Mass Index (BMI) to investigate how the ralationship between health status and retirement among older men has changed since 1900. Although BMIs for the elderly were much less healthy in 1900 than today, the BMI level that maximizes labor force participation rates has not changed. However, in 1900 the elasticity of nonparticipation with respect to BMI was greater than it is today, suggesting that health is now less important to the retirement decision than in the past. Other factors (especially rising income) are more important than health in explaining the historical changes in retirement rates.
Protection Against a Capricious State: French Investment and Spanish Railroads, 1845–1875
Authors: Keefer Philip
Published: September 2009

Infrastructure construction is often associated with excessive, even corrupt, profits. This article argues that construction profits earned in Spanish railroads in the mid-nineteenth century were a response to the lack of credibility of the Spanish state. It also makes the first attempt to document excess construction profits in Spanish railroads by demonstrating, for example, financial links between railroad stockholders and the providers of construction goods and services and by directly estimating construction profits. The estimated excess construction profits only provided railroad entrepreneurs with a normal rate of return to their entire railroad-related investments.
African and European Bound Labor in the British New World: The Biological Consequences of Economic Choices
Authors: Coelho Philip R. P. , McGuire Robert A.
Published: September 2009

This article offers an explanation for the regional differences in the use of African and European bound labor in colonial America. The migrations of Africans and Europeans to the Americas set in motion an evolutionary process that caused regional changes in the disease ecology of the New World. Biological and epidemiological differences among populations explain the different regional labor supply choices. This article emphasizes the interactions between changing populations and disease environments. Diseases are intermediaries through which populations interact by causing illness and death. Not all populations are equally afflicted by specific diseases. Therein lies the story.
Is it Kosher to Talk about Culture?
Authors: Temin Peter
Published: September 2009

This address considers the role of culture in economic history. It argues that AngloSaxon culture was an important factor determining where and when industrialization began and spread. The contrast between Anglo-Saxon individualism and Japan’s more collective culture also is important in understanding the differences between Japanese and American industrial practices today. I predict that Japan’s collective culture may give it an economic edge in the coming years despite its current difficulties. And I advocate greater attention to culture by both economists and historians in the practice of economic history.
Profit Differentials Between Canadian and U.S. Commercial Banks: the Role of Regulation
Authors: Nichols Mark W. , Hendrickson Jill M.
Published: September 2009

Using annual data on nationally chartered U.S. and Canadian banks from 1929 to 1989, this article empirically evaluates the impact of various regulations on bank profitability. An intercountry comparison reveals that the less restrictive regulatory environment in Canada has historically resulted in higher bank profits. Specifically, higher leverage, greater securities investment and lending opportunities, and the freedom to establish branch units all significantly contribute to higher bank profitability in Canada. Evidence presented also shows that U.S. banks would have been more profitable over the sample period in a regulatory environment similar to Canada's.
The Determinants of the Wealth and Asset Holding in Nineteenth-Century Canada: Evidence from Microdata
Authors: Matteo Livio Di
Published: September 2009

Wealth and asset holding in late-nineteenth-century Ontario are examined using a new data set of census-linked probated decedents. Hump-shaped wealth-age profiles are found, supporting the importance of demographic and life cycle forces in late-nineteenth-century financial asset accumulation. With financial asset holding more pronounced in Ontario than Quebec, the implication for Canadian economic development is that the differences in capital formation and industrialization across Ontario and Quebec are partly rooted in saving behavior. The results show that urbanization, occupational status, literacy, the number of children, and region of residence are important determinants of wealth and asset holding.
Time and Work in Eighteenth-Century London
Authors: Voth Hans-Joachim
Published: September 2009

Witnesses' accounts are used to analyze changes in working hours between 1750 and 1800. Two findings stand out. The article demonstrates that the information contained in witnesses' accounts allows us to reconstruct historical time-budgets and provides extensive tests of the new method. Estimates of annual labor input in 1749/63 and 1799/1803 are presented. It emerges that the number of annual working hours changed rapidly between the middle and the of the eighteenth century. These findings have important implications for the issue of total factor productivity during the Industrial Revolution.
Learning and the Creation of Stock-Market Institutions: Evidence from the Royal African and Hudson's Bay Companies, 1670–1700
Authors: Carlos Ann M. , Key Jennifer , Dupree Jill L.
Published: September 2009

In this article we use a unique source—a 30-year time series of the share transactions of two joint-stock companies—to examine the growth of the London capital market prior to and immediately after the Glorious Revolution. We argue that the London experience with open capital markets was not solely the result of 1689. Rather it was the learning by private individuals and goldsmith bankers which took place in the decades before 1689 that allowed the market to take full advantage of the property rights changes which occurred with the change in regimes.
The “Rabassa Morta” in Catalan Viticulture: The Rise and Decline of a Long-Term Sharecropping Contract, 1670s–1920s
Authors: Carmona Juan , Simpson James
Published: September 2009

For long periods, and in line with recent theoretical literature, therabassa mortasharecropping contract successfully reduced problems of moral hazard and opportunistic behavior, and provided incentives for sharecroppers to respond to market opportunities. However, from the late nineteenth century, technical change, rising wages, and weak wine prices all increased the incentives for postcontractual opportunistic behavior on the part of the sharecropper, leading to conflicts and loss of trust between the principal and agent.
“Horn of Plenty”: The Globalization of Mediterranean Horticulture and the Economic Development of Southern Europe, 1880–1930
Authors: Critz José Morilla , Olmstead Alan L. , Rhode Paul W.
Published: September 2009

During the late nineteenth century, competition from cheap American grains undermined agricultural economies across Europe. This article investigates how similar forces of globalization in the production of Mediterranean fruits and nuts dampened economic prospects across southern Europe and in some cases contributed to outright economic and political crises.
Grain Storage in Early Modern Europe
Authors: Ejrnaes Mette , Persson Karl Gunnar
Published: September 2009

Scholars have long held strong views about the nature and extent of grain storage in early modern Europe. Direct evidence on the issue is quite poor and inconclusive.1 Randall Nielsen's ambitious attempt at solving the problem in a recent issue of this JOURNAL therefore deserves serious attention.2 Like others before him, Nielsen uses inferences from price behavior in assessing the nature of grain storage. Nielsen identifies three distinguishing implications of profit-maximizing storage for grain price structure.
Agricultural Protection in Wilhelminian Germany: Forging an Empire with Pork and Rye
Authors: Webb Steven B.
Published: September 2009

During the last two decades of the nineteenth century protection for agriculture became an important feature of the economic and political landscape in Germany. The large landlords, who specialized in arable agriculture, used their political power to get high levels of protection. Peasants, who specialized in animal husbandry, received lower but substantial and rising levels of protection. Material interest can thus help explain the peasants' political alliance with the landlords. Protection encouraged German agriculture to modernize along intensive lines, bringing to the countryside the social and political developments dreaded by the same conservative elites who promoted protection.
Manpower Needs for the Public Works Programs of the Julio-Claudian Emperors
Authors: Thornton M. K. , Thornton R. L.
Published: September 2009

The paper quantifies the relative manpower costs of the public building programs of the Julio-Claudian emperors of Rome from 29 b.c. to a.d. 68. We used both literary and archaeological sources for obtaining our data. Upon charting the data we discovered that the manpower needs show two peaks, one between 12 b.c. and 3 b.c., the other from a.d. 38–51.
The Effect of the 1859 Crop Year Upon Relative Productivity in the Antebellum Cotton South
Authors: Schaefer Donald F.
Published: September 2009

Data from the manuscript census of Social Statistics and the Parker-Gallman sample are used to investigate (1) the role of yield fluctuations (the crop year) in both the growth of cotton and corn output from 1849 to 1859 and (2) the observed relative agricultural total factor productivity relationships in the antebellum South in 1859. The major conclusions are: (1) More than 20 percent of the growth in cotton output from 1849 to 1859 can be attributed to differences in the relative crop years; (2) The 1859 cotton crop year for the New South was much better than that in 1849, but the cotton crop year in the Old South was relatively poor; (3) Adjusting for the relative crop year eliminates much of the observed productivity advantage for slave agriculture; (4) The issue of whether the crop-year-adjusted or crop-year-unadjusted results are more representative of antebellum southern agriculture remains unresolved.
The Birth of the Old Federalism: Financing the New Deal, 1932–1940
Authors: Wallis John Joseph
Published: September 2009

The relative importance of federal and local government was reversed between 1932 and 1940. This changing composition of government expenditures by level of government accounts for the rise of “big” government during the Depression. State governments expanded their fiscal activity, maintaining their share of total government expenditures. Utilizing data on federal grants and state and local expenditures, I find that the relative decline of local governments and sustained growth of state governments can be explained by the financial and administrative provisions of the federal New Deal programs.
Mortality on Immigrant Voyages to New York, 1836–1853
Authors: Cohn Raymond L.
Published: September 2009

The first systematic estimates of mortality on immigrant ships are presented in the paper. From passenger lists of immigrant arrivals, a sample of 1077 ships that arrived at New York between 1836 and 1853 was obtained and analyzed. Immigrants died at a rate of about 10 per thousand boarded per month with a significantly higher rate for 1849. Mortality was found to vary by sex, port of origin, and season of arrival. No significant variation was found between mortality and the following variables: crowding, nationality of the immigrant, and year of arrival.
Cheap Coals or Limitation of the Vend? The London Coal Trade, 1770–1845
Authors: Hausman William J.
Published: September 2009

An econometric model is here used to estimate the price and output effect of the Limitation of the Vend, a mineowners' cartel. It is found that when a formal regulation existed the price of coal rose significantly in the London market, whereas there was little output effect. The price effect was relatively small, however, especially when compared to the per unit tax on coal. Although the cartel was deemed to be successful, the existence of substantial monopoly profits was questioned.
Planning the French Canals: The “Becquey Plan” of 1820–1822
Authors: Geiger Reed
Published: September 2009

France's canal age was largely the outgrowth of the plan proposed by François Becquey, the state administrator who orchestrated a successful campaign to convince influential Frenchmen that a nationwide canal network was one of the essential tasks of their generation. As Becquey originally conceived his plan, canal building would directly contribute to economic growth and help foster a spirit of business enterprise. In the end he had to settle for a scheme under which the government paid a steep price to a handful of financial consortia for the right to assume all the risks and costs of building and operating the system itself.
The Role of the British Government in the Spread of Scientific Management and Fordism in the Interwar Years
Authors: Lewchuk Wayne A.
Published: September 2009

The slowness with which British firms adopted Scientific Management and Fordism has often been noted.The paper argues that in Britain, management had difficulty controlling labor effort norms after 1870. The state intervened to resolve the issue and in the process became a major proponent of industrial democracy. It is argued that the early interest in industrial democracy retarded the adoption of American methods that assumed a greater degree of managerial control over factory organization.
Structural Transformation and the Demand for New Labor in Advanced Economies: Interwar Britain
Authors: Heim Carol E.
Published: September 2009

In prosperous and depressed areas sectors of industry representing structural transformation in interwar Britain tended to draw upon new types of workers rather than upon workers displaced in declining export industries. Data on the age and sex composition of people in expanding and declining industries, on new entrants to the labor force, and on interindustry mobility are examined to support this claim. The process reflects a general tendency of capitalist economies to grow through incorporation of new elements.
New Estimates of the Money Stock in France, 1493–1680
Authors: Glassman Debra , Redish Angela
Published: September 2009

The money stock in France from 1493 to 1680 has not been well understood. Changes in the money stock have usually been represented by moving sums of annual mint output. Mint output, however, included large amounts of recoinage, resulting in double-counting. A model of mint output is estimated to determine the amount of recoinage. The money stock estimates are also improved by incorporating a constant rate of loss of coins.
Productivity Growth in Obsolescence: Charcoal Iron Revisited
Authors: Inwood Kris
Published: September 2009

The technology of charcoal iron manufacture in late nineteenth-century Canada is examined in this paper. Use of a super-heated and hard-driven furnace blast contributed to a resurgence of production after 1890. A lag in the diffusion of these techniques is explained by the small size of the Canadian market. Contrasts are noted with charcoal iron smelting in several regions of the United States.
Medieval Workshop: Toward a Theory of Consumption and Economic Change
Authors: Stuard Susan Mosher
Published: September 2009

This workshop addressed a question of concern to medieval economic history for over a generation. Frederic C. Lane called for a theory of consumption, and Carlo Cipolla and Robert Lopez have encouraged a more thorough investigation of the role of demand. Because demand is sometimes understood in terms of needs and of taste, it is often subsumed under the heading of social history, which characterizes and describes, while economic analysis has centered on studies of supply, with their more precise and quantifiable parameters.Will the largely descriptive tools at our disposal help us to understand how demand affected the early-modern economy? The workshop considered demand for goods and services and demand for money. The first three papers addressed the Mediterranean south, and the last three focused upon Europe north of the Alps.
Special Interests and the Adoption of the Income Tax in the United States
Authors: Baack Bennett D. , Ray Edward John
Published: September 2009

Perhaps no single element involved with the rapid assumption of economic power by the federal government was more important than the passage of the income tax, the means by which the increasing role of government was financed. We explain the political and economic interests that came together to successfully pass the income tax, and we provide extensive empirical evidence regarding the determinants of the passage of the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
Monetary Theory and Roman History
Authors: De Cecco Marcello
Published: September 2009

In the study of Roman money Theodore Mommsen remains 135 years after his work a towering figure, more pragmatic than theoretical in his economics, yet still sound. He saw the politics in monetary history, and especially its connection with the strength of the state. His view is more penetrating than MV = PT, fashionable in twentieth-century scholarship on Rome. And it is better economics than offered by the Polanyi School as the alternative line of analysis. The Polanyists infer an absence of a Roman monetary system from the failure of some part to be as sophisticated as the best. On the contrary, the Roman monetary system does not look so different from that of Europe since Mommsen wrote, uneven in its use of monetary devices, but sensibly so.
Inequality and Childhood Mortality: a Comparison of England and Wales, 1911, and the United States, 1900
Authors: Haines Michael R.
Published: September 2009

An index of childhood mortality is proposed as a good measure of socioeconomic well-being and inequality. The index is used to investigate the relationship between childhood mortality and occupation and income of parents. The sources consist of the 1900 United States Census public-use sample and the published 1911 Census of Marriage and Fertility of England and Wales. Results revealed more inequality in mortality and income across social-class groupings in England and Wales than in the United States. The outcome arose more because of relatively higher childhood mortality for white-collar groups in the United States than because of a better situation for blue-collar groups.
The Condition of England and the Standard of Living: Cotton Textiles in the Northwest, 1806–1850
Authors: Brown John C.
Published: September 2009

This article examines the workers' standard of living in the cotton textile industry of Northwest England from 1806 to 1850. Hedonic earnings regressions using 1835 data suggest that power-loom weavers required substantial compensation for the high rents and poor sanitation of urban locations. Adjusting earnings in the factory sector for the impact of urbanization cuts growth in living standards by 10 percent, or up to one-quarter of gains realized by 1850. Inclusion of those employed in the handloom sector implies that any improvements in the living standards of all workers in the industry appeared only during the 1840s.
The Value of Household Labor in Antebellum Northern Agriculture
Authors: Craig Lee A.
Published: September 2009

This article estimates the contribution of farm household members to agricultural output in the antebellum northern United States. I reject the hypothesis that children contributed more in the least settled regions. The contribution of young children and teenage females was greatest in the Old Northwest; teenage boys made their largest contribution in the Northeast. In the Midwest young males and females performed the same tasks, namely market production and land clearing, but in the Northeast males were more likely to specialize in market production and females in household production.
The Transformation of Industrial Apprenticeship in the United States
Authors: Jacoby Daniel
Published: September 2009

Between the 1880s and 1930s, apprenticeship was transformed from an institution dominated by employers to one dominated by unions. Prior to this transformation, employers leveraged their ability to hire, fire, and discipline at will by requiring apprentices to post forfeitable performance bonds. Despite their financial interest in the resolution of contract disputes, employers who withheld employees' bonds judged their own cases. Agency theory helps explain the use and abuse of bonding schemes and their role in the subsequent transformation of apprenticeship.
The French Revolution and the Politics of Government Finance, 1770–1815
Authors: White Eugene Nelson
Published: September 2009

Although largely neglected in most histories of the French Revolution, the central government’s persistent budget deficit was a factor of paramount importance. The fiscal crisis inherited from the monarchy defied solution because of the war of attrition fought by economic interest groups. The struggle produced radical changes in macroeconomic policy to shift the burden of adjustment, altering the course of and prolonging the Revolution.
Women, Marital Status, and Work Opportunities in 1880 Colorado
Authors: Herr Elizabeth
Published: September 2009

This study uses a sample drawn from the 1880 Manuscript Census of Colorado to investigate the influence of individual and regional characteristics on the labor force participation rates of both single and married women in areas with different production characteristics. Results show that the determinants of labor force participation differ considerably for single and married women, but they also show strong consistency within each group. Labor force participation rates are also influenced by general economic and social conditions.
There Is Nothing Outside the Text, and There Is No Safety in Numbers: A Reply to Sullivan
Authors: O’Brien Patrick K. , Griffiths Trevor , Hunt Philip
Published: September 2009

Historians and economists have long been in need of index numbers to measure both the volume (real value) of activity that is undertaken to produce process or product innovations over time, and also a counterpart index that might capture the outcome of that activity (the volume of inventions) that come on stream year after year. For purposes of measurement the first index can in principle be equated (within tolerable limits of accuracy) with the real annual expenditures on research and development as recorded (at least for recent times) in governmental, corporate, company, and other accounts. Alas, for years before 1914 national or even industry-wide research and development expenditures are very rarely recorded in a form that might allow for the construction of an index number.
The Response of the Giant Corporations to Wage and Price Controls in World War II
Authors: Rockoff Hugh
Published: September 2009

This paper reexamines the extent to which the giant corporations cooperated with wage and price controls during World War II, an issue to which Galbraith first drew attention. Two forms of evidence are explored: a sample of court cases involving the Office of Price Administration and large corporations, and the monographs in which former administrators reflected on their wartime experiences. The conclusion is that the compliance record could be characterized as a good one, but that this achievement depended on the constraints on allocation and collective bargaining that existed during the war.
Taxes and Agrarian Life in Early Modern France: Land Sales, 1550–1730
Authors: Hoffman Philip T.
Published: September 2009

Between 1550 and 1730, privileged investors in France—nobles, officers, and wealthy merchants—bought up enormous quantities of land from peasants. The transfer of property has attracted considerable attention from historians, but it has never been satisfactorily explained. The paper invokes the tax exemptions the privileged enjoyed to account for the transfer—an explanation that fits both the chronology of the land sales and the identity of the purchasers. The paper then examines how the tax system throttled growth in the agricultural sector.
Occupational Segregation, Teachers' Wages, and American Economic Growth
Authors: Carter Susan B.
Published: September 2009

National, state, and individual-level data are used to explore the implications of the crowding of educated women into the teaching profession in nineteenth-century America. It is found that the more young women attended school, the lower were teacher wages and the price of educational services. Through this mechanism young women paid for their own education and, by lowering the price of educational services, helped America develop the best-educated population in the world by the century's end.
Economy and Society in an Earlier America
Authors: Bruchey Stuart
Published: September 2009

I suggest here that change in a number of social variables, including values, vertical mobility, political and social power, technology and law, appear to be associated with economic growth or decline and that the study of economic history would be enriched by investigations of the nature and timing of those linkages. Illustrative models of the linkages are drawn for the early Middle Ages in Western Europe and for the colonial and antebellum periods of American history.
Modern Business Enterprise as a Capital-Saving Innovation
Authors: Field Alexander J.
Published: September 2009

The introduction and diffusion of what Alfred Chandler called modern business enterprise had a profound capital-saving impact on the American economy. Given the availability of the railroad and telegraph, purchasing more managerial labor services paid off principally via increased speed of production and inventory turnover, which spread costs of holding capital over a larger volume of output. This article challenges the consensus that nineteenth- and early twentieth-century technological change in the United States was overwhelmingly labor saving and interprets the factor-saving bias of modern business enterprise as representative rather than anomalous.
Farmers and the Market in Antebellum America: A View from the Georgia Upcountry
Authors: Weiman David F.
Published: September 2009

The Upcountry of the Lower South was located on the periphery of the antebellum cotton economy, but some of its subregions were integrated into the market system in the 1850s. An analysis of sample counties in the Georgia Upcountry demonstrates that the spread of market production into the western half of the region depended on local development which created opportunities for diversified market production and increased household wealth through capital gains on improvements. The absence of market development in the eastern half of the region, in contrast, limited the wealth of farm households, reinforcing their economic isolation.
Price Discrimination and the Adoption of the Electricity Demand Charge
Authors: Neufeld John L.
Published: September 2009

Between 1905 and 1915, as state price regulation became widespread, electric utilities in the United States faced severe competition. The primary source of electricity for industry then was not utilities but self-generation by the user in an “isolated plant.” The demand-charge rate structure first became widespread during this period. The demand-charge rate structure has been interpreted as a misapplication of the peak-load pricing principle, a view which has made its popularity a puzzle. Instead it was adopted as a sophisticated mechanism which institutionalized profit-maximizing price discrimination given the competition from isolated plants.
The North American Fur Trade: Bargaining to a Joint Profit Maximum under Incomplete Information, 1804–1821
Authors: Carlos Ann M. , Hoffman Elizabeth
Published: September 2009

We examine bargaining between the Northwest Company and the Hudson's Bay Company using recent models of bargaining under incomplete information. Two previously undisturbed bodies of correspondence are analyzed: letters between the two companies and letters between the Hudson's Bay Company and its London committee. Through merger the companies achieved a joint maximum, but the lengthy and costly bargaining process dissipated much of the potential gain through depletion of animal stocks. Achievement of a joint maximum was hindered by incomplete information, commitment to a strategy which led to bargaining breakdowns, delineation of each party's rights under law, and environmental changes.
The Relative Informational Efficiency of Stocks and Bonds: An Intraday Analysis
Authors: Downing Chris , Underwood Shane , Xing Yuhang
Published: September 2009

In light of recent improvements in the transparency of the corporate bond market, we examine the relation between high frequency returns on individual stocks and bonds. In contrast to the authors of previous literature, we employ comprehensive transactions data for both classes of securities. We find that hourly stock returns lead bond returns for nonconvertible junk- and BBB-rated bonds, and that stock returns lead bond returns for convertible bonds in all rating classes. Most of the predictable nonconvertible bonds are issued by companies in financial distress, while the predictable convertible bonds are those with conversion options more deeply in-the-money. These results indicate that the corporate bond market is less informationally efficient than the stock market, notwithstanding the recent improvements in bond market transparency and associated reductions in corporate bond transaction costs.
Amygdala volume in a population with special educational needs at high risk of schizophrenia
Authors: Welch K. A. , Stanfield A. C. , Moorhead T. W. , Haga K. , Owens D. C. G. , Lawrie S. M. , Johnstone E. C.
Published: September 2009

Background

The mildly learning disabled population has a three-fold elevated risk for schizophrenia. It has been proposed that in some individuals this cognitive limitation is a pre-psychotic manifestation of early onset schizophrenia. We examined clinical and neuroanatomical measures of a putative extended phenotype of schizophrenia in an adolescent population receiving special educational assistance. We predicted that people with intellectual impairment and schizotypal features would exhibit amygdala volume reduction as one of the neuroanatomical abnormalities associated with schizophrenia.

Method

Assessment by clinical interview, neuropsychological assessment and magnetic resonance imaging scanning was carried out in 28 intellectually impaired individuals identified as being at elevated risk of schizophrenia due to the presence of schizotypal traits, 39 intellectually impaired controls and 29 non-intellectually impaired controls. Amygdala volume was compared in these three groups and the relationship between symptomatology and amygdala volume investigated.

Results

Right amygdala volume was significantly increased in the elevated risk group compared with the intellectually impaired controls (p=0.05). A significant negative correlation was seen between left amygdala volume and severity of negative symptoms within this group (p<0.05), but not in either control group.

Conclusions

Intellectually impaired subjects judged to be at elevated risk of schizophrenia on the basis of clinical assessment exhibit structural imaging findings which distinguish them from the generality of learning disabled subjects. Within this population reduced amygdala volume may be associated with negative-type symptoms and be part of an extended phenotype that reflects particularly elevated risk and/or early manifestations of the development of psychosis.
Hippocampal function in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder
Authors: Hall J. , Whalley H. C. , Marwick K. , McKirdy J. , Sussmann J. , Romaniuk L. , Johnstone E. C. , Wan H. I. , McIntosh A. M. , Lawrie S. M.
Published: September 2009

Background

The hippocampus plays a central role in memory formation. There is considerable evidence of abnormalities in hippocampal structure and function in schizophrenia, which may differentiate it from bipolar disorder. However, no previous studies have compared hippocampal activation in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder directly.

Method

Fifteen patients with schizophrenia, 14 patients with bipolar disorder and 14 healthy comparison subjects took part in the study. Subjects performed a face–name pair memory task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Differences in blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) activity were determined during encoding and retrieval of the face–name pairs.

Results

The patient groups showed significant differences in hippocampal and prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation during face–name pair learning. During encoding, patients with schizophrenia showed decreased anterior hippocampal activation relative to subjects with bipolar disorder, whereas patients with bipolar disorder showed decreased dorsal PFC activation relative to patients with schizophrenia. During retrieval, patients with schizophrenia showed greater activation of the dorsal PFC than patients with bipolar disorder. Patients with schizophrenia also differed from healthy control subjects in the activation of several brain regions, showing impaired superior temporal cortex activation during encoding and greater dorsal PFC activation during retrieval. These effects were evident despite matched task performance.

Conclusions

Patients with schizophrenia showed deficits in hippocampal activation during a memory task relative to patients with bipolar disorder. The disorders were further distinguished by differences in PFC activation. The results demonstrate that these disorders can distinguished at a group level using non-invasive neuroimaging.
Subthreshold symptoms and obsessive–compulsive disorder: evaluating the diagnostic threshold
Authors: de Bruijn C. , Beun S. , de Graaf R. , ten Have M. , Denys D.
Published: September 2009

Background

In this study we compared subjects with obsessive and/or compulsive symptoms who did not meet all criteria for obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) (subthreshold subjects) to subjects with full-blown OCD and also to subjects without obsessions or compulsions.

Method

The data were derived from the Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study (NEMESIS), a large representative sample of the general Dutch population (n=7076). Using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview, Version 1.1 (CIDI 1.1), three groups were distinguished: subjects without lifetime obsessions or compulsions (94.2%), subthreshold subjects (4.9%) and subjects with full-blown OCD according to DSM-III-R (0.9%). These three groups were compared on various items, including psychological vulnerability, health and functional status, psychiatric co-morbidity and seeking treatment.

Results

Subthreshold and OCD subjects had similar scores on the majority of the items measured. Thus, there was little difference between subthreshold and OCD subjects in health, functional status, psychological vulnerability and psychiatric co-morbidity. However, OCD and subthreshold subjects scored worse on most of these items when compared to the controls without obsessions or compulsions.

Conclusion

Having obsessions and compulsions is associated with substantial suffering and disability. Most subjects with obsessions and/or compulsions are not diagnosed with OCD according to the DSM-III-R criteria although these subjects generally display similar consequences to full-blown OCD subjects. We recommend that these subthreshold cases receive special attention in the development of DSM-V.
Neural correlates of ‘pessimistic’ attitude in depression
Authors: Herwig U. , Brühl A. B. , Kaffenberger T. , Baumgartner T. , Boeker H. , Jäncke L.
Published: September 2009

Background

Preparing for potentially threatening events in the future is essential for survival. Anticipating the future to be unpleasant is also a cognitive key feature of depression. We hypothesized that ‘pessimism’-related emotion processing would characterize brain activity in major depression.

Method

During functional magnetic resonance imaging, depressed patients and a healthy control group were cued to expect and then perceive pictures of known emotional valences – pleasant, unpleasant and neutral – and stimuli of unknown valence that could have been either pleasant or unpleasant. Brain activation associated with the ‘unknown’ expectation was compared with the ‘known’ expectation conditions.

Results

While anticipating pictures of unknown valence, activation patterns in depressed patients within the medial and dorsolateral prefrontal areas, inferior frontal gyrus, insula and medial thalamus were similar to activations associated with expecting unpleasant pictures, but not with expecting positive pictures. The activity within a majority of these areas correlated with the depression scores. Differences between healthy and depressed persons were found particularly for medial and dorsolateral prefrontal and insular activations.

Conclusions

Brain activation in depression during expecting events of unknown emotional valence was comparable with activation while expecting certainly negative, but not positive events. This neurobiological finding is consistent with cognitive models supposing that depressed patients develop a ‘pessimistic’ attitude towards events with an unknown emotional meaning. Thereby, particularly the role of brain areas associated with the processing of cognitive and executive control and of the internal state is emphasized in contributing to major depression.
Antidepressant study design affects patient expectancy: a pilot study
Authors: Rutherford B. , Sneed J. , Devanand D. , Eisenstadt R. , Roose S.
Published: September 2009

Background

Response to antidepressant medication is higher in comparator versus placebo-controlled randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Patient expectancy is an important influence on clinical outcome in the treatment of depression and may explain this finding. The results are reported from a pilot RCT studying expectancy and depression outcome in placebo-controlled versus comparator treatment conditions.

Method

Out-patients aged 18–65 years with major depressive disorder (MDD) were enrolled in this 8-week RCT. Subjects were randomized to placebo-controlled (escitalopram or placebo) or comparator (escitalopram or citalopram) administration of antidepressant medication. Subjects reported their expected likelihood and magnitude of depression improvement before and after randomization using questions from the Credibility and Expectancy Scale (CES). A regressed change model of post-randomization expectancy of improvement was fit to the data to determine whether subjects in the comparator group reported greater expectancies of improvement than subjects in the placebo-controlled group.

Results

Twenty subjects with mean age 56.5±11.7 years, a baseline Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) score of 24.2±5.3, baseline Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) score of 24.9±6.4 and baseline Clinical Global Impressions (CGI) – Severity score of 4.0±0.3 were enrolled in the study. Adjusting for other factors, the effect of group assignment on expected magnitude of improvement was significant and large (effect size 1.5). No group differences in expected likelihood of improvement were found.

Conclusions

Randomization to comparator versus placebo-controlled administration of antidepressant medication produced greater expectancies of how much patients would improve during the trial. This expectancy difference may explain the higher response and remission rates that are observed in comparator versus placebo-controlled trials.