This paper empirically tests the hypothesis that landed elites may block technological change and economic development if they fear that they will lose future political power (Acemoglu and Robinson (2002, 2006, and 2012). It exploits a plausible exogenous change in the distribution of political...

In post-Unification Italy industrialization was ever sharply sub-regional. Initially industry was largely artisanal, and located in the former political capitals; factory industry was instead attracted by the waterfalls of the subalpine Northwest. From the 1880s, as modernization accelerated,...

Existing series suggest wages in London were substantially higher than in other European cities from 1650 to 1800. This paper presents new evidence from the construction sites that supplied the underlying wage data, and uncovers the contractual and organisational context in which it was...

This paper refers to the historical experience of Poland in order to demonstrate the importance of former institutions on present regional differences in the norms regarding education. Previous studies revealed significant discrepancies between the scholastic achievements of students in...

Can state-owned banks spur development? Gerschenkron (1962) identified the State Bank of the Rus- sian Empire as the main institutional driver of the country's catch-up industrialization. In this paper, we test this assertion by evaluating the outcome of a policy experiment (1892-1903) under the...

We analyze investment decisions when information is costly, with and without delegation to an agent. We use a rational-inattention model and compare it with a canonical signal-extraction model. We identify three "investment conditions". In "sour" conditions, no information is acquired and no...

The presentation and analysis of a cost of living index and of different wage indices for the city of Madrid, covering the period 1680-1800 is the essential aim of this article. The accounts books of several charitable institutions have been the basic source of information for this research. The...

Anyone studying the eighteenth-century probate inventories of Bristol soon notices that the largest occupation group was mariner. However, as an occupation, mariner is exceedingly difficult to define and understand. The purpose of this paper is to reveal what the job of a mariner was by...

This paper has two main objectives. First, it provides a stylised description of the Catalan industrial path of the period 1830-1861. Second, it reviews the evolution of the Catalan industry in the Spanish context and, thus, can serve to describe the relative importance of the Catalan industrial...

This paper aims to provide a general overview on the recent works in the economic history of Venice. Instead of a "pessimistic" interpretation, focused on the lost in the maritime position and on the rigidity of the corporative institution, this paper breaks down on the fundamental changes in...