We use data from an international sample of 349 British owned firms to analyze the effectiveness of the International Tea Agreements of 1930 and 1933. These agreements were effective in reducing output overall; however, there were significant regional differences in the extent of compliance,...

Using the US Commissioner of Labor Survey of 1890, we examine household decisions and parental altruism vis-a-vis their children. Contrary to Parsons and Goldin (1989), we find that parental location choices were dictated by constraints rather than the desire to exploit child labour...

We analyze the dynamics public and private sector employment, using the natural experiment provided by the partial privatization of the Bangladeshi jute industry. Although the public sector had substantial excess employment of workers initially, this excess was substantially eroded by the end of...

India fell further behind the UK in terms of GDP per capita and overall labour productivity between the 1870s and the 1970s, but has been catching-up since. This paper offers a sectoral analysis of these trends. Comparative India/UK labour productivity in agriculture has declined continuously,...

We analyze the dynamics of public and private sector employment, using the natural experiment provided by the partial privatization of the Bangladeshi jute industry. A differences-in-differences approach allows us to infer ownership effects. Although the public sector had substantial excess...

Contrary to the claims of Pomeranz, Parthasarathi, and other 'world historians', the prosperous parts of Asia between 1500 and 1800 look similar to the stagnating southern, central, and eastern parts of Europe rather than the developing north-western parts. In the advanced parts of India and...

This paper presents an empirical analysis of India's exports of manufactured items to the USA. The paper identifies items at the SITC 3-digit level of disaggregation which could be considered potential exports from India to the US and econometrically estimates the role of real exchange rates in...

Clark and Wolcott attribute the low productivity of Indian cotton textile workers to their preference for low work effort, and suggest that unions resisted an increase in work intensity. This article argues that low wages were due to surplus labour in agriculture. Low wages allowed the...