The public health literature focusing on the detrimental effects of social isolation has shown that the quantity of social connections is positively correlated with individual health. Drawing on pooled cross-sectional data, we test this hypothesis on a representative sample of the Italian...

Jewish emancipation in nineteenth century Europe produced drastically different responses. In Germany, a liberal variant known as Reform developed, while ultra-Orthodox Judaism emerged in eastern Europe. We develop a model of religious organization which explains this polarization. In developed...

This paper surveys the recent empirical literature on emerging stock markets of the last quarter of the 20th century and elaborates on its theoretical insights and empirical methods to design a research agenda on the “emergence†of equity markets in European peripheries before 1913. We...

Based on a freshly built data set and relying on a Bayesian Dynamic Factor Model, this paper constructs business cycle indices for five South-East European (SEE) countries (Austria(-Hungary), Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Serbia/Yugoslavia) to address two questions: to what extent has there been a...

This note analyzes the problem Captain MacWhirr faces in Joseph Conrad’s novel Typhoon as an implementation problem under incomplete information. We identify a sufficient condition under which each player has a unique rationalizable strategy. In this unique rationalizable outcome, truthful...

A number of heterogeneous items are to be sold to a group of potential bidders. Every bidder knows his own values over the items and his own budget privately. Due to budget constraint, bidders may not be able to pay up to their values. In such a market, a Walrasian equilibrium typically fails to...

In 2008 the income of female GPs was 70%, and their wages (income per hour) were 89%, of those of male GPs. We estimate Oaxaca decompositions using OLS models of wages (income/hours) and 2SLS models of income. The elasticity of income with respect to hours is 0.91 for female GPs and 0.29 for...

This paper examines the response of the American tobacco companies to the health scare surrounding tobacco harm between 1953 and 1964, through an analysis of the operations of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee (TIRC). We consider the reasons for the TIRC's establishment and subsequent...

Conventional wisdom has that most countries were not able to issue debt denominated in domestic currency before World War I. We show that Austria-Hungary had a vast external paper debt until the 1870s; only then became foreign residents reluctant to hold unsecured debt. Austria-Hungary attempted...