This paper addresses two issues. It documents the changes in the publication strategy of the members of the Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen over the last 50 years, away from a broad domestic audience to the international community of peers and scholars. From having been only...

This paper gives straightforward answers to complex problems. First it identifies the adverse affects of the high price volatility typical of segmented grain markets during the ancien régime. Extending a result in the modern literature on poverty and famines it is argued that price stability...

The lack of appropriate production data has hitherto hampered any attempt in estimating changes in labour productivity in pre-industrial economies. The method applied here estimates labour productivity by making inferences from available information on changes in the occupational structure,...

Over the 400 years covered by this study European grain markets became increasingly integrated as measured by the speed of adjustment back to equilibrium after a shock. Market integration smoothened local supply shocks and therefore generated price stability which can be seen as having a...

A formula is developed that enables labour productivity ranking of regions with minimum access to data. Furthermore, a probability approach is chosen in the use of uncertain information. Results indicate a productivity gap in favour of 14th century Italy compared to England.

Economic history in general and agrarian history in particular is seriously hampered by the lack of production and income data before the middle of the 19th century. Analysis of British agriculture therefore has to rely on indirect evidence. This paper discusses previous attempts and suggests a...

The paper analyzes the long century of deregulation of European grain markets. Eighteen century reformers won the intellectual battle as to the merits of laissez-faire markets for grain but failed to convince the angry crowds which were alerted by temporary increases in prices. Not until falling...

This paper argues that the appropriate standard for the analysis of commodity market integration is the transport cost adjusted law of one price. A threshold error correction model that incorporates that property is developed and applied to French wheat prices in the 19th century. This type of...

This paper argues that imperfectly informed consumers use simple signals to identify the characteristics of wine. The geographical denomination and vintage of a wine as well as the characteristics of a particular wine will be considered here. However, the specific characteristics of a wine are...

This paper looks at the gains from improved market efficiency in long-distance grain trade in the second half of the 19th century when violations of the law of one price were reduced due to improved information transmission. Two markets, a major export centre, Chicago, and a major importer,...