This paper studies the way workers and firms behaved in a highly cyclical sector such as the cotton textile industry, which encompassed 1/5 of the Catalan industrial workforce in the early 20th century. Using firm level evidence from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the paper shows that,...

New data on individual worker’s outputs show that New England ring spinners exhibited substantial on the job learning c. 1905. Despite this, variable capital-labour ratios meant high labour turnover reduced aggregate labour productivity only fractionally. The combination of variable...

[...]We begin by explaining the three most commoncategories of value-at-risk models—equally weighted movingaverage approaches, exponentially weighted movingaverage approaches, and historical simulation approaches.Although within these three categories many differentapproaches exist, for the...

[...]This article has two objectives: to examine theforces responsible for the declining role of traditionalbanking in the United States as well as in other countries,and to explore the implications of this decline and banks’responses to it for financial stability and regulatory policy.A key...

We consider a general equilibrium model with frictions in credit markets used by households. Inour economy, houses provide housing services to consumers and serve as collateral to lower borrowingcost.We show that this amplifies and propagates the effect of monetary policy shocks on...

After liberalizing international transactions of financial assets, many countries experiencelarge swings in asset prices, capital flows, and aggregate production. This paper studies howthe adjustment to capital account liberalization depends upon the degree of development of adomestic financial...

Traditional theories of the origins of the welfare state have emphasized the financial weakness of Britain’s largest provider of mutual insurance in the late 19th century, the friendly societies. These theories share common implications with contemporary theories of institutional change...

By analysing a newly compiled database of exchange rates, this paper finds that Central European financial integration advanced in a cyclical fashion over the fifteenth century. The cycles were associated with changes in the money supply. Long-distance financial integration progressed in...

[...]This paper analyses these debates using the case study of the Netherlands in the early 1920s. The literature argues that it is during this decade that the Netherlands experienced her one and only traditional banking crisis from 1600 to the present day, and after which her short-lived...

This study examines a problem of fiscal deficits based on the Ottoman budget of 1275 A.H. (March 1859–February 1860).1 In this period, state debt amassed rapidly due to increased market loans abroad. In order to evaluate the credibility of the Ottoman government for a new loan, Lord Hobart and...