Economic History Journals Research Articles

Time-Series Changes in Personal Income Inequality in the United States from 1939, with Projections to 1985

Our commentators (henceforth P-S) cannot be faulted for pointing out a fact of which we are fully aware: the inclusion of the "weeks worked" variable in our model was not rigorous in the sense of explicitly formulating a dependence on human capital, labor supply, and other considerations. We preferred to leave this part of the story out for the time being. Work on this subject is only beginning at the NBER and elsewhere. The problems posed by P-S should be of value in such work. The specific functional form for the inclusion of weeks worked was adopted to facilitate the empirical application of the model. We phrased the insertion of W in a somewhat careless way in the beginning paragraph on our page 37. The sentence should read: "If E* is full-year earnings, actual annual earnings are Ei = E* W7, where W is the fraction of weeks worked during the year." Thus, r* is the full-time rate of return, and k, is defined as C,/E,*. At this level we do not see any particular problems arising with this formulation. The first sentence of the first paragraph on page 37 says, in effect, that the appropriate variables and parameters (including r and Eo) should be starred. Of course, there is no star on the left-hand side of our equation (4). It is calculated by P-S that our parameter estimates imply ko = 0.73, which is rather implausible. Actually, the appropriate coefficient of T is not r*k as they suggest, but r*ko + ko/ T* (1 + ko), as we show on page 38. The T' is the period of positive net investment, which is not assumed but implicit in the income profile. Its value is about 20 years. If so, ko = 0.44, and total "post-school year equivalents" of positive net investment K = 4.4, not 15 as P-S estimate. These estimates are not very secure, but not clearly outrageous. We should keep in mind that these as well as the "rate of return" estimates are not the main targets, but merely by-products of a much-simplified model whose purpose was to study time changes in the aggregate-income variance.

Noneconomic Barriers to Effective Planning in Nigeria, 1962-66

Previous articleNext article No AccessNoneconomic Barriers to Effective Planning in Nigeria, 1962-66Edwin DeanEdwin Dean Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Economic Development and Cultural Change Volume 19, Number 4Jul., 1971 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/450513 Views: 1Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1971 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Stanley E. Hilton Vargas and Brazilian Economic Development, 1930–1945: A Reappraisal of his Attitude Toward Industrialization and Planning, The Journal of Economic History 35, no.44 (May 2010): 754–778.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050700073757

Social Returns from Public Transport Investment: A Case Study of the Ohio Canal

Previous articleNext article No AccessSocial Returns from Public Transport Investment: A Case Study of the Ohio CanalRoger L. RansomRoger L. Ransom Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Political Economy Volume 78, Number 5Sep. - Oct., 1970 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/259689 Views: 12Total views on this site Citations: 4Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1970 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Ariell Zimran Transportation and Health in the Antebellum United States, 1820–1847, The Journal of Economic History 80, no.33 (Jun 2020): 670–709.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050720000315K. K. Mbekeani Infrastructure, Trade Expansion and Regional Integration: Global Experience and Lessons for Africa, Journal of African Economies 19, no.Supplement 1Supplement 1 (Apr 2010): i88–i113.https://doi.org/10.1093/jae/ejp021Semoon Chang Production function, productivities, and capacity utilization of the Port of Mobile, Maritime Policy & Management 5, no.44 (Oct 1978): 297–305.https://doi.org/10.1080/03088837800000020James Mak, Gary M. Walton Steamboats and the Great Productivity Surge In River Transportation, The Journal of Economic History 32, no.33 (May 2010): 619–640.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050700077159

Arthur Spiethoff on Economic Styles

Almost two decades ago, Professor Frederic C. Lane, assisted by Dr. Jelle C. Riemersma, prepared a book of readings in economic history, published in 1953, by Richard D. Irwin, Inc., under the title Enterprise and Secular Change. At that time I suggested the inclusion after translation of Arthur Spiethoff's article, “Die Allgemeine Volkswirtschaftslehre als geschichtliche Theorie: Die Wirtschaftsstile,” published in the Festgabe für Sombart in Schmollers Jahrbuch, LVI, No. 6 (1932), 51 fr. When Professor Spiethoff was informed of this suggestion, he refused to give the needed permission since his ideas on the subject had matured. Instead he sent an original article consisting of several sections, some of which I translated. Spiethoff's pertinent ideas were then published in translation in America in two separate papers. One, entitled “The ‘Historical’ Character of Economic Theories,” is to be found in the Journal of Economic History, XII (1952), 131 ff; the other, “Pure Theory and Gestalt Theory: Ideal Types and Real Types,” appeared in the Lane-Riemersma reader just cited. The rest of Spiethoff's original article remained untranslated. One section of it is now being submitted.

The Gerschenkron Effect: A Re-Examination

I NDEX number has richness and complexity of a jungle and includes a number of unexplored spots. In spite of an extensive and high-quality literature, of accuracy of economic measurements is far from being fully explored. It is interesting that economists dealing with market-type systems usually turn their attention to theory of cost-of-living index numbers, whereas students of centrally planned systems are captivated by problem of measuring economic growth. quantity index numbers and nature of their biases have received special attention from a number of Sovietologists, including Nutter [9, 10, 11], Levine [7], Bergson [2], Morsteen [8], and [4, 5, 6]. These people were in agreement that series aggregated by means of preindustrialization weights grow considerably faster than series aggregated by later-day weights. Nutter [9], Levine [7], Morsteen [8], and Bergson [2] used production possibility curves to demonstrate theoretically fact that base-yearweighted quantity indexes tend to drift upwards.' Gerschenkron, using actual data (selected items of United States machinery output in different years), offered empirical evidence to support this position. In order to explain phenomenon, he formulated a hypothesis which is often called Effect. present paper will re-examine this proposition.2 provides an explanation of why a quantity index, in binary comparison of preand post-industrialization situations, weighted with base-year prices, can be expected to be biased upwards. A brief summary of this explanation is that, during process of industrialization, scarcity relations change in such a way that production of highly fabricated goods increases proportionately more than that of slightly fabricated goods; and, at same time, relative prices of highly fabricated goods decrease. These inversely correlated price and quantity movements create a drift upwards in baseyear-weighted quantity index, and extent of divergence from current-year-weighted index depends on these opposite movements. One formulation of this proposition in Gerschenkron's words [6, p. 48] -is the process of industrialization in field of machinery production may be regarded as consisting (1) in an increase within total machinery output of share of highly fabricated goods in terms of low fabricated goods and (2) in a concomitant decline in prices of highly fabricated goods in terms of low fabricated goods. . . . To use . . . [an example] it is tractors whose output at beginning of industrialization process is small in relation to that of sickles. In course of industrialization, output of tractors increases much faster than that of sickles, while price of tractors in terms of sickles declines. I Thus characteristic feature of Gerschenkron-type industrialization process is a negative coefficient of correlation between price and quantity relatives, which is responsible for 'This fact was also shown by use of isoquants by Yoram Barzel, Some Observations on Index Number Problem, Econometrica, XXX, July 1963; and same method was used for interpretation of aggregate output indexes in R. Morsteen and R. Powell, Capital Stock (Homewood, Ill.: Irwin, 1966), p. 5. 2 Gerschenkron Hypothesis and Gerschenkron Effect should be kept apart. former refers to development characteristics in initial period of industrialization in some European countries; it proposes that these can be explained better if reference is made to relative backwardness prior to great spurt. See: A. Gerschenkron, Backwardness in Historical Perspective, in Progress of Underdeveloped Areas, ed. by Bert F. Hoselitz (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962), pp. 3-29; The Early Phases of Industrialization in Russia: Afterthoughts and Counterthoughts, in Economics of TakeOff into Sustained Growth, ed. by W. W. Rostow (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1963), pp. 151-169; The Discipline and I, Journal of Economic History, XXVII (Dec. 1967), pp. 443-459. present paper is concerned only with Effect, or with reasons for upward bias of base-year-weighted quantity index. 'Gerschenkron gives same explanation for index number bias in Chapter IX, Soviet Heavy Industry: A Dollar Index of Output, 1927-1937, Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962), pp. 235-250.

Capital Investment in Commercial Banking and Its Relationship to Portfolio Regulation

A bank is the prototypical financial institution; there are notable outward differences between the wealth invested by owners of financial institutions and that of other industries. The capital of a financial institution consists largely of financial assets and only to a small degree of the physical plant and equipment usually associated with capital in other industries. Moreover, these physical differences are associated with important functional differences. A financial institution, like any other firm, faces the problem of combining the inputs which it purchases to produce the outputs which it sells. In banking, the most important inputs are labor and deposits, and they produce liquidity services, brokerage services, accounting and information services, and the like. In this production process, bank capital has two roles: (1) It cooperates directly with the other inputs in the production of bank services, and (2) it is used to attract the deposit input by providing insurance to depositors against a decline in the value of a bank's assets; the more capital a bank has, the more the value of its assets can fall before depositors incur losses. The difference between banking (and financial institutions in general) and most other industries is in the relative importance of these two roles. The equity capital of any firm serves, in part, to guarantee the value of the firm's fixed obligations, but that function is usually subordinate to the provision of assets to the firm. However, in banking, equity capital (and equity is the form that almost all nondeposit ownership interest in bank assets has taken) typically accounts for only about a tenth of total bank resources, and most of the returns to equity capital derive from its insurance function. Bank owners invest capital primarily to attract deposits, which are then used to buy assets, and only secondarily to buy assets directly. Apart from these novel economic aspects, a study of investment in banking provides the opportunity to study the effects of government

Historiography and Retrospective Econometrics

My assigned topic is Historiography and Retrospective Econometrics. I want to address myself to only a limited aspect of the literature suggested by that title, and I shall confine my remarks to the work of Americans who have been writing on the history of their economy. The and application of mathematical methods to the study of American economic history is now some ten years old. I stress the words systematic and self-conscious because it is very easy to find earlier examples of one or another writer, on one or another topic, at one or another time, who deliberately applied mathematics to historical problems. And as I shall argue shortly, unconscious or subliminal applications are as old as the discipline. I am interested therefore in the systematic, use of these methods. A decade is not a very long time. During this short span econometric history has changed from a novelty into the predominant form of research in American economic history. I say this with full knowledge that the methodology of the new economic history is still highly controversial. However, I believe that these methodological debates are essentially rear guard actions. The predominance of the new type of research is evidenced by a number of things. It is, for example, evidenced by the number of articles published by American journals which are econometric in their basic character. On another occasion, I pointed out that one-third of the then current issue of the Journal of Economic History (1966) employed quantitative methods. In a later issue of the Journal (1968) half of the articles apply these methods. If I extrapolated naively, I would come to the conclusion that 100 per cent of the articles would be econometric in six years and seven days. The predominance of the new approach is also demonstrated by the fact that the main postgraduate centers of economic history in the United States, those departments which produce most of the Ph.D.'s in economic history, now routinely teach econometric history. I include in this class such institu-

The American Sugar Refinery Company, 1887-1914: The Story of a Monopoly

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe American Sugar Refinery Company, 1887-1914: The Story of a MonopolyRichard ZerbeRichard Zerbe Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Law and Economics Volume 12, Number 2Oct., 1969 Sponsored by The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and The University of Chicago Law School Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/466672 Views: 17Total views on this site Citations: 17Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1969 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Jacob Burgdorf The strategic impact of voluntary vs. mandated vertical restraints and termination restrictions on exclusion of rivals, Journal of Regulatory Economics 59, no.11 (Nov 2020): 94–107.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11149-020-09419-8Wallace P. Mullin Sugar Industry, (Feb 2018): 13275–13277.https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2632Jacob Burgdorf The Strategic Impact of Voluntary vs. Mandated Vertical Restraints on Exclusion of Rivals, SSRN Electronic Journal 104 (Jan 2018).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3392402John Asker, Heski Bar-Isaac Raising Retailers’ Profits: On Vertical Practices and the Exclusion of Rivals, American Economic Review 104, no.22 (Feb 2014): 672–686.https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.104.2.672John William Asker, Heski Bar-Isaac Vertical Practices Facilitating Exclusion, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 2012).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2255878Wallace P. Mullin Sugar Industry, (Dec 2016): 1–2.https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2632-1Tim Brennan RPM as Exclusion: Did the U.S. Supreme Court Stumble Upon the Missing Theory of Harm?, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 2008).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1161255John S. Heywood, Matthew McGinty Leading and Merging: Convex Costs, Stackelberg, and the Merger Paradox, Southern Economic Journal 74, no.33 (Jan 2008): 879–893.https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2325-8012.2008.tb00869.xDavid Genesove, Wallace P. Mullin Predation and its rate of return: the sugar industry, 1887-1914, The RAND Journal of Economics 37, no.11 (Mar 2006): 47–69.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-2171.2006.tb00003.xWerner Troesken Exclusive Dealing and the Whiskey Trust, 1890–1895, The Journal of Economic History 58, no.33 (Mar 2009): 755–778.https://doi.org/10.1017/S002205070002115X Sara Fisher Ellison , and Wallace P. Mullin Economics and Politics: The Case of Sugar Tariff Reform, The Journal of Law and Economics 38, no.22 (Oct 2015): 335–366.https://doi.org/10.1086/467335Jerry Ellig Why do regulators regulate? The case of the southern California gas market, Journal of Regulatory Economics 7, no.33 (May 1995): 293–308.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01067099César J. Ayala Social and Economic Aspects of Sugar Production in Cuba, 1880–1930, Latin American Research Review 30, no.11 (Oct 2022): 95–124.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0023879100017180Roland H. Koller Predatory pricing: where do we stand?, (Jan 1992): 133–145.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2795-0_8 Malcolm R. Burns Predatory Pricing and the Acquisition Cost of Competitors, Journal of Political Economy 94, no.22 (Oct 2015): 266–296.https://doi.org/10.1086/261374 Howard P. Marvel , and Stephen McCafferty The Welfare Effects of Resale Price Maintenance, The Journal of Law and Economics 28, no.22 (Oct 2015): 363–379.https://doi.org/10.1086/467090RICHARD O. ZERBE THEORETICAL EFFICIENCY IN POLLUTION CONTROL: REPLY, Economic Inquiry 9, no.33 (Sep 1971): 314–317.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7295.1971.tb01649.x

A Model for the Explanation of Industrial Expansion during the Nineteenth Century: With an Application to the American Iron Industry

Previous articleNext article No AccessA Model for the Explanation of Industrial Expansion during the Nineteenth Century: With an Application to the American Iron IndustryRobert W. Fogel and Stanley L. EngermanRobert W. Fogel Search for more articles by this author and Stanley L. Engerman Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Political Economy Volume 77, Number 3May - Jun., 1969 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/259518 Views: 12Total views on this site Citations: 16Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1969 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Richard H. Steckel Robert W. Fogel (1926–2013), (Jan 2023): 773–788.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-01775-9_30David Mitch The Contributions of Robert Fogel to Cliometrics, (Aug 2019): 33–59.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00181-0_49David Mitch The Contributions of Robert Fogel to Cliometrics, (Oct 2018): 1–27.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40458-0_49-1Robert C. Allen American Exceptionalism as a Problem in Global History, The Journal of Economic History 74, no.22 (May 2014): 309–350.https://doi.org/10.1017/S002205071400028XDavid Greasley, Les Oxley Clio and the Economist: Making Historians Count, (Sep 2011): 1–20.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444346725.ch1David Greasley, Les Oxley CLIO AND THE ECONOMIST: MAKING HISTORIANS COUNT, Journal of Economic Surveys 24, no.55 (Oct 2010): 755–774.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6419.2010.00649.xJoseph H. Davis, Douglas A. Irwin The antebellum U.S. iron industry: Domestic production and foreign competition, Explorations in Economic History 45, no.33 (Jul 2008): 254–269.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2007.10.002Douglas A. Irwin Could the United States Iron Industry Have Survived Free Trade after the Civil War?, Explorations in Economic History 37, no.33 (Jul 2000): 278–299.https://doi.org/10.1006/exeh.2000.0741Peter J. Taylor Building on Construction: An Exploration of Heterogeneous Constructionism, Using an Analogy from Psychology and a Sketch from Socioeconomic Modeling, Perspectives on Science 3, no.11 (Feb 1995): 66–98.https://doi.org/10.1162/posc_a_00474C.Knick Harley The antebellum American tariff: Food exports and manufacturing, Explorations in Economic History 29, no.44 (Oct 1992): 375–400.https://doi.org/10.1016/0014-4983(92)90001-DRobert William Fogel Notes on the Social Saving Controversy, The Journal of Economic History 39, no.11 (May 2010): 1–54.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050700096285John A James The welfare effects of the antebellum tariff: A general equilibrium analysis, Explorations in Economic History 15, no.33 (Jul 1978): 231–256.https://doi.org/10.1016/0014-4983(78)90009-8Rainer Fremdling Railroads and German Economic Growth: A Leading Sector Analysis with a Comparison to the United States and Great Britain, The Journal of Economic History 37, no.33 (May 2010): 583–604.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050700095395 Paul L. Joskow , and Edward F. McKelvey The Fogel-Engerman Iron Model: A Clarifying Note, Journal of Political Economy 81, no.55 (Oct 2015): 1236–1240.https://doi.org/10.1086/260117Clayne Pope The impact of the ante-bellum tariff on income distribution, Explorations in Economic History 9 (Jan 1971): 375–421.https://doi.org/10.1016/0014-4983(71)90067-2Paul A. David Learning By Doing and Tariff Protection: A Reconsideration of the Case of the Ante-Bellum United States Cotton Textile Industry, The Journal of Economic History 30, no.33 (Feb 2011): 521–601.https://doi.org/10.1017/S002205070008623X

Household Saving Behavior in the Developing Economies: The Indonesian Case

Econometric research on the determinants of household saving based on micro data drawn from the less developed countries has lagged far behind the pace set in advanced nations. It would appear that there has been limited hypothesis-testing in the LDC's beyond macro formulations of the consumption function. Furthermore, very little of the development literature attempts to isolate the impact of structural change on aggregate personal saving, since few studies provide meaningful disaggregation. This state of affairs seems paradoxical, given the currency of W. A. Lewis's remark that the central problem in development theory is to explain an increase in domestic saving from 4 or 5 percent of national income to 12 or 15 percent.1 The dearth of empirical evidence on household saving appears all the more peculiar, given the current emphasis which marginal savings rates enjoy in a flourishing crop of growth models. Most of these ignore the sectoral components of savings, with their divergent behavior, and concentrate instead on aggregate savings performance. Per capita income, which is introduced as the independent variable, is required (a) to capture virtually all of the distributional changes underlying the growth process, and (b) to capture changes in other variables which have a significant impact on savings behavior, whether of households, corporations, or governments. The recent, and highly aggregative, Chenery-Strout model is just one example ;2 most growth models make aggregate domestic savings a simple function of per capita income, either current or lagged.3 On the one hand, this approach may yield simple, well behaved models and reasonably useful short-run forecasts. On the other hand, it offers only limited insight into the development process and contributes little to the policymaker who seeks to understand the savings decision and how he might act upon it. Furthermore, household saving is usually left in the background, while the government and corporate sector receive attention as the major contributors to high marginal saving rates. This state of affairs, if we have described it fairly, certainly cannot be

The Specification Problem in Economic History: A Correction

A factor of proportionality was inadvertently omitted from equations (6), (7), (9), and (13) of “The Specification Problem in Economic History,” JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY, XXVII (Sept. 1967), 283-308. A tilda was omitted above PA in equation (9).

Family, Caste, and Commerce in a North Indian Market Town

Previous articleNext article No AccessFamily, Caste, and Commerce in a North Indian Market TownRichard G. FoxRichard G. Fox Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Economic Development and Cultural Change Volume 15, Number 3Apr., 1967 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/450229 Views: 11Total views on this site Citations: 10Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1967 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Alexander Friedrich Bergfeld, Marc‐Michael Bergfeld Next‐generation entrepreneurial identity in family business systems: The influence of role changing events on the understanding of legacy, individual identity, and transgenerational entrepreneurship of next‐generation family business principals, Thunderbird International Business Review 11 (Nov 2022).https://doi.org/10.1002/tie.22318P Pratap Kumar Grey Street Casbah: Market Town as a Symbol of Indian Diasporic Experience, Journal of Asian and African Studies 54, no.22 (Sep 2018): 155–168.https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909618797147Janaki Abraham The Lives of Others: The Production and Influence of Neighbourhood Cultures in Urban India, (Nov 2017): 95–111.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64289-5_6Karen Isaksen Leonard Family Firms in Hyderabad: Gujarati, Goswami, and Marwari Patterns of Adoption, Marriage, and Inheritance, Comparative Studies in Society and History 53, no.44 (Oct 2011): 827–854.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417511000429John E. Cort jains, caste and hierarchy in north Gujarat, Contributions to Indian Sociology 38, no.1-21-2 (Sep 2016): 73–112.https://doi.org/10.1177/006996670403800104Gopalkrishnan R. Iyer The impact of religion and reputation in the organization of Indian merchant communities, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing 14, no.22 (May 1999): 102–121.https://doi.org/10.1108/08858629910258982Gopalkrishnan R Iyer ETHNIC BUSINESS FAMILIES, (): 243–260.https://doi.org/10.1016/S1074-7877(03)04011-XRichard G. Fox Varna Schemes and Ideological Integration in Indian Society, Comparative Studies in Society and History 11, no.11 (Jun 2009): 27–45.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417500005132Morris David Morris Values as an Obstacle to Economic Growth in South Asia: An Historical Survey, The Journal of Economic History 27, no.44 (Feb 2011): 588–607.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050700071801John B. Simeone Catalogue of Documents, (Jan 1967): 1–206.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-5235-6_1

Entry in Commercial Banking

ENTRY occupies a prominent place in economic theory. Yet just as prominent is the almost complete lack of empirical investigation of the subject.' This article attempts to identify empirically the determinants of entry in one industry-commercial banking in the United States-in the hope that it may throw light on the determinants of entry in general. The choice of commercial banking for this study does not rest entirely on the ready availability of the relevant data for this industry. It also affords the chance to investigate another topic lightly treated in the empirical literature-the effects of economic regulation on economic performance. Entry into banking is today closely regulated; the formation of a new bank requires a license, denial of which is non-reviewable, from an appropriate government agency. This article will attempt to measure the extent to which actual entry in banking has been affected by the legal restrictions upon it. The historical development of the legal restrictions on entry in banking can be summarized briefly. The century prior to 1935 may fairly be described as an era of "free banking," though the history books apply the term only to the part of this period up to the National Bank Act of 1863. Such legal restrictions as were placed on the formation of new banks by both Congress and state legislatures in 1863 and thereafter were largely ineffective. The reason for this was that the state and Federal chartering authorities operated independently of one another-neither had any check on the other within a given state. This legal framework encouraged competition between state and

A Note on the Importance of the Interstate Slave Trade of the Ante Bellum South

Previous articleNext article No AccessA Note on the Importance of the Interstate Slave Trade of the Ante Bellum SouthWilliam L. MillerWilliam L. Miller Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Political Economy Volume 73, Number 2Apr., 1965 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/259008 Views: 6Total views on this site Citations: 5Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1965 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Richard H. Steckel, Nicolas Ziebarth A Troublesome Statistic: Traders and Coastal Shipments in the Westward Movement of Slaves, The Journal of Economic History 73, no.0303 (Aug 2013): 792–809.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050713000612Philip J. Schwarz The transportation of slaves from Virginia, 1801–1865, Slavery & Abolition 7, no.33 (Dec 1986): 215–240.https://doi.org/10.1080/01440398608574914Barry A. Crouch Booty capitalism” and capitalism's booty: Slaves and slavery in ancient Rome and the American South, Slavery & Abolition 6, no.11 (Jun 2008): 3–24.https://doi.org/10.1080/01440398508574878 Peter Passell , and Gavin Wright The Effects of Pre-Civil War Territorial Expansion on the Price of Slaves, Journal of Political Economy 80, no.66 (Oct 2015): 1188–1202.https://doi.org/10.1086/259964Robert S. Starobin The Economics of Industrial Slavery In the Old South, Business History Review 44, no.22 (Jun 2012): 131–174.https://doi.org/10.2307/3112351

The Survival Technique and the Extent of Suboptimal Capacity

E survival technique used by George Stigler and T. R. Saving in identifying "optimal" scales of firm and plant is a tempting source of information in an area where data have not been plentiful, but many economists retain doubts about the usefulness of such estimates. This paper offers some evidence on the reliability of the survival technique and uses it as a basis for some generalizations about the present structure of industry. In Part I estimates of optimal scale based on plant-size data in five large industries for the last 27-36 years are compared with such engineering estimates as are available. In Part II the rate of adjustment toward optimal scales in these industries is evaluated. In Part III an attempt is made to determine the size of market necessary for the attainment of high degrees of "rationalization." Finally, in Part IV the relationship between concentration and the extent of suboptimal capacity is investigated in a number of industries using Census data.

Size of Firm, Market Structure, and Innovation

Size of Firm, Market Structure, and Innovation

Firm Size and Rate of Growth

Firm Size and Rate of Growth

Ministerial Responsibility in the 1620's

Previous articleNext article No AccessMinisterial Responsibility in the 1620'sClifford B. AndersonClifford B. Anderson Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Modern History Volume 34, Number 4Dec., 1962 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/239181 Views: 3Total views on this site Citations: 2Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1962 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Gary W Cox War, Moral Hazard, and Ministerial Responsibility: England After the Glorious Revolution, The Journal of Economic History 71, no.0101 (Mar 2011): 133–161.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050711000052Sheila Lambert The Opening of the Long Parliament, The Historical Journal 27, no.22 (Feb 2009): 265–287.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X00017799

What Can Regulators Regulate? The Case of Electricity

What Can Regulators Regulate? The Case of Electricity

The Rotating Credit Association: A "Middle Rung" in Development

The building up of a variety of institutions, serving the purpose of promoting individual savings, and organizing them and making them fruitful to the saver and to the community, should be given a high priority in every development plan. To be effective, the institutions have to be adapted to different individual needs and possibilities and must fit into the community patterns; they must aim at encouraging planned and "goal-directed" savings. Even if, at least in the beginning, the financial results would not constitute more than a trickle of new capital disposal, the effects in rationalizing attitudes and mobilizing ambitions might be crucially important. --Gunnar Myrdal, in An International Economy (p. 360)