All societies must deal with the possibility of violence, and they do so in different ways. This study integrates the problem of violence into a larger social science and historical framework, showing how economic and political behavior are closely linked ...

What determines risk-bearing capacity and the amount of leverage in financial markets? Using unique archival data on collateralized lending, we show that personal experience can affect individual risk-taking and aggregate leverage. When an investor syndicate speculating in Amsterdam in 1772 went...