Terms of Trade Shocks and Economic Performance 1870-1940

Terms of Trade Shocks and Economic Performance 1870-1940 PDF Author: Yael S. Hadass
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dependency
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
Abstract: Debate over trends in the terms of trade between primary commodities and manufactures, their causes and their impact has dominated the literature for more than a century. Classical economists claimed that the terms of trade of primary commodities should improve since land and natural resources are always in inelastic supply. Following the Great Depression, a new view emerged. What came to be known as the Prebisch-Singer thesis was instead that the terms of trade for primary products had deteriorated up to the 1950s. The subsequent literature has almost exclusively and obsessively asked whether a deterioration has actually taken place over the 130 years following 1870. Nowhere in this literature has the impact of these terms of trade shocks on long run growth been assessed, although it is certainly full of lively speculation and debate. This paper fills part of this empirical gap by constructing a country-specific panel data base 1870-1940, by documenting terms of trade trends by country and region, and, finally, by estimating the impact of the price shocks on long run economic performance. We find the impact to have been asymmetric between center and periphery.

Terms of Trade Shocks and Economic Performance 1870-1940

Terms of Trade Shocks and Economic Performance 1870-1940 PDF Author: Yael S. Hadass
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dependency
Languages : en
Pages : 44

Get Book Here

Book Description
Abstract: Debate over trends in the terms of trade between primary commodities and manufactures, their causes and their impact has dominated the literature for more than a century. Classical economists claimed that the terms of trade of primary commodities should improve since land and natural resources are always in inelastic supply. Following the Great Depression, a new view emerged. What came to be known as the Prebisch-Singer thesis was instead that the terms of trade for primary products had deteriorated up to the 1950s. The subsequent literature has almost exclusively and obsessively asked whether a deterioration has actually taken place over the 130 years following 1870. Nowhere in this literature has the impact of these terms of trade shocks on long run growth been assessed, although it is certainly full of lively speculation and debate. This paper fills part of this empirical gap by constructing a country-specific panel data base 1870-1940, by documenting terms of trade trends by country and region, and, finally, by estimating the impact of the price shocks on long run economic performance. We find the impact to have been asymmetric between center and periphery.

The Impact of the Terms of Trade on Economic Development in the Periphery, 1870-1939

The Impact of the Terms of Trade on Economic Development in the Periphery, 1870-1939 PDF Author: Christopher Blattman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Developing countries
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Book Description
"Most countries in the periphery specialized in the export of just a handful of primary products for most of their history. Some of these commodities have been more volatile than others, and those with more volatile prices have grown slowly relative both to the industrial leaders and to other primary product exporters. This fact helps explain the growth puzzle noted by Easterly, Kremer, Pritchett and Summers more than a decade ago: that the contending fundamental determinants of growth institutions, geography and culture exhibit far more persistence than do the growth rates they are supposed to explain. Using a new panel database for 35 countries, this paper estimates the impact of terms of trade volatility and secular change on country performance between 1870 and 1939. Volatility was much more important for accumulation and growth than was secular change. Additionally, both effects were asymmetric between Core and Periphery, findings that speak directly to the terms of trade debates that have raged since Prebisch and Singer wrote more than 50 years ago. The paper also investigates one channel of impact, and finds that foreign capital inflows declined steeply where commodity prices were volatile"--NBER website

Terms of Trade Shocks and Economic Recovery

Terms of Trade Shocks and Economic Recovery PDF Author: Norbert Funke
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 30

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Book Description
This paper identifies factors that contribute to a fast recovery in growth after persistent negative terms of trade shocks, using a sample of 159 countries for 1970-2006. The results suggest that policies matter. Fast recoveries are fairly robustly related to real exchange rate depreciation and improvements in government stability and the institutional environment. A timely increase in aid may also support recovery.

Research in Economic History

Research in Economic History PDF Author: Alexander J. Field
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0762313706
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
The volume includes six papers in quantitative economic history. Peter Mancall, Josh Rosenbloom, and Tom Weiss consider growth in colonial North America, while Gary Richardson examines the role of bank failures in propagating the Great Depression. John Komlos examines the heights of rich and poor youth in England in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Klas Fregert and Roger Gustafson provide a synoptic view of public finances in Sweden from the eighteenth through the twentieth century. Drew Keeling studies the economics of the steamship industry that facilitated migration between Europe and the United States between 1900 and 1914. Finally, Gregg Huff and Giovanni Caggiano examine the integration of labor markets in Southeast Asia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It includes original articles written by experts on the subjects and articles supported by quantitative data.

International Economic Review

International Economic Review PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 450

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Book Description


The Handbook of Historical Economics

The Handbook of Historical Economics PDF Author: Alberto Bisin
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0128162686
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 1002

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Book Description
The Handbook of Historical Economics guides students and researchers through a quantitative economic history that uses fully up-to-date econometric methods. The book's coverage of statistics applied to the social sciences makes it invaluable to a broad readership. As new sources and applications of data in every economic field are enabling economists to ask and answer new fundamental questions, this book presents an up-to-date reference on the topics at hand. Provides an historical outline of the two cliometric revolutions, highlighting the similarities and the differences between the two Surveys the issues and principal results of the "second cliometric revolution" Explores innovations in formulating hypotheses and statistical testing, relating them to wider trends in data-driven, empirical economics

The Economies of Latin America

The Economies of Latin America PDF Author: César Yáñez
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317320883
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
The economic backwardness of Latin America and the Caribbean has long been discussed, but seldom been the subject of such a wide-ranging quantitative study. The twelve essays in this collection present a twenty-first-century analysis of a long-term issue, providing extensive geographical coverage and allowing reinterpretations of the past.

The Routledge Companion to Business in Africa

The Routledge Companion to Business in Africa PDF Author: Sonny Nwankwo
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136202498
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 822

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Book Description
Although the world's poorest inhabited continent, Africa has recently shown signs of being a source of economic growth in the coming decades, with increased foreign investment - notably from China - and huge growth in GDP from a number of African states. In contrast to the heaving weight of books focusing on business opportunities in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, Africa has been poorly served by academic publishing. This compendium of scholarship offers cutting-edge knowledge relating to business in Africa. The objectives of this collection include: To shed new light on the socio-cultural and historical underpinnings of business practice in Africa and their implications for promoting entrepreneurship and business behaviour in the region To consider the important constraints on business activities in Africa, and the emerging 'best practice' for redressing their real and potential impacts To facilitate a better understanding of contemporary business practice in Africa through the application of relevant theories and models, including emergent ones. The Routledge Companion to Business in Africa is a comprehensive reference resource that provides the perfect platform for embarking on research and study into Africa from the business perspective.

The Coffee Paradox

The Coffee Paradox PDF Author: Benoit Daviron
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1848136293
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Can developing countries trade their way out of poverty? International trade has grown dramatically in the last two decades in the global economy, and trade is an important source of revenue in developing countries. Yet, many low-income countries have been producing and exporting tropical commodities for a long time. They are still poor. This book is a major analytical contribution to understanding commodity production and trade, as well as putting forward policy-relevant suggestions for ‘solving’ the commodity problem. Through the study of the global value chain for coffee, the authors recast the ‘development problem’ for countries relying on commodity exports in entirely new ways. They do so by analysing the so-called coffee paradox – the coexistence of a ‘coffee boom’ in consuming countries and of a ‘coffee crisis’ in producing countries. New consumption patterns have emerged with the growing importance of specialty, fair trade and other ‘sustainable’ coffees. In consuming countries, coffee has become a fashionable drink and coffee bar chains have expanded rapidly. At the same time, international coffee prices have fallen dramatically and producers receive the lowest prices in decades. This book shows that the coffee paradox exists because what farmers sell and what consumers buy are becoming increasingly ‘different’ coffees. It is not material quality that contemporary coffee consumers pay for, but mostly symbolic quality and in-person services. As long as coffee farmers and their organizations do not control at least parts of this ‘immaterial’ production, they will keep receiving low prices. The Coffee Paradox seeks ways out from this situation by addressing some key questions: What kinds of quality attributes are combined in a coffee cup or coffee package? Who is producing these attributes? How can part of these attributes be produced by developing country farmers? To what extent are specialty and sustainable coffees achieving these objectives?

An Eponymous Dictionary of Economics

An Eponymous Dictionary of Economics PDF Author: Julio Segura
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 9781845423605
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
"Julio Segura and Carlos Rodriguez Braun have assembled a unique Dictionary that will be an invaluable and much welcomed reference book for economic journalists, economists and economic scholars at all levels of academe, and in all areas of economics and its associated fields."--BOOK JACKET.