Douglass North questions the assumptions of ergodicity and economic rationality which came to dominate economics; this paper places the emergence of these notions in historical context. North stresses the role of institutions in dealing with a shift from uncertainties in the physical environment...

Does an extension of the voting franchise always increase public spending or can it be a source of retrenchment? We study this question in the context of public spending on health-related urban amenities in a panel of municipal boroughs from England and Wales in 1868, 1871 and 1886. We find...