We investigate how major historical shocks affect regional trajectories of economic activity. To this end, we conduct a comparative analysis of the development of entrepreneurship in East and West Germany after World War II. The introduction of an anti-entrepreneurial socialist economy in East...

We investigate the reasons for the pronounced regional differences of new business formation after the transformation from a socialist planned system to a market economy in East Germany. Relatively high start-up rates are found in regions that had a well-qualified workforce and a relatively high...

We investigate how initial conditions that existed in East Germany at the end of the socialist regime impact regional development during the turbulent shock transition to a market economic system. Our investigation spans a period of almost 30 years. Both the self-employment rate (an indication...

Die Geschichte des wirtschaftlichen Wiederaufbaus im post-sozialistischen Ostdeutschland nach 1990 ist vor allem mit der viel diskutierten Treuhandanstalt verbunden. Verschiedene Narrative beleuchten langfristige strukturelle Veränderungen, kurzfristige Brüche, mittelfristige Dynamiken sowie...

What characterizes regions where right-wing populist parties are relatively successful? A prominent hypothesis proposed in recent literature claims that places that are "left behind" or "do not matter" are a breeding ground for the rise of populism. We re-examine this hypothesis by analyzing the...

This paper examines the consequences of the commuter transport revolution on working class labour markets in 1930s London. The ability to commute alleviated urban crowding and increased workers’ choice of potential employers. Using GIS-based data constructed from the New Survey of London Life...

How does housing policy influence the distribution of population? We examine the impact of the world's first large-scale rural public housing scheme on the long-term dynamics of rural population, specifically the case of Ireland's Labourers Acts. We link detailed data on the location of over...

In many countries, regional income inequality has followed an inverted U-shaped curve, growing during industrialisation and market integration and declining thereafter. By contrast, Sweden's regional inequality dropped from 1860 to 1980 and did not show this U-shaped pattern. Accordingly,...

This paper discusses how Spain's urban housing markets reacted to the far-reaching changes that affected the demand for dwellings during the first phase of the ruralurban transition process. To this end, we construct a new hedonic index of real housing prices and assemble a cross-regional panel...

This study investigates the origins of the guild revolts in late medieval central Europe. At first, using newly compiled city level data, their temporal evolution and spatial distribution is discussed. Afterwards, the paper provides a historical discussion and empirical analysis of their...