http://hdl.handle.net/2451/42230 2026-05-02T13:35:06Z http://hdl.handle.net/2451/75676 Title: Capitalism: Worries of the 1930s for the 2020s Authors: O’Rourke, Kevin Hjortshøj 2021-04-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2451/75675 Title: The interplay among wages, technology, and globalization: The labour market and inequality, 1620-2020 Authors: Allen, Robert C. Abstract: For the past four centuries, technical change and the labour market have evolved together through a feed back process. Four phases in that history are distinguished here: the preindustrial revolution (1620-1770), the industrial revolution (1770-1867), the age of industry (1867-1973), and the service revolution (1973-present). The focus is on the leading economy of each period–Great Britain in the first two and the USA in the last two. In all periods, output per worker has increased. In the first and the third, the average wage rose and wages tended to converge; in the second and fourth, the average wage was constant and wage and overall inequality increased. The feedback between wages and technology are discussed, and the causes of this periodization are explored. The roles of globalization and changes in the institutions responsible for technical change are discussed. The menu of policy choices to deal with the present labour market and inequality issues are considered in light of the history. 2021-06-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2451/75674 Title: Slavery in Arabia and east Africa, 1800-1913 Authors: Allen, Robert C. Abstract: Slavery in Arabia is usually regarded as benign in contrast to slavery in the Caribbean. The difference is often explained in terms of cultural values and stress is often laid on the role of Islam. This paper analyses this view primarily in terms of men employed in oasis agriculture and pearling in Arabia in the long nineteenth century, although some attention is also given to the situation of women. It is argued here that differences in the skill requirements of growing sugar in the Caribbean and dates in Arabia, as well as differences in the importance of self-supervision, explain the differences in the character of slavery. The centrality of market forces in explaining behaviour is developed by analysing the supply of slaves from Africa to Arabia and the demand for slaves derived from models of a date plantation and a pearling voyage. The economic return to organizing date gardens, so that the slaves have enough income to raise children is also discussed, and the interface between this source of supply and that of newly purchased is analysed. A geo-referenced data base of slave prices is developed and used to explore these issues. It is argued that Britain’s efforts to suppress the slave trade, the division of east Africa among colonial powers, and state development in Ethiopia drove long run increases in the supply price of slaves. The opening of the Suez canal increased the demand price of dates after 1869, while rising incomes led to an increased demand for pearls later in the nineteenth century. The increased prices of these products increased the demand price of slaves. The evolution of demand and supply both contributed to a long run rise in the price of slaves. 2021-06-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2451/75673 Title: The state of the art of economic history: The uneasy relation with economics Authors: Cioni, Martina; Federico, Giovanni; Vasta, Michelangelo Abstract: This paper assesses the state of the art of economic history, focusing on recent changes that have recently characterized the field. We rely on a new database of almost 2,700 articles published from 2001 to 2018 in the top-five economic history journals and in 13 leading economics journals. We argue that economic history still remains a distinct field. The share of economic history articles in economics journals increased very little and only few authors published in both economics and economic history journals. Publishing in top-five economic journals yields more citations than in top-field journals, but this is not necessarily true for other prestigious economic journals. Finally, we speculate on the future. Will economic history lose its soul and become a sub-field of development studies? Will persistence studies become a separate field? Or, perhaps, a new synthesis will emerge, with scholars dealing with traditional and new research questions with a wide range of tools? 2021-06-01T00:00:00Z