We build a directed technical change model of the British Industrial Revolution where one intermediate goods sector uses a fixed renewable energy (“wood”) quantity, and another uses coal at a fixed price. With a high enough elasticity of substitution between the two goods in producing final...

This paper contributes to the understanding of the long-run consequences of Roman rule on economic development. In ancient times, the area of contemporary Germany was divided into a Roman and non-Roman part. The study uses this division to test whether the formerly Roman part of Germany show a...

We build a directed technical change model where one intermediate goods sector uses a fixed quantity of biomass energy (“wood”) and another uses coal at a fixed price, matching stylized facts for the British Industrial Revolution. Unlike previous research, we do not assume that the level or...

Why did the Industrial Revolution happen in England and at that time, but not somewhere else and around a different time? By using an endogenous growth model of directed technical change and natural resources, we provide an explanation of the Industrial Revolution as a transition from wood to...

Are transaction costs and half-lives between two cities the same in both directions in traditional city-based monetary systems? Market conditions and political circumstances may not justify this assumption; and we provide evidence that it does not hold in the 1825-1885 period in Spain. Moreover,...

The aim of this article is to analyze the role of energy in longterm economic growth. Particular attention will be paid to the relation between energy and GDP. Energy productivity, that is the ratio of output to energy (Y/E), will be reconstructed and, through a decomposition analysis, I will...

This article analyzes international business cycles in Europe 1862-1913 using disaggregated data and Dynamic Factor Analysis. In comparison with estimates of real national product there is more evidence for international business cycles in disaggregated data of Germany, France and Great Britain...

German. industrial expansion in the period 1880¿1913 was significantly more rapid than that of the United Kingdom, and substantially less volatile than that of the United States. A partial explanation for the relatively stable growth path of the German economy during these years may be found in...

We study British commodity markets and the extent to which prices in these markets were integrated in the short-run and converged in the long-run. Our historical data is new. It consists of five price indices for identically described goods - iron products, wood products, processed foods, red...

We study British commodity markets and the extent to which prices in these markets were integrated in the short-run and converged in the long-run. Our historical data is new. It consists of five price indices for identically described goods - iron products, wood products, processed foods, red...