Information technology, like the telephone, influences market access; this paper answers the question about a reverse effect, does market access affect information technology, in particular its adoption?  Using the introduction of the telephone in Bavaria, I demonstrate with a rank, order and...

This study investigates the impact of joint-stock banks on the rationalisation of the British interwar steel industry.  A new panel data set of steel firm characteristics covering 1920 to 1938 is used to document rationalization and bank involvement, including interlocking directorships, with...

The Zollverein, the German customs union of 1834, was the institutional centrepiece of Germany's economic unification.  A bargaining model is applied to analyze the structure of its negotiation process and accession sequence.  The existence of negative coalition externalities, the effect of a...

This paper investigates whether internal institutional homogenisation during nation-state formation led to internal local convergence. We use the case of Baden with a new economic measure based on tax revenues derived from archival records. Our measure of local economic activity shows no...

The Zollverein, a customs union, of 1834 was the outcome of sequential accession negotiations between Prussia and other German states. This paper applies a bargaining model to analyse the choices of negotiation structure and institutional form of a customs union. The existence of negative...